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Loaded with pears, perfectly sweet and melts in the mouth – this Super Moist Pear Cake recipe is divine! Whether you are that person who loves to have a piece of cake with your cup of tea or coffee, or just that person who has a sweet tooth for cakes anytime during the day or after a filling meal, I am sure this will satisfy your cravings.
This cake is the perfect go to cake recipe. It’s so moist and delicious, you will want to make it over and over again. Made with simple cake ingredients and overripe pears, this cake will be a staple in your family’s household.
If you are looking for simple and delicious cake recipes, try my Pear Bundt Cake, Super Moist Blueberry Bundt Cake, No Bake Chocolate Cake, Molten Chocolate Lava Cake , and this Blueberry Lemon Bread recipe.
Why you’ll love this Moist Cake recipe
- Convenient: This recipe is not only easy to make, but it’s made with simple ingredients found in your pantry.
- Tastes perfect: This recipe was tested many times. The sweetness is perfect, the flavor is perfect, the texture is so moist, it melts in your mouth with very bite.
- Very adaptable: You can make this recipe with any kind of fruit you want. Test with your some of your favorite fruits and choose your favorite.
Ingredients needed to make a Pear Cake
- AP Flour- I find that this works best for the recipe.
- Sugar– I like using granulated cane sugar
- Confectioner Sugar– Perfect for dusting because it melts in your mouth.
- Butter– Makes the cake soft.
- Vegetable Oil– Also adds moisture to the cake.
- Baking Powder– Helps the cake rise.
- Vanilla Extract– To add a delicious hint of flavor.
- Eggs– large eggs, any kind works.
- Milk– I like using whole milk to keep the cake rich.
- Pears– Use your overripe pears. Any kind works, as long as it’s ripe and peeled. I like using green pears.
- Salt– to balance the flavor.
- Lemon Zest– Always a great addition to any baking recipe.
- Toppings: Brown sugar and cinnamon powder.
How to make a Pear Cake
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- Peel and slice the Pears. Set aside.
- In an electric mixer bowl, whip up the sugar and softened butter until well combined for about 1 minute.
- Add in the vanilla, lemon zest and eggs. Continue mixing on high speed for 1-2 minutes until they are well combined.
- Add in the baking powder, sifted flour and a pinch of salt. Mix again for about 1 minute. Gradually add the milk and oil while mixing on low speed. Mix for another minute or two on low speed. Batter should be thick.
- Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper and grease or spray a round spring foam baking pan then pour the batter into the pan. Ideally, a 10 x 3 inch deep pan is the best size.
- After placing the batter in your pan, spread a layer of the sliced pears to cover the whole batter. Sprinkle some cinnamon and the brown sugar on top of the pears.
- Bake in a pre-heated 350 F oven for 1 hour. Depending on your oven and thickness of your pan, it might take extra baking time. If your cake is brown before it gets cooked on the inside, cover with aluminum foil and continue to cook for the rest of the time. Try not to over bake the cake so doesn’t dry out. Always insert a wooden skewer to make sure it’s completely clean before removing the cake out.
- Remove the cake from the oven and cover with a kitchen towel to let it cool down. It may take up to 1 hour. Dust with some confectioner sugar right before serving.
Recipe Tips:
- Always use room temperature softened butter.
- If you are not serving right away, I recommend not dusting the cake right away. The moisture of the pears will absorb the sugar. Dust the cake right before serving.
- Only use real butter. No fake butters.
- Do not use a smaller pan other than what is recommended, which is 10 x 3″ round spring foam pan (easy release pan).
- Do not use under ripe pears. Always use soft pears, but not mushy pears
- Depending on your oven and thickness of the pan, the cake might take less or more time. Insert a tooth pick or skewer into the center of the cake to check if it comes out clean.
- You may add nuts or raisins right before the pears before baking, if you like. Just dust them with a little bit of AP flour before doing that.
- If you like pears in your cake batter, add 1/2 cup of ripe pureed/mashed pear in the cake batter before baking. It may just take a few more minutes to fully cook over the normal cook time.
FAQ’s for making a moist pear cake
Always use overripe pears to make this cake moist. The juices from the pear gives so much moisture to the cake. Also, always use real, whole fat butter. This also helps with the cake’s texture. Never use butter substitutes.
Prepare the pears by peeling, then slicing in half from the stem end to the bottom. You can then use a small spoon to scoop out the seeds and also remove that tough, thin spine that runs up to the stem end.
This pear cake is great on its own. It can be served warm, room temperature, or cold from the fridge. It’s also great with a scoop of ice cream, coffee, tea or a dollop of whipped cream!
I highly recommend peeling the pears before baking, as their skin grows tough when heated.
Well of course, make this pear cake! If you have way too many, you can always bake a cake for your neighbor or a friend.
Yes, you can absolutely freeze this pear cake. However the texture of the pear slices will change a little after freezing. I would also wrap it very well to preserve any freezer burns, which will dry up the cake. You can freeze for up to one month. But this cake will not last more than a couple of days, so I highly doubt you will need to freeze it. It will be gone in no time.
Mouthwatering sweet treats to try
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Super Moist Pear Cake
Equipment
- 10 x 3 inch Round Spring Foam pan (Easy Release) changing pan will change cook time.
- Oven I use a normal electric oven with fan. Using different types of oven will change cook time.
Ingredients
- 2¼ cups cake or all purpose flour, sifted
- 1½ cup sugar, fine granulated white sugar
- ½ cup butter , soft, unsalted
- ⅓ cup canola oil, or vegetable oil
- 3 tsps. baking powder
- 1-2 tbsps. vanilla extract, per preference
- 4 whole eggs, large
- ½ cup milk, whole fat
- 3 whole ripe pears, peeled and thinly sliced
- ⅛ tsp. salt, Just a pinch
- 1 tsp. lemon zest, (optional)
- 2 tbsps. confectioner suger, for dusting after baking
TOPINGS before baking:
- 1/4 cup brown sugar, or less as desired
- ¾ tsp. cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- Peel and slice the Pears.
- In an electric mixer bowl, whip up the sugar and butter until well combined for about 1 minute.
- Add in the vanilla, lemon zest and eggs. Continue mixing on high speed for 1-2 minutes until they are pale and and fluffy.
- Add in the baking powder, sifted flour and a pinch of salt. Mix again for about 1 minute. Gradually add ½ cup of milk and ⅓ cup oil while mixing on low speed. Mix for another minute on low speed. The batter should be thick. Not runny.
- Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper and grease or spray a round spring foam baking pan then pour the batter in. Ideally, a 10 x 3 inch deep pan is the best size. Changing pan will alter cooking time.
- After placing the batter in your pan, spread a layer of the sliced pears to cover the whole batter. Sprinkle some cinnamon and the brown sugar on top of the pears.
- Bake in a pre-heated 350 F oven on the middle rack for 1 hour. NOTE: If your cake becomes golden on the outside at around 45 minutes and the cake is still pretty runny on the inside, cover the cake with aluminum foil wrap and tuck the sides a little and continue to cook the cake for another 15 minutes. Insert a wooden skewer to make sure it's completely clean before removing the cake. It may take less or a bit more time depending on your oven.
- Remove the cake from the oven and cover with a kitchen towel to let it cool down. It may take up to 1 hour to completely cool down. Dust with some confectioner sugar right before serving.
Video
Notes
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- I use electric oven on normal BAKE mode. Not conventional or any other specific type of oven. Different types of ovens will result in different cook times and result. That is not within my control. Insert a tooth pick or skewer into the center of the cake to check if it comes out clean.
- If your cake is brown on the outside and runny still on the inside, cover with aluminum foil and continue to bake.
- Always use room temperature softened butter.
- If you are not serving right away, I recommend not dusting the cake right away. The moisture of the pears will absorb the sugar. Dust the cake right before serving.
- The recommended pan size is 10 x 3″ round spring foam pan (easy release pan). Anything else used, will alter the cooking time.
Nutrition
This recipe was originally posted in March 2019 and updated with new photos.
I’m not sure what I did wrong, but my version didn’t look like yours. It was a beautiful golden brown on top, but the pears disappeared and it sank in the middle.Maybe it’s because of the altitude where I live, I’m not really sure why that happened. It didn’t have a lot of pear flavor, but it was moist and very good. I might try pureeing pears and adding them to the batter next time.
Hi Liz!
It happens that some of them sink if they are a bit thick. Also the batter should have been thick enough to hold them up. Many factors play in. Recently, I traveled to a new country and boy, I am learning how to bake all over again because it’s a gas oven :D. It’s a lot different that my normal electric oven in America.If you’d like it to have more pear flavor, you can add about 1/2 cup of grated pear into the recipe.
This aroma of this cake while baking was amazing! The taste was out of this world! I made 2 adjustments…I used buttermilk instead of regular milk because that was all I had on hand and I added blueberries to the batter at the end!! 2 thumbs up!
Hi Cathleen,
Glad you enoyed the recipe. Butter milk works too. Thanks for leaving a review.
Turned out perfect and delicious – made a gluten and dairy free version
Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for leaving a review. We would love to hear what swaps you made so that our readers can get gluten free idea with you.
Just like my mother’s. Now that I’m an Oma, I will make this often during pear season.
Awe! Glad you enjoyed it Oma! Thanks for the review.
I LOVE this recipe. I make it as a cake or loaf. I use 1 3/4 C flour and 1/2 C almond flour.
Thanks for leaving a review. I am happy to hear you enjoyed the recipe and adjusted it to your liking.
Haven’t eaten it yet but this cake is absolutely fool-proof. Shockingly simple recipe with beautiful results. I was so impressed by how it turned out fresh from the oven that I had to run over and sing its praises. I even used a 9inch spring pan instead of a 10inch, and it baked just fine at 1hr @350 using the “cover w/ foil after 45 min” suggestion provided by the author.
Can’t wait to take this to my friend’s for her birthday tomorrow!
Thanks for leaving a review. I am happy to hear you enjoyed the recipe and adjusted it to work with what you have in hand.
can you use almond flour instead of real flour? will that change the amount of flour needed?
Hi. No unfortunately they are not going to have the same result.
My cake turned out perfectly. I opted to put pear pieces in the mix as well as on top of cake. I also cut up some fresh cherries and placed them with the pears on top of the cake then dusted with cinnamon sugar and slivered almonds. Took 1 hour and was so good. Thank you.
Hi Jaq,
I am glad you enjoyed the recipe!
The recipe for this pear cake looked so delicious but I don’t have a springform pan. I took a chance and used a 9×13 inch pan. I cut the pears into small chunks but otherwise followed the recipe exactly. The cake was a lovely golden brown after 45 minutes in a 350 degree oven. This recipe is a keeper and I’ll be making it again soon because hubby and son ate most of the cake in one day!
So glad it worked out for you Barbara. Thanks for leaving a review.
I have a pear tree that finally produced a bumper crop. The pears are quite large. Recipe calls for 3 pears. Can you suggest a total weight or amount (x number of cups of chopped/diced pear) for this recipe? It would be most helpful.
Not sure of the weight. But the pears we have here are more of a medium size. Also the 3 pears just barley covers the cake batter on the top so if your pears are larger it’s fine. You just get a little more pears it doesn’t ruin the recipe. Some people in the comments mentioned they would add more pears next time they make it. So you should be fine. Just slice them as shown and not too thick so they don’t sink all the way to the bottom.