Pear upside-down cake is a perfect twist on the classic and it’s seriously one of the easiest cakes you will ever make!
If you think you read that wrong, nope. PEAR Upside-Down Cake. And this trumps Pineapple Upside-Down Cake any day of the week for me. Granted, I had never really been a huge fan of Pineapple Upside-Down Cake. Every cake I’d ever had was excessively sweet and, honestly, just not that good. Then my friend, Emily, introduced me to this recipe, and it’s become a favorite ever since.
The first plus about this cake is it’s just one of those nice, dense, crumby cakes. Then, don’t even get me started on the caramelized butter/brown-sugar topping! (Seriously, don’t get me started – you’ll never hear me stop raving about it…) Let’s just say, this cake has been around the block when it comes to family and friend gatherings, and I’m never surprised when I see someone sneaking back to scrape out the extra caramel that is still stuck on the sides of the pan. It’s A-MAZ-ING.
Now, I actually have made this as a traditional Pineapple Upside-Down Cake, and it is probably the best one I have ever had (both with canned and fresh pineapple). But just think of sweet, gooey, chewy, caramelized pears……..BETTER (for me, at least)! With the pear version, you can also used canned or fresh – canned being on the softer side and fresh a little chewier. So, just try ’em both out. I promise you’ll be making this cake over and over and over……
Pear Upside-Down Cake
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter aka 8 tablespoons or 1 stick
- 1 cup brown sugar packed
- 3 fresh or canned pear halves peeled, cored, and sliced thin
- 1 and 1/4 cups flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1/3 cup oil
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
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In a medium saucepan, melt butter and brown sugar together over low heat, stirring occasionally until dissolved. (Alternatively use your microwave at half power or less in 30 second increments, stirring each time, until melted. If you go longer or at a higher power setting, you may have a buttery mess on your hands. Consider yourself warned!)
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Pour caramel mixture into 9-inch round cake pan.
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Top with sliced pears, working from the inside to the outside, creating a spiraled pattern.
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In a medium mixing bowl, mix together dry ingredients.
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In a large mixing bowl, mix together milk, oil, egg, and vanilla until just blended.
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Add dry mixture to wet mixture and stir until just incorporated.
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Pour cake batter into pan over caramel and pears.
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Place cake in middle rack in oven. On a lower rack, place a large cookie sheet directly underneath the cake pan to catch any possible drips.
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Bake approximately 50-60 minutes, or until caramel has bubbled up around the sides, cake is golden brown and a toothpick comes out with dry crumbs adhering to it.
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Remove from oven and let cake stand for approximately 10 minutes on a wire rack. (This is an important step: if you turn cake out too soon, some of the topping of your cake might fall apart; alternatively, if you turn cake out too late, you may not be able to get the cake out because the caramel will have cooled too much and stuck to the pan.)
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Flip cake out onto a serving dish and serve warm or cold.
Recipe Notes
Quick Tips:
1. It is absolutely essential to put a cookie sheet underneath the cake while baking. If not, you may be doing a thorough scrub down of your oven when you are done as the caramel may leak out.
2. A 9-inch pan the perfect size for this recipe.
Smaller - you will incur some of the caramel bubbling over as mentioned above (you can try leaving out a little of the batter to avoid this).
Larger - the caramel won't bubble up the sides quite right - still delicious, but not living up to its full potential.
Change it Up:
1. Use fresh or canned pineapple rings (approximately 6 rings) for the traditional Pineapple Upside-Down Cake. You can also try peach or apple! (Let me know how it works!)
2. Replace 1/2 of the milk with juice from the canned fruit you are using for a denser, slightly sweeter, and deeper-colored cake.
**NOTE: The last time I made this cake (the one pictured below) I was being adventurous and decided to swap out some of the milk with pear juice from the canned pears. I didn’t really notice a difference in flavor (obviously it would make it a little sweeter), but it was a little denser and made the color of the cake a deeper golden shade. So, like I said, since you’ll be making this cake over and over, you can give it a try sometime as well and let me know what you like better!
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My favorite cake!
I’m glad that it turned out well! Yeah, it’s pan-lickin’ good, huh? ….but then, how would I know cuz I never lick the pan 😉
I just made this cake with pears that we canned with sugar. It is great – a hit with my family! The trouble now is to stop eating it!
I’m so glad that you liked it! It is addicting, huh?
I baked my first ever cake tonight and it was this one. Delicious! Thanks for the recipe!
Way to go, glad you liked it.
Absolutely delicious! This was my first attempt at ever baking an upside down cake and it turned out perfectly. My whole family loved it!
And thanks for making it so clear that I needed to have something under the pan. The caramel did indeed ooze out and would have made a huge mess in the oven if there was nothing to catch it.
Yay! So glad you liked it. I’ve been craving this lately and think it’s time for an excuse to make 🙂
If that had been put closer to the top I wouldn’t have missed it
But Thank You for a super recipe
Sounds delicious! Will make on Sunday for our guests! Could I put little bit of lemon juice in caramel to make it less sweet?
Interesting idea! I’ll have to do a little research to see if it would affect the caramelization.
I put lemon juice on the pears before putting them it the pan which made a lovely flavor.😋
With 3 pears I had so many layers of pears that the top looked like a congealed pear layer. There was no cake showing on top like your photos but it is beautiful.
I would love to make the top layer with less sugar since it was super sweet.
Any thoughts 🤔
I put parchment paper on a sheet pan and saved my oven. Thanks for the warning ⚠️
I almost used 3 pears also, but realized the recipe calls for 3 pear halves, so just 1 1/2 pears. I didn’t even end up using all of what I sliced. Could’ve had a little more pear, but came out delicious.
I am so glad I wasn’t the only one who read three parents, not pear halves! Thank goodness I used small pears. I add a little lemon and some ginger to my pears while they were sitting, waiting for the other parts to come together.
All I can say is WOW! I had an overload of canned pears on hand and made this for a ladies get together. It was the bomb diggity! Thank you also for explaining why the carmel mixture should NOT be melted too quickly. I
Yay I’m so glad that you liked it! This is seriously my go-to when I just need something that I know will always get the job done.
I used a 9″ spring-form pan; I lined the pan with parchment paper liberally covered with butter (butter, not margarine): it turned out well came from the pan clean, I was able to peel away the parchment paper, served with vanilla ice cream was wonderful
So glad that you liked it Richard!
Quite a yummy cake – thank you for the recipe! The caramel topping is delicious, and it makes a good desert cake. 🙂
Agh!! This isn’t the most repeated dessert recipie in my recipie box. My husband ( who is a chef) and I, have been cooking for my parents for the passed few months, as each of my parents have recently been diagnosed with different kinds of cancer. My father has a sweet tooth that cannot be silenced, and a picky sweet tooth, at that. Must have fruit, real farm style taste, and be a favorite he can repeat, as he’s the type a fella who’s stuck in his ways. I can not articulate how thankful I am to have found this recipe. We live in a high elevation desert, and somehow, my mother is capable of growing pears, apples, and peaches. Through fall, this recipe works great with all of the above. Through the following months, it works even better with the excess fruit that we canned the fall before. My fathers favorite is the pear version, surprisingly with the canned variety. It’s to the point that expects a pear upside down cake every week.
YOU HAVE SAVED ME. Between this and the occasional batch of homemade cinnamon rolls, my father is as happy as can be. Thanks again, Mrs. Sparrow.
This just warms my heart. I am so glad that this recipe can spread cheer to you and your family. And what good souls you and your husband are to care for your parents. Bless you in everything!
Just cooked this again with some participants at work for the organization’s baking contest. 1. I apologize for how many typos there were in my comment from two years ago!! (ie: isn’t rather than is?! Excuse me! 2. It’s still my go to. For parties, celebrating my parents being in remission (!!), or baking with individuals with disabilities and getting paid to do it. This recipe is the Queen of my fleet of blues breaking foods. And I’m not even big on sweets! I just wanted to let you know that the fellas had a blast baking tonight- it’s such an easy recipe and just enough steps for everyone to feel included. We, of course, made a double batch so they could have one at the house and one to bring to the office for judging. I’ll be 100% honest- one of my participants thought this recipe sounded “like a dud” so he elected to make a different (ho-hum cobbler) recipe with another staff member. Well I’ll tell you what- after dinner, we all sampled both dishes and everyone agreed that this was the winner! He went to everyone’s bedrooms and admitted he was wrong and that his housemates had made the winning dish. Each site had a different food bank item as their “secret ingredient” and ours was canned apricots. We still used the pears and made a lovely dots and dashes pattern. We were all in heaven- staff and participants alike. I cannot wait for my guys to blow away the judges tomorrow! Thanks again- for all the joy you’ve enabled me to spread with this dish.
My best to you and yours!!
Catrina.
Hi there! do you have any tips for making this cake gluten free?
Did the recipe and just changed the flour to gluten free flour. Came out great. I had so much pears that I made a pear sauce and drizzled some of the sauce over it. Today I am using apples with this recipe and of course gluten free.
I can’t recommend this recipe enough! My father in law has had a bumper crop of pears and this is one of the perfect recipes for burning through the excess. My husband LOVES it! The caramel sauce is so so so good!
My mom brought us 2 huge bags of pears (we’re not even huge fans of them), but I’m glad I found this recipe because this was really good.
Thinking of perhaps adding a thin layer of roquefort cheese to this and see what happens. Greetings from an American in the south of France…(trying to add a french twist). Made once already and it was a winner with my husband. Need to finish the large can of pears so, encore this week! 😉
Thanks for such an easy recipe!
If using canned pears what size
Made this today and loved it! I was out of oil, so I used applesauce in its place. Turned out great.
I’ve got an over abundance of pears at the moment. Just tried this recipe and it turned out wonderful! Any idea if this would freeze well?
Any ideas on an egg substitute for this recipe?
I’m going to make this today with a batch of pears that were given to me along with some fresh huckleberries that I picked yesterday, (I have a whole gallon of those) I’m so excited to try this. Thanks for sharing
Can this cake be frozen?
Came out PERFECTLY the first try! I used this recipe instead of many others because it seemed more simple for a weeknight. It was simple. Great instructions. I used a duck egg instead of chicken and generously sprinkled cinnamon over my pears. I also used a parchment round in the pan, cooled for exactly 10 minutes and it looked as great as it tasted. Thanks for the keeper recipe!
I’ve got my first attempt in the oven now, I added a sprinkle of cinnamon to the caramel, and sprinkled the pears with pumpkin pie spice before I poured the batter in. As a fall cake it seems like it wants some spices!
Just made the pear upside down. I used a 9 in fry pan and jiffy yellow cake mix. Made the brown sugar and butter mix in the pan, then put 2-3 cut up pears in and poured the batter over. Bake
Oh my goodness, I am in love with this cake! I had been wanting to make it for a couple weeks; I found it while looking for dessert recipes to use pears in but it didn’t suit my needs at the time (needed to be vegan for an event and didn’t think I had it in me to pull that off…). So, I made it for Christmas and it was phenomenal! The only change I made was to add 1/2 tsp of cardamom to the dry ingredients (I love cardamom and thought it would go well with the pear). This might be my new favorite cake! I’d never made an upside cake before and getting the spiral right took a little trial and error but I figured it out eventually. There were so many desserts at the party that I ended up bringing more than half the cake home and you know what…I’m not conplaining! The hard thing now is going to be not eating it all at once. 😁 Thank you for the recipe.
I made this cake with my home made spiced pears. I took to a dinner party and every loved it too. WOW, it was delicious. Thank you.
I had a can of pears sitting around not getting used. So I found this recipe and made it yesterday. Easy to make, and cake is delicious! Looks pretty too. I’ll be making this again. Thank you for the recipe.
Hello is it plain flour or self raising ?
When i bake this cake I feel like superwoman! I’ve made it with pears, apples, mangoes (yesss) and mixed fruits. As long as I display the fruits in a nice pattern at the bottom, it looks PRO! Love this recipe and will save it for years to come. Thank you!
Tried this cake today, and because I was doing a lot of other tasks, I left it in the oven for 20 minutes longer than I should have. It was DELICIOUS! I don’t know if I’d have got that crispy, toffee topping if I’d taken it out sooner, but I think I’m going to do this cake again and again! Our guests loved it! There was only a small but left at the end of the evening. The cake serves 6-8, but there were only 4 of us, so we have a little bit for tomorrow! Great, easy-to-follow recipe! Thanks!
What a fabulous recipe! I was looking for a dessert recipe using canned pears and was surprised at how few recipes online were written for canned versus fresh pears. I appreciate your inclusion of the explanations for specific directions. Without knowing what the disastrous results could be, it may be tempting for some of us to rush through the prep.
I love it with just a generous drizzle of crème fraîche. This is definitely a keeper! 🙂
Absolutely love this recipe! Have made it numerous times, the most recent being a crushed pineapple and fresh strawberry upside down cake. Wonderful! (Especially with a little crème fraîche!)
I used canned peaches and baked it on my outdoor gas grill on the lowest setting for about 50 minutes. Came out of the cake pan beautifully and tasted so yummy!
Is that just on a open gas flame did you cook in a Dutch oven then or ?
I don’t own a 9 inch round cake pan but and 8×8 did the trick. I threw in a handful of cranberries with the pears (pineapple gets cherries so pears get cranberries).
Love it!
This cake was delicious! I do have a question though…is the caramel sauce supposed to absorb into the cake? Mine did not. I flipped it onto a cake dish and the sauce ran everywhere. It was a mess. 😑 I definitely want to make this cake over and over again, but I would like to avoid the mess. Any thoughts? I followed the recipe. The only thing I can think is maybe I didn’t cook the brown sugar and butter long enough.
Great website … will use this site again in the future 😉 THANK YOU !!!! Greetings from Germany
Made 2 cakes. They were beautiful and so delicious! Added 1/2 teaspoon ginger to the brown sugar of cake #2. Both were awesome but family preferred the pear-ginger slightly.
I made this cake and it was delicious. I added 1/2 tsp each of ginger and cinnamon and 1/4 tsp cloves. Yum!!!
I love how you’ve combined the tender sweetness of ripe pears with the warmth of cinnamon and nutmeg. The result is a heavenly dessert that’s perfect for fall and any time of the year. The addition of the vanilla glaze is the perfect finishing touch, adding a touch of sweetness to every bite.
The detailed step-by-step instructions and your mouthwatering photos make it so easy for even a baking novice like me to follow along. I can’t wait to try this recipe and impress my friends and family with this delicious treat.
Thanks for sharing this amazing recipe – it’s a must-try for any dessert lover! 🍰😋
Is this recipe with self-rising flour or all-purpose?
I have yet to make this but will soon try. Question: do I need to peel the fresh pears before slicing?
Where and when to ad that melted butter with brown sugar???????? Theow it away?How we supposed to bake without logical explanation?????
Steps 2 & 3 explain this. Please let me know if something is not clear to you in those steps. Thanks!
3. Pour caramel mixture into 9-inch round cake pan.
My 13 year old daughter made this with me and the cake was perfect. VERY easy to make but difficult not to eat. I pick away at some on the bottom layer while it rested for 10 Perfect minutes 😋😋😋
Wonderful and for people with IC!