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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.
Can you use either lemon juice instead of zest – or orange zest as an alternative?
Hi Siona
No don’t use lemon juice but you can use the orange zest.
I have a very large stainless steel pan that I use for making desserts for functions at our Church. Yesterday afternoon I tripled this batch, cut the sugar in half (I do this for most recipes because we don’t need that much sugar in recipes :)), used kefir in place of the milk, used half butter and half coconut oil for the butter and then used coconut oil for the oil part of the recipe, also added 1 tsp. of Garam Masala Seasoning into the triple batch of batter. I used parchment paper in the pan and it worked great! No need for any spraying of oil to the pan. (TIP: take the sheet of parchment paper and completely scrunch it into a ball before straightening it out and placing it in the pan. Learned this not to long ago and it takes a lot of fuss out of trying to get the parchment paper to lay flat while putting the batter into the pan) I did use A LOT of sliced up pears, the top of the cake was completely full of sliced pears, actually heaping. I preheated the oven to 450′ on convect bake and when I placed the cake into the oven I immediately turned the oven down to 350′. I only had an hour of bake time because I had to leave to get to the Church function. When the hour was us, I took it out of the oven, covered it with heavy duty foil and put it in the vehicle and away I went. It was a hit! Everyone liked it! All Praise and Glory to You Lord Jesus Christ!!! I put all my trust in Him and it’s His plan not ours! If you find any of these tips helpful Thank our Lord not me and if you don’t no worries. God Bless!
Hi Ann,
Thanks for sharing your tips with us and for leaving a review.
Baked this cake and followed all instructions except I put an extra tsp in accidentally because I used a tbsp measure for the baking powder. I decided to check the recipe after one spoonful but it was too late. I figured one tsp extra shouldn’t make too much of a difference. The cake was done after an hour. The only thing I noticed was that the batter was so light, some of the pears dropped through the top layer. This ended up trapping the pears throughout the cake which was a happy accident. It was so moist and tasty. We served it with salted maple ice cream. The only thing people were saying was that it could’ve used more pears. I used 6 small ones but probably could’ve used double that. Thank you. This one’s a keeper!
Thanks for sharing your experience for this recipe.
Tasted amazing. Easy instructions with pictures. Do the Pears discolour? How do you store the cake overnight?
No they wont. For the ones showing on top, they will just stay golden brown. Most likely, most of them will sink a little so they don’t show much. You can bake the cake anytime the night before. After it cools just cover it with saran wrap or in a cake serving platter and when ready to serve just dust it with the sugar. The cake will last a few days out of the fridge if the house is cool enough.
This cake was FABULOUS! I am not a great baker as generally don’t follow recipes well when details count, but this turned out easy and delicious. Moist and flavorful. Cooking time was very accurate for my oven and pan (a thick non-stick pan, didn’t have a springform).
I almost didn’t try the cake because I don’t have an electric mixer and I’m sure I didn’t mix it quite as thoroughly as the recipe calls for (it’s hot here, I did my best!) but it still came out perfectly and was easy to mix so don’t be afraid to give it a go if you only have a whisk and your arm strength. Also, this is a big cake! Nice to have a bit to share with the neighbors.
I gave 5 stars because I am 100% confident that the cake would be excellent as-is.
But I did make a few small adjustments myself so for full transparency:
as sweets here in Europe tend to be less sugary I cut the sugar in half, I ran out of vanilla extract so replaced half with a small packet of vanilla flavored sugar, I used salted butter (we love it here), replaced part of the butter with oil using a 3/4 oil to 1 butter ratio (I forgot to buy extra butter) and I added 60gr of hazelnut flour as my partner loves hazelnut and it was her birthday cake. It gave it a lightly nutty flavor.
Thanks so much for the recipe, I will definitely be remaking it!
Thank you so much for the detailed review. I am sure it will be helpful to many of my readers.
Tried this recipe. Easy to follow. Great instructions. I added. I added nuts (chopped almonds and raisins). It came out tasting and looking great. Only thingI had to bake it a lot longer – about 1hr 50 mins as every 10 mins after the 50 minute mark I was testing the cake and it was still not done but great cake at the end.
Wow, that’s indeed a long time! Did you use the recommended pan? Also, I did mention in the description that around 40 minutes you can gently cover the cake with aluminum foil wrap. It helps keep the cake from burning up on the outside and cooks it faster on the inside. I think ovens are different though and also the size and thickness of the pans as well contribute to the time. If you have any questions please feel free to email me so I can help.
Yes I did cover the cake with aluminium foil. I am not complaining but just stating the fact that it took much longer than stated on the recipe. My whole family loved and they mentioned to me that t is “a keeper” as it was very moist and tasty.
Thank you.
oh I def didn’t take it as a complaint. I am glad you still liked it though. If you like to make it in a larger pan but less deep, it might take less time. Either way, please let me know if you need any help.
Hi Adele, I’m finding the same thing. My cake is still in the oven and it’s been well over with it 55 minute time so I’ll just keep on checking and baking. I don’t need to be raw inside
I am currently at the 1 hour make and it’s still baking .. it smells fantastic though can’t wait till it’s done .. it’s the centre that’s taking long for some reason
Did you use the pan size i recommended? I literally made the cake a week ago. I am not sure why it’s taking some people longer. It may be the type of oven. I have an electric fan oven, not convectional bake. Just a normal bake setting and bake on the middle rack.
Delicious. The sponge was divine. Thank you
Glad to hear you enjoyed this cake recipe! Thanks for the review.
I find that this cake is too sweet given there will be more sprinkle of brown sugar and icing. Can I reduce the sugar to just 1 cup only? the cake turned out nice except just too sweet!
Yes you can
My 9yo LOVES pears, which is nice because he’s allergic to everything else. I kid, but really. He is allergic to wheat, dairy, eggs, peanuts, and tree nuts, which makes it hard to make him a birthday cake. Ideally, I’d stick with tried and true recipes and just make him the same cake every year. But no. This kid wants to try a different flavor every year. This year he wanted a “pear cake,” something I’d never heard of before he asked for it. Long story short, I used this recipe but swapped out allergy-safe ingredients (gluten-free flour for the flour, Just Egg egg substitute for the eggs, dairy-free butter for the butter, and rice milk for the milk), and it turned out pretty darned good. He said it was the best cake ever and maybe even his favorite dessert ever. Not every cake works if you do that.
Also, for those interested, I made this in a pretty bundt cake. I sprayed and cinnamoned the bottom (like flouring), then lay the pear slices in a pretty pattern, then placed some standing up around the middle, and a little bit of a second layer. I do wish I had used more pears. Then the cinnamon and brown sugar mixture, and I had to kind of press it into the vertical pears, but it stuck pretty good. I gently spooned the batter on top so as not to disturb the pattern. The bake time was a little shorter; I think I just did the 40 minutes and didn’t put foil on because it was done.
I wish I could share a photo because it turned out SO pretty.
Hi Ruth,
Thanks for sharing your experience with us. I am sure it will help many readers. Glad it all worked out for you.
Flawless!
Hi Mirja,
Thanks for leaving a review. I am glad you enjoyed the recipe!