Pear Cake
This ultra moist, tender Pear Cake is sure to please a crowd! You will love the bits of pear in every slice, as well as the homemade caramel glaze!
Servings: 15 servings
Equipment
- Etekcity 0.1g Food Kitchen Scale, Bowl, Digital Grams and Ounces for Weight Loss, Dieting, Baking, Cooking, and Meal Prep, 11lb/5kg, Stainless Steel Silver Optional but helpful- The most accurate way to ensure that you are using the intended amount of ingredients- especially when it comes to flour.
Ingredients
- 2 sticks (226g) unsalted butter, softened
- 2 cups (400g) sugar
- 3 large room temperature eggs
- 3 cups (342g) cake flour (plain in the UK) — if you do not have cake flour see substitution below
- 1 ½ teaspoons (7g) baking powder
- ½ teaspoon (3g) baking soda
- 1½ teaspoons (3g) cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon (3g) salt
- 1 cup (242g) sour cream
- ⅓ cup (80g) milk
- 2 teaspoons (8g) vanilla extract
- 1 can (15oz) Pear Halves (We used Del Monte brand) Drain and then dice.
Caramel Glaze
- ½ stick unsalted butter (57g)
- 1 cup light brown sugar (217g) packed into measuring cup
- ½ cup heavy cream (126g)
- ½ teaspoon salt (2g)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (4g)
- 1 Tablespoon light corn syrup (18g)
Instructions
For the Pears
- Drain the can of pear halves and place on a cutting board. Using a sharp knife, dice the pears and set aside. They will be folded into the batter as the last step.
For the Pear Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, grease and flour a bundt pan. We used a bundt pan with a 12 cup baking capacity, 10 inches across. See notes re: pan size
- In a medium sized bowl add the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Whisk to blend, set aside.
- In another bowl or measuring cup add the sour cream, milk, and vanilla extract. Blend with a fork and set aside
- In the bowl of your mixer, mix the softened butter until smooth. Gradually add the sugar and mix on medium speed for 3 to 5 minutes until it is lightened in color and fluffy.
- Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until the yellow of the yolk has blended.
- With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture and the sour cream mixture alternately, beginning and ending with flour mixture (3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 of wet). Mix just until combined. (The batter will be thick.)
- Gently fold the drained, diced pears into the cake batter.
- Scoop the batter into the prepared bundt cake pan, smoothing over the top with the back of a spoon.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. It should also spring back when lightly touched. Check at about 40 minutes, if the top of the cake is becoming too dark, cover loosely with aluminum foil. Allow the cake to cool in the pan, on a wire rack for 10 minutes before turning out.
- Makes 7 cups of cake batter
Caramel Glaze
- Using a medium size saucepan (deep enough to prevent boil over) melt the butter over medium heat.
- Add the brown sugar and the remaining ingredients and heat on medium high heat.
- Stir to blend, try to keep mixture off the sides of the pan. Once the mixture begins to boil, reduce the heat to low.
- Simmer for 6 minutes, checking often to make sure that it is not going to boil over. It should still be bubbling. After 6 minutes, remove from heat.
- Keep in mind that the caramel will thicken up a bit as it cools. You can pour it into a long heat proof glass casserole dish if you want it to cool more quickly. We often refrigerate to cool it off as well.
- Once it has cooled and thickened to the desired consistency, you can either spoon the caramel over the cooled bundt cake, or spoon it into a disposable piping bag with the tip snipped away, and pipe over the cake for more control.
- Makes about 1 cup caramel sauce. It can be kept in the refrigerator in an airtight container up to 2 weeks.