Rich almond flavor enhances the fruit in this classic Italian Almond Pear Cake made with gluten-free flour.
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I knew I wanted to make this cake when I saw it on Seasons And Suppers site, but she sealed the deal when she described it as “more pear than cake.” She was right. I tweaked her recipe just a bit to make it gluten-free, and added in a few subtle spices. This cake is amazingly, crazy delicious. I could not stop eating it! So you should make it immediately if you’re into almonds and pears. 😉
Notes: I used Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free 1-to-1 Flour. I also ground my almonds (in small batches) in my Vitamix – worked beautifully. You’ll need three pears, any variety. Peal them, core them, and cut them length-wise. Once the pears are nestled on top of the batter, which will be thick, bake for 25 minutes. The cake will gently rise around the pears.
Remove from the oven and top generously with sliced almonds. Put the cake back in the oven for another 7-10 minutes to toast the almonds a bit and to ensure that the cake is done. Check the cake during the last few minutes by inserting a knife into the center. When it comes out clean, it’s done.
Remove from the oven and let the cake cool a bit before removing it from the Springform pan. Lightly dust the top with sifted confectioner’s sugar. Make sure you sift the sugar, otherwise you’ll end up with little clumps of sugar rather than a lovely dusting.
When you’re ready, cut yourself a slice and be prepared to be amazed with how delicious it is!
Perfezione! Delizioso!
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- ½ cup plus 1 Tbsp. unsalted organic butter, at room temperature
- ½ cup plus 1 Tbsp. organic sugar
- 2 large organic eggs
- ⅓ cup plus 1 Tbsp. gluten-free flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free 1-to-1 Flour)
- 3½ oz (about ¾ cup) ground almonds
- ½ tsp. baking powder
- ½ tsp. vanilla extract
- ½ tsp. ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp. ground ginger
- 3 small to medium ripe organic pears, peeled, cored and halved
- 1.7 oz sliced almonds (for top of cake)
- Confectioner’s sugar (sifted), for garnish
- Pre-heat oven to 375° F.
- Grease an 8-inch springform pan and line the bottom with a round of parchment paper. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy.
- Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Fold in the gluten-free flour, ground almonds, baking powder, cinnamon and ginger. Batter will be thick.
- Spoon the batter into the Springform pan and smooth out the top of the batter with the back of a spoon or knife.
- Peel, core, and slice pears lengthwise.
- Arrange the pear halves on top of the cake and bake in pre-heated 375° F. oven for 25 minutes. The cake will gently rise above the pears.
- Remove from oven and top generously with sliced almonds.
- Put the cake back in oven for another 7-10 minutes to toast the almonds a bit and to ensure that the cake is done. Check the cake during the last few minutes by inserting a knife into the center. When it comes out clean, it's done.
- Remove from oven and let the cake cool a bit before removing it from the Springform pan.
- Lightly dust the top with sifted confectioner's sugar and serve.
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Not only does this look amazing, I love the pie plate! I’ll have to try this one out.
Aw, thanks! You can even weave ribbon through the edge of cake stand, too, just to take it up a notch. This cake did fine on it’s own though, so no ribbon decoration. 😉
OMG! That looks absolutely DELICIOUS!! Too bad you couldn’t pass that through the computer screen. I’ll definitely have to try this once of these days!
Hope you try it! It is actually pretty easy to make. It’s one of my favorite cakes to make!
Wow I’m totally making this on Saturday! Thank you for the recipe and my allergen ridden family can have some too so thanks
I think your family will totally love it ~ it’s a really rich-tasting cake! 🙂
What a wonderful recipe!
Thank so much! 🙂
Ahh love this recipe and how you put down the instructions, very easy to read and understand! Looks yummy too! Need to try this one day!
xo Tina
IG: @tinasweetheart
http://www.tinasweetheart.com
Thanks so much, Tina! Hope you get to try it! 🙂
This recipe looks amazing! I just went gluten-free 6 weeks ago so I am looking for recipes to try that will taste good.
Thanks for sharing!
You will love this, then! The first time I made it, I could not stop eating it – LOL!
This looks amazing. Can you substitute aplples for the pears?
I haven’t tried that yet, but I would imagine you totally could! 🙂
Can you use almond meal instead of gluten free flour?
Hi, I’ve never tried that as a substitute, so I can’t say how it would alter the cake. However, if I *were* going to substitute something for the GF flour, I would probably try almond meal.
I would not recommend coconut flour, though, as it’s always is a little tricker to work with when used as a substitute.
If you try it with almond meal, let us know how it turns out! 🙂
Almond meal works just great!
I meant almond meal instead of ground almonds, not a substitute for the flour.
Will it still work if I use Almond Baking Meal to replace gluten free flour and the almond meal?
Thanks! Can’t wait to make for my dad this weekend! He is wheat free!
Hi ~ I have never substituted the GF flour for almond meal, so I’m not sure how it would work. Please let us know how it turns out, though! 🙂