I’ve made a lot of apple recipes over the years. You can check out my apple recipes here. But I haven’t tried baking with pears. It is pear season, so I thought I’d try to find a really easy recipe that still looks elevated. That’s why this simple pear cake recipe is perfect. It is honestly the easiest recipe ever. It’s totally fool-proof and you can substitute apples if you don’t have pears.
Even though this cake looks really fancy, I promise you that it is one of the simplest recipes I’ve ever made. The cake batter took me no more than 10 minutes to put together. It took about 30 minutes to bake and another 20 minutes to cool before serving. In total, this cake will take just slightly over an hour from start to eating! It’s a great dessert to make during the holidays since it’s so easy and it also keeps pretty well at room temperature.
Even if you do dust it with powdered sugar, you can always re-dust it another time if the powdered sugar sinks in (as it did into my pears). I actually love that the powdered sugar sunk into the cake because it left the pears with the cinnamon showing, which gave the cake such an interesting look. To create the look I did, I sliced the pears thinly and then placed them in a circular pattern. Once the cake was out of the oven, I dusted the whole cake with cinnamon and then topped that with powdered sugar.
Overall, I’m so happy with how this cake turned out and I can’t wait for you to try it! I promise it’s such a simple pear cake recipe and I’m sure your family will love it as much as mine did.
Simple Pear Cake Recipe
Ingredients:
3 ripe pears, sliced thinly
1 1/4 cup flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup corn starch
pinch of salt
1/3 cup butter (melted and cooled)
3 eggs
cinnamon and powdered sugar (for decorating)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Cream the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. Sift the dry ingredients together and add to the egg and sugar mixture. Add the butter and mix until the batter is smooth.
Butter and line an 8-inch cake pan with parchment paper. Pour in the batter. Add pears to the top in a circular pattern, as I did. I chose not to peel the pears – some recipes do call for that, but it’s up to you. Some people also prefer to chunk their pears and drop them throughout the batter. I thought it looked prettier to have them lined on the top. Either way should work. You can also use apples instead of pears if you don’t have pears on hand.
Bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Do not overbake, as this cake can be on the dry side. Once the cake is cool, you can sprinkle cinnamon and powdered sugar, if desired. Serve alone or with whipped cream.
This is the Best Simple Pear Cake Recipe (Can Use Apples)
Ingredients
- 3 ripe pears, sliced thinly
- 1 1/4 cup flour
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 cup corn starch
- pinch of salt
- 1/3 cup butter (melted and cooled)
- 3 eggs
- cinnamon and powdered sugar (for decorating)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Cream the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Sift the dry ingredients together and add to the egg and sugar mixture. Add the butter and mix until the batter is smooth.
- Butter and line an 8-inch cake pan with parchment paper.
- Pour in the batter. Add pears to the top in a circular pattern, as I did. I chose not to peel the pears - some recipes do call for that, but it's up to you. Some people also prefer to chunk their pears and drop them throughout the batter. I thought it looked prettier to have them lined on the top. Either way should work. You can also use apples instead of pears if you don't have pears on hand.
- Bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Do not overbake, as this cake can be on the dry side. Once the cake is cool, you can sprinkle cinnamon and powdered sugar, if desired. Serve alone or with whipped cream.