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Pear Cake Recipe

This Pear Cake uses no refined sugar and is a simple and scrumptious way to make use of delicious pears. Everyone adores this for breakfast, snack, or a healthyish dessert.

pear cake honey pear cake recipe pear bundt cake

Moist Pear Cake

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…

pear cake honey pear cake recipe pear bundt cake
pear cake honey pear cake recipe pear bundt cake

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.

pear cake honey pear cake recipe pear bundt cake

Your Family and Friends Will Love This

  • 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

We think you’ll love this recipe also

Did you make this?

Please give us a rating and comment below. We love hearing from you!

Easy Pear Cake Recipe

Pear Cake Recipe (No Refined Sugar)

4.64 from 11 ratings
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.
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Servings: 12
Author: Amy Dong

Ingredients  

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.

Equipment

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.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 390kcal | Carbohydrates: 55g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 19g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 13g | Sodium: 300mg | Potassium: 147mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 30g | Vitamin A: 18IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 33mg | Iron: 1mg
Course: Breakfast, Dessert
Cuisine: American
Diet: Vegetarian
Method: Bake

Kitchen Stuff We Love:

Get Peared Up:

  1. Julia Child’s Pear Clafoutis
Pear Clafoutis

2. Honey Pear Bread

Slices of Honey Pear Bread

3. Easy Ginger Pear Sangria Recipe

ginger pear sangria cocktail in glasses with mint sprigs

4. Roasted Pear Gorgonzola Salad

Closed-Up of Pear on Greens
Juicy, Roasted Pears atop baby greens and arugula

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Recipe Rating




42 comments

    • Pamela Gardiner

    Please provide suggested dimensions and/or correct volume of Bundt pan. Many thanks! I look forward to making this recipe, and appreciate that no refined sugar is used.

      • Amy Dong

      Hi, Pamela! It’s a 9.5″ bundt pan – come back and let us know how you liked it 🙂

    • Cynthia

    This is a lovely recipe! Just made it and the cake is amazing. Thanks so much.

    I made a few changes, instead of the spices I used rosewater to pick up the floral notes in the honey. I also used 2 tsp baking powder and 1 top baking soda to help with the rise.

    I also mixed the wet ingredients into the dry, then folded into the beaten egg whites (beaten to soft peaks). The cake rose beautifully and is so soft. Love it!

      • chewoutloud

      SO happy you loved this, Cynthia! Pears make SUCH delicious cake!

    • Isabelle
    • 5 stars

    This cake recipe is soooooo good! I used coconut oil instead of olive oil and added extra cinnamon and it’s still came super tasty. I am going to make this every alternate Sunday❤❤

      • chewoutloud

      So glad you loved this, Isabelle… it’s definitely one of my favorites, too! 🙂

    • Alycia

    So CONFUSED! I read the recipe three times, the instructions do not include PEARS! When do I put in the pears!

      • chewoutloud

      Alycia, thanks for the note! Updated to reflected when the pears should be stirred in. Hope you really enjoy this cake. Happy baking! 🙂

    • lahanlon

    I’m guessing the pears go in with the flour mixture so they don’t sink in the batter.

    • Kathy Robinson

    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

    • miljance93mommysup

    W0ow, and it is healthy!!! Great!

    • Leigh Anne

    This looks amazing. Although I am not a huge fan of pears, I am thinking I need to reconsider!

    • Stylish Paradox

    Looks super easy to make! And I love that it is healthy! It’s going on my list to make. Thanks for sharing.

    • Tiffany Yong

    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!

    • ktmommyscene

    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

    • Nati
    • 5 stars

    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

    • britbrat269

    Looks and sounds absolutely delicious! I can’t wait to find a minute to try it out for myself!

    • Shubhada Bhide

    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.

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