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Home » Recipes » Cakes

Almond Pear Cake

Published: Sep 30, 2020 · Modified: Oct 21, 2022 by Katalin Nagy · This post may contain affiliate links. This blog generates income via ads. Please read our Disclosures.

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You will love my Fresh Almond Pear Cake recipe; cinnamon and orange zest infused poached pears in a moist and super delicious cake packed with almond, vanilla, and cardamon. The ultimate, easy fall cake recipe you need to try!

Pear loaf with almond decoration.
Jump to:
  • 🌟 Why this is the best recipe
  • 📝 Ingredient notes
  • 👩‍🍳 How to make this recipe
  • 🥣 Equipment notes
  • ❓ Recipe FAQs
  • ✨ More cake recipes
  • Almond Pear Cake

🌟 Why this is the best recipe

  1. It is rather easy – As fancy as it looks, making this Fresh Pear cake is super easy just like making your favorite loaf cake! Poaching the pears takes just a few minutes and the cake batter comes together in no time!
  2. It is super delicious – I never compromise on taste! Delicious aromatic pears in lovely cardamom and vanilla unfused cake will blow your mind!
  3. No special equipment is needed – All you need is a loaf pan, really, and you are good to go to make my Almond Pear cake!
  4. It is super festive – Do I need to explain how fancy and festive this cake is? No more average Pear cakes, this showstopper Almond Pear Cake will steal the show on your next get-together for sure!

📝 Ingredient notes

Poached pear loaf cake ingredients.
  1. Butter: Use always unsalted butter as you want to be in control of the quantity of the salt. I am using 82% fat content butter in all my recipes. In this recipe, the butter needs to be at room temperature which technically means soft enough to be able to cream but not too soft or runny so avoid last-minute microwaving
  2. Granulated sugar: White granulated sugar is fine for this recipe. If feeling fancy, you can replace half of the white sugar with light brown sugar
  3. Egg: Room temperature as always
  4. Vanilla bean paste: Vanilla is wonderful in this cake however please please avoid using artificial vanilla! There are several great brands for fine, pure vanilla, I use Nielsen massey which I love and really recommend. I use vanilla bean paste instead of vanilla extract which has lovely vanilla bits in there too
  5. Flour: Pastry flour or all purpose flour will work in the Pear cake recipe, they are so-called “soft flour” which is low on protein resulting in a delicate, tender texture
  6. Baking powder: Just a small amount of baking powder will make the texture even lighter
  7. Almond flour: I like adding almond flour to fall-theme cakes, it always gives a bit of marzipan taste profile to cakes. It is worth buying a good quality ground almond meal, without skin. If it is not available for us, substitute it with an equal amount of flour
  8. Zest of orange: Almond pears wonderfully with orange! Using lemon or orange zest is my favorite flavoring to spice up my recipes, it makes the desserts wonderfully flavourful and aromatic. Make sure you use organic orange (or one which has no chemicals on the skin) and only grate the orange color part of the skin, but not the white
  9. Cardamon: If you are not using cardamon in your cakes this time of the year, you are missing out! Beautiful, aromatic spice goes well with almost everything, try it! You can experiment with other spices eg. a teaspoon ground cinnamon or teaspoon ground cloves
  10. Poached pear: Making poached pear is so easy! See my separate poached pears article for more details

🛒 You’ll find detailed measurements for all Ingredients in the printable version of the Recipe Card at the bottom of this post

👩‍🍳 How to make this recipe

1. How to poach pears

I have a full on tutorial on how to poach pears, do check that out. I love using poached pears eg. in my pear galette recipe.

Start with peeling 2 pears. Ideally chose ripe pears or slightly underripe pears for poaching, if they’re overripe, they will be too soggy after cooking.

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Pay attention to the sizes too, they should not be too big in comparison to the size of your loaf tin. Worth to try them into the loaf tin and making sure that there is enough space left for the cake as well.

  1. Prepare the poaching syrup by boiling water, sugar and cinnamon, and orange zest
  2. Cook pears in the poaching liquid over medium heat for 5-10 minutes, do not walk away but pay attention to the consistency of the pears. Make sure they won´t get overcooked.
  3. After the poaching process place the pears on paper towels, which will soak the unnecessary liquids in

💡 Top Tip: Please dry the poached pears as much as you can as too much liquid can result in an under-baked cake. If your cake won't bake even after 60 minutes it is because too much liquid stayed in the poached pears

2 pears without skin in a pot with cinnamon sticks.

2. How to make the almond cake batter

A basic pound cake recipe that in enhanced with almonds is used to make this Almond Pear cake. The cake batter is made with an equal amount of butter, sugar, egg, and flour.

  1. Ingredients must be all measured with a Digital scale, grease a Loaf pan in advance, and pre-heat the oven to 180 C / 356°F (no fan)
  2. All wet ingredients (eg. butter and egg) must be at room temperature for the batter to properly emulsify
  3. Whip sugar and softened butter with an Electric hand mixer for a good 3-5 minutes until fluffy
  4. Whip in room temperature egg, just until combined, then add vanilla
  5. Sift dry ingredients (flour, almond flour, cardamom, salt, baking powder) before adding to the mixture
  6. Fold dry ingredients into the mixture using a Rubber spatula then add orange zest
  7. Pour cake batter into your prepared loaf cake pan
  8. Make sure that the poached pears are fully dried before assembling the cake!
  9. Press the poached pears into the cake batter
  10. Hint with almond flakes (optional)

💡 Top Tip: Make sure that the pears are standing straight so that while the cake bakes they don't fall on one side or the other. Also, pay attention to the space at each end and also in between the pears for the cake batter to rise even

Pear loaf assembly process.
16 cm (bottom) 18 cm (top) loaf pan tin

3. How to bake

It is super important that you are aware of the real oven temperature during baking therefore I always recommend using a Digital oven thermometer.

  1. Bake the cake for 60 min or until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean
  2. Do not oven the oven door during baking
  3. After the Pear and almond cake cooled, carefully remove it from the tin and hint with powdered sugar (optional) before serving
  4. Store at room temperature or refrigerated
Poached pear pound cake.

🥣 Equipment notes

This Almond Pear cake is pretty easy to make. You don't need fancy baking equipment. However, please try your best to gather these easy-to-find baking tools:

Digital scale: It's better than measuring cups to achieve precise measurements in baking.

Digital oven thermometer: Use this to help you find out the actual temperature of your oven.

Electric hand mixer: You will need this to cream the butter easily

Rubber spatula: super useful to fold in the ingredients without overmixing.

❓ Recipe FAQs

Can I make the cake in a smaller / bigger pan?

Yes, you can however make sure to adjust the recipe ingredients and baking time accordingly. Having said that, if it´s a super huge cake, you might find it difficult to bake it through.

Why is my Pear cake dry?

This is a super moist Almond Pear cake recipe with a high amount of fat due to the almond and butter so if it turned out dry for you then you either overbaked the cake or your measurements were off. I always recommend using a digital scale to make sure your flour measurement is correct.

Why is my cake row?

It is super important that you dry the poached pears well before placing them into the cake batter otherwise it might turn the cake batter too moist to properly bake.
Just like with any cakes, apply the toothpick check before taking it out of the oven.

How to store?

Any leftover cake can be stored in an air-tight container either at room temperature or in the fridge for 2-3 days. 

How to freeze?

You can freeze this cake in an air-tight container for a few months, however, the texture of the pear might change after thawing.

✨ More cake recipes

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    Napoleon Cake (VIDEO)
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    Pink Cake (VIDEO)
  • A slice of Austrian sacher torte cake on a plate.
    Austrian Sacher Torte Cake (VIDEO)
  • a slice of chocolate ganache cake on a plate.
    Chocolate Ganache Cake
  • Triple chocolate cake on a cake stand.
    Triple Chocolate Cake (VIDEO)
  • slices of Banana bread on a cooling rack.
    Banana Bread without Baking soda
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    Nutella Cake (VIDEO)
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    Caramelized Banana Upside Down Cake (VIDEO)
Spatula desserts

Have you tried this recipe?

Please leave a 5-star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating on the recipe card and consider leaving a comment as well! I would love to hear about how your dessert turned out and your feedback also helps other Readers!

Poached pear pound cake

Almond Pear Cake

You will love my Fresh Almond Pear Cake recipe; cinnamon and orange zest infused poached pears in a moist and super delicious cake packed with almond, vanilla, and cardamon. The ultimate, easy fall cake recipe you need to try!
5 from 12 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Prep Time: 30 minutes minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour hour
Total Time: 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes
Servings: 6
Calories: 410kcal
Author: Katalin Nagy

Equipment

  • Digital scale
  • Electric hand mixer
  • Rubber spatula
  • Loaf pan
  • Digital oven thermometer

Ingredients

For the Almond Cake

  • 110 g (½ cups) Unsalted butter room temperature
  • 110 g (½ cups) Granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoon Vanilla bean paste
  • 2 Eggs room temperature
  • 80 g (⅔ cups) All purpose flour
  • 35 g (⅓ cups) Almond flour
  • ½ teaspoon Baking powder
  • ½ Orange zest grated
  • 1 teaspoon Cardamon

Poached pear

  • 2 Pears
  • 500 g (2 cups) Water
  • 100 g (½ cups) Granulated sugar
  • ½ Orange peel
  • 1 Cinnamon stick

US customary cup measurement is an indicative figure only. Measure the ingredients with a digital scale by weight (gram). Baking is art but also science which requires precision and accuracy.

Instructions

Start with poaching pears

  • Bring all ingredients to boil (except pears) in a large enough saucepan
  • Peel the pears and leave them in one piece
  • Cook the pears for 10 minutes (depending on the size of the pears) on medium heat. Do not overcook the fruits, it is better to slighly udercook them
  • Use several paper kitchen towels to dry the poached pears before using them in the cake batter

Continue with the almond cake batter

  • Heat oven to 180 C / 356 F (no fan)
  • With an electric hand mixer whip room temperature butter and sugar until it becomes creamy and pale then add eggs, one at a time. Then add vanilla
  • Sift in flour, almond flour, cardamon, and baking powder and fold in with the help of a Rubber spatula, then add orange zest
  • Grease loaf cake tin and pour the batter in. I am using a 16 cm / 6 inches (bottom) 18 cm / 7 inches (top) loaf pan
  • Press the poached pears into the batter. The pears should be standing straight and there should be space at each end and also in between the pears for the cake batter to rise. Try to arrange the cake batter equally on all sides before putting the pan into the oven. Hint with flaked almonds (optional)
  • Bake for 60 min or until skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean
  • After loaf cooled, carefully remove from tin and the tin and hint with powder sugar (optional)
  • Store at room temperature for 2-3 days

Nutrition

Calories: 410kcal | Carbohydrates: 57g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 20g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 4g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 94mg | Sodium: 64mg | Potassium: 117mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 42g | Vitamin A: 558IU | Vitamin C: 4mg | Calcium: 63mg | Iron: 1mg
Tried this recipe?Mention @spatuladesserts or tag #spatuladesserts would love to see your creation on Instagram!
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Reader Interactions

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    RATE THE RECIPE




  1. Nataliy

    February 17, 2023 at 1:24 am

    5 stars
    I made this delicious cake once and my family asks me to bake it again. Thanks a lot!

    Reply
  2. Nataliya

    July 06, 2021 at 3:21 pm

    5 stars
    Very clear explained.
    Thank you very much!

    Reply
  3. Alicia

    December 23, 2020 at 1:24 pm

    5 stars
    Super yummy

    Reply
  4. Irina

    November 23, 2020 at 9:28 am

    5 stars
    Absolutely lovely! The taste reminds me of France💛 It's a keeper!

    Reply
    • admin

      November 23, 2020 at 10:46 am

      Of France... 🙂

      Reply
  5. Gabriella Maculan Forattini Pelizer

    October 05, 2020 at 11:43 am

    5 stars
    Delicious!! I tryed this recipe and was a sucess! We loved it...the orange zest gives It an special and delicate taste.

    Reply

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I am Katalin Nagy, and it is my pleasure to welcome you to Spatula Desserts, a baking blog where I will teach you how to bake like a Pro with the help of my foolproof recipes, baking tutorials, and online baking classes! 

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