This Pear Cake is a simple and scrumptious way to make use of delicious pears. This pear cake is easy to make, loaded with whole grains, and refined-sugar free. Everyone adores this for breakfast, snack, or a healthyish dessert.
Before I massively rave over this Honey Pear Cake recipe, I have to brag a little bit about the cute honeycrisp apple tree I just bought.
I’m beyond excited about my new baby apple tree and cannot wait to watch it grow. I’m no gardener [my succulent died, no lie] but I’m blessed to have super geeky garden friends. They’ve assured me that we can expect to pluck some delicious honeycrisp apples off our tree in just one or two seasons. Of course, I’ve been kicking myself in the butt for not planting an apple tree years ago. In my defense, every year we kept thinking we were going to move. But hi, we’re going on 10 years in the same place, so it’s now or never.
Here’s the deal: I love munching on fresh honeycrisp apples…but pears are my fave for baking. The humble pear is typically overlooked because there’s something classically endearing about an easy one-bowl apple cake and amazing apple pie with flaky butter crust. There’s definitely an important place for baked apple goodies.
However. If you haven’t tried baking with pears, I encourage you not to wait a day longer. Pears bake up with a similar tender texture as apples do, but pears offer a wonderfully aromatic flavor that’s unparalleled.
Over a decade ago, I started baking this moist Pear Bread. People kept asking for the recipe and they were all what? really? when they realized the bread was made with pears instead of apples. Thus started my pear cake crush.
Introducing this luscious Honey Pear Cake Recipe…
How to make a healthy pear cake:
It’s incredibly simple to make a healthy pear cake recipe. You’ll peel and dice the pears just as you would with apples. If you want to do this ahead of time, just sprinkle enough lemon juice to coat the pears so they retain their fresh color.
Use white whole wheat flour instead of white flour. White whole wheat is whole-grain goodness, but milder in taste than regular whole wheat. Replace any refined sugar with pure, raw honey. I have been loving the results of baking with honey these past few years. Honey and pears go hand in hand.
We also replace unhealthy fats with either coconut oil or olive oil. You can’t taste the olive oil in cakes, and it provides a tender and moist crumb. I routinely alternate between either coconut or olive oil with great results.
You’ll adore this Honey Pear Cake because:
- It’s moist, tender, and luscious
- It tastes amazing on its own; no icing needed unless you really want to 😉
- There’s no refined sugar
- It’s healthy enough for breakfast
- It’s yummy enough for dessert, especially if you top with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream
Happy pearing.
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Honey Pear Cake Recipe (No Refined Sugar)
- Category: breakfast, dessert
- Cuisine: American
Description
This Pear Cake is a simple and scrumptious way to make use of delicious pears. This pear cake is easy to make, loaded with whole grains, and refined-sugar free. Everyone adores this for breakfast, snack, or a healthyish dessert.
Ingredients
- 4 large egg whites
- 1 cup olive oil (I use extra virgin) plus extra for pan*
- 1 cup pure honey
- 5 cups freshly diced pears, peeled
- 3 cups white whole wheat flour, plus extra for pan*
- 1/2 tsp table salt
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- Optional: Cream Cheese Frosting
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325F with rack on lower middle position. Generously grease a bundt pan, followed by a sprinkling of flour on bottom/sides of pan; tap out excess flour from pan and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, beat egg whites until bubbly. Stir in the oil and honey until combined. Add pears, folding just enough to combine.
- In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Fold flour mixture gently together with the egg mixture, just until incorporated (do not over-mix) Batter will be thick. Use rubber spatula to transfer batter into greased/floured bundt pan.
- Bake 60-70 minutes or just until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out with a few tender crumbs attached. Let cool completely in pan on wire rack. Run thin knife around edges to loosen, if needed. Turn pan upside down on serving platter and give it a few firm pats to remove cake. Serve as is or frost as desired.
Notes
* If you can’t find white whole wheat flour, you can sub with half wheat, half all purpose flours. Of course, you can use only all purpose flour, if desired.
* Coconut oil can be subbed for the olive oil
* I used this easy Cream Cheese Frosting to decorate, but this pear cake can easily stand on its own.
Kitchen Stuff We Love:
Get Peared Up:
3. Easy Ginger Pear Sangria Recipe
4. Roasted Pear Gorgonzola Salad
Juicy, Roasted Pears atop baby greens and arugula
We have a wild pear tree outside our house and I always look for new ways to use them, this will be a great option that my kids will love.
Yay, hope you guys love it…great way to use up your pears 🙂 So lucky you’ve got a tree!
Its really interesting recipe. Already pin it. Thanks for sharing.
Yay, thanks so much for pinning! 🙂
I love love love eating raw pears but I’ve never actually baked with them! This cake sounds so yummy, just perfect for fall when you want something warm and comforting.
This looks delightful! Do you know if you can use Almond flour with this recipe? I would do half and half. I love pears in anything so I was super excited to see this and I look forward to trying this recipe.
You could try half and half flours. Enjoy!
This looks wonderful! I love pears with cinnamon and know this cake would make a wonderful addition to a full breakfast around my home! Pinning it for future use!
Honey pear cake is new to me, I have never tried using honey pear to make cake. Glad there is no refine sugar but using pure honey instead. Honey is always a more natural source! Thanks for the recipe.
Oh my, this has my mouth watering! What a great idea to make a cake with pear and honey. I love that it has no refined sugar too. Definitely one to try out.
This looks so tasty and delicious!Soo Yummy!Looks like a great recipe!
Wow! This looks so mouthwatering. The pics are amazing, and it’s something different, so that’s intriguing. Pears are not given the love they should get!
Wow! This one’s a winner.This looks so delightful and tasty. I would love to try making this recipe. My boys would both probably DIG this!
I would have never thought to put pear inside cake but this looks amazing. I need to try this!
Gosh, that looks so delicious! I have never baked with pears but this looks so yummy, so I must try!
Omg, I need this cake in my life! This sounds way too good to be true. I can’t believe it. Going to try it this weekend 🙂
Okay, bananas and apples I’ve had but not pear! I’m so interested in trying this! Does it taste sweet like a banana bread does or is does it have a slight tart/bitterness to it?
This looks so darn delish! Will have to take a crack at making it soon!
I just love the ingredients used in this. It provides a very tasty variety to the usual!
Looks so good! I’ve never tried pear cake, I’m sure it’s delicious
Can you believe I have never hear about pear cake? I feel like I’ve been lied my whole life! The recipe looks fairly easy so I’ll try it this weekend for my dad’s birthday. On another note, I keep saying I’m going to plant in my garden, but procrastinate and it’s been 6 years so….
That sounds so sweet and delicious! I love that you’ve made it without refined sugar. Always try to limit that in our family
The bread ! I have to try it! I just recently discovered how to actually make good banana bread, but pear is my favourite fruit of all time, so I’m just guessing i’m gonna love it!
You will SO love it, Garille! 🙂
Wow! This Honey Pear Cake recipe looks delicious and it make me feel so hungry. I will be pinning this recipe and try this on my daugther s birthday.
Looks and sounds absolutely delicious! I can’t wait to find a minute to try it out for myself!
Oh, congrats on your apple tree! I’m a serial plant killer, so I just quit having green stuff, lol. I live in a small flat downtown, and the only thing I grow here is orchids, lol.
I prefer pears over apples any day! my favourite cake is a pear cake (but a different one) so this recipe is perfect for me! I’ll try it and let you know how it went :9
This sounds great! I normally don’t like pears but this might be a hit with our family, hubby and kids included! Love that it’s healthy
Wow, in Singapore, it’s almost impossible to have our own ‘trees’ as most of us live in apartments and one will need a garden to grow a tree? I’m surprised to see that you didn’t use sugar in this recipe, love to try it one day!
Looks super easy to make! And I love that it is healthy! It’s going on my list to make. Thanks for sharing.
This looks amazing. Although I am not a huge fan of pears, I am thinking I need to reconsider!
W0ow, and it is healthy!!! Great!
Just took it out of the oven. It looks fabulous and my house smells amazing!!!
Can’t wait till it cools.
FYI the method doesn’t mention the pears. No biggy
I’m guessing the pears go in with the flour mixture so they don’t sink in the batter.
So CONFUSED! I read the recipe three times, the instructions do not include PEARS! When do I put in the pears!
Alycia, thanks for the note! Updated to reflected when the pears should be stirred in. Hope you really enjoy this cake. Happy baking! 🙂