This fresh Pear Bundt Cake with a vanilla glaze is one of the easiest fall spice cakes! It’s a super fluffy pear cake made with cinnamon and ginger, and it makes an easy Thanksgiving dessert.
Make this Homemade Pear Bundt with Vanilla Icing that starts with my favorite spiced bundt cake base, as used in this Apple Bundt Cake!
Bundt cakes are some of my all time favorite desserts, because they’re easy, pretty, and always so full of flavor.
I’ve shared quite a few bundt cake recipes over here, with some of my favorites being this Vanilla Pumpkin Bundt Cake, this Lemon Bundt Cake, and this Strawberry Bundt Cake. But this fresh pear cake? It’s quickly becoming not only one of my favorite bundt cake recipes, but one of my all time favorite cake recipes.
What I love about bundt cakes are their simplicity. Most often, bundt cakes are one bowl cake recipes, and once combined, they’re baked low and slow, and then they’re topped with an easy icing.
This pretty little spiced pear bundt cake (with fresh pears!! because I love all things that is the pear) is a stunner even though it’s a cinch to whip up!
Reasons I Love This Pear Bundt:
- Moist: This bundt cake is made with sour cream (or greek yogurt), applesauce, and canola oil. The sour cream not only adds moisture, it also makes cakes really fluffy and tender.
- Pears: This pear cake uses 3 cups of pears!
- Spices: This pear cake has a spice cake base. I love pears and ginger together, and this cake uses a lot of ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and allspice. Plus this pear cake is topped with a ginger vanilla icing!
Some of my other favorite fall recipes is this Caramel Apple Upside Down Cake, this Apple Butter Pumpkin Pie, and this Cream Cheese Glazed Pumpkin Bundt!
Ingredients:
- All Purpose Flour
- Brown Sugar and Granulated Sugar
- Baking Soda and Salt
- Cinnamon, Ginger, Allspice, Cloves, and Nutmeg
- Eggs
- Canola Oil
- Sour Cream or Greek Yogurt
- Applesauce
- Orange Juice and Orange Zest: You can also substitute lemon zest and juice.
- Vanilla Extract and Almond Extract
- Pears: Use fresh pears, like Bartlett pears. I left the pear skin on, but you can peel them.
- Powdered Sugar
- Heavy Cream: You can also use milk to make the icing.
How To Make This Bundt Cake With Pears From Scratch:
This is a brief overview of how to make this pear bundlet. Continue to the recipe card below, which is more detailed and has a printable option.
- Dry Ingredients: In a large bowl or the bowl of standing mixer, mix flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, baking soda, salt, and all spices together. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients.
- Wet Ingredients: Add the eggs and the oil to the well in the dry ingredients (this helps disperse the wet ingredients better without over mixing) and mix with a rubber spatula or electric mixer. It will be very thick and dry—that’s okay. Next, add in the greek yogurt (or sour cream), applesauce, orange juice, almond extract, and vanilla extract. Mix until well combined.
- Pears: Finally, add in the fresh pears and orange zest. Mix until combined.
- Bake: Pour the pear cake batter into a well-greased bundt cake pan and spread in an even layer. Bake low and slow in order to cook the center completely without burning the outside of the cake.
- Pro Tip: Because it’s a thick cake batter, I use a cookie scoop to scoop the batter into the cake pan.
- Cool: Let the cake cool at least 10-15 minutes before removing the pear cake from the pan to cool further.
- Icing: Whisk powdered sugar, vanilla extract, a pinch of salt, ginger and cinnamon, and heavy cream together until well combined. Drizzle over the warm cake and serve (make sure the cake is warm and not hot. If the bundt is hot, the icing will either slide off the cake or soak into it).
Bundt Cake Pan Size:
For this pear cake bundt, use a 12-cup bundt cake pan. You can use any style as long as it’s 12-cups.
- Note: The more intricate your bundt cake pan is (a lot of bundt cake pans have fancy designs), the more chance your cake will stick to the pan when you’re trying to remove it. So make sure you grease your bundt cake pan very, very well.
Can I Use Pumpkin Pie Spice or Apple Pie Spice?
- Yes, you can substitute pumpkin pie spice or apple pie spice in this recipe. I suggest using 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon + 2 1/4 tsp of either pumpkin pie spice or apple pie spice.
Storage Tips
- Store this pear bundt cake in an airtight container at room temperature or in the fridge. This cake can last 2-3 days at room temperature (unless it’s really warm in your house) and 4-5 days in the fridge.
The Vanilla Ginger Spice Glaze:
Looking to switch up the glaze icing on this cake? Here are some other ideas:
Not into ginger? Leave it out and make this a cinnamon vanilla glaze!
Almond: Or, add in a dash of almond extract. (A little almond extract goes a long way.) Pears and almond pair perfectly! You could even sprinkle chopped almonds on top.
Cardamom: Or, make a cardamom glaze! Add a pinch of ground cardamom to the icing.
Other Bundt Cake Recipes To Try Next:
- Sweet Potato Bundt Cake
- Chocolate Pound Cake
- Raspberry Bundt Cake
- Lemon Poppyseed Bundt Cake
- Peach Pound Cake
- Cream Cheese Pound Cake
Best Pear Bundt Cake Tips:
- Grease Your Pan: Make sure you have greased your bundt cake pan very well. Bundt cakes are notorious for sticking to the pan so you really want to make sure you have coated every inch in baking spray. Alternatively, you can use butter and flour to grease your pan.
- Cool: Allow the cake to cool at least 10-15 minutes in the bundt cake pan. Then, remove from the pan and allow to cool another 15 minutes before icing the cake.
- Removing The Bundt: I have found the easiest way to remove a bundt cake from the pan is to place your serving dish or cooling rack on top of the cake pan. Then, quickly invert the cake pan and the serving dish so the cake falls easily onto the serving dish.
- 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 3/4 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp ground allspice
- 3 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 cup canola oil
- 1/2 cup sour cream or plain greek yogurt
- 1/4 cup applesauce
- 1 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp almond extract
- 2 tsp orange zest (about the zest of 1 medium orange)
- 1/4 cup fresh orange juice (about the juice of 2 medium oranges)
- 3 cups pears, chopped into small cubes
- 1 1/2-2 cups powdered sugar
- 3/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ginger
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3-4 Tbsp heavy cream (or milk)
- Pinch of salt
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and grease a 12-cup bundt cake pan very well (bundt cakes notoriously stick to the pan so make sure you’ve greased the pan really, really well).
In a large bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer, mix together all dry ingredients: flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients.
- Add the eggs and the oil to the well in the center of the dry ingredients and mix until combined (the well helps disperse the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients more evenly). The batter will be thick and dry—that’s okay.
- Next, add in the sour cream (or greek yogurt), applesauce, orange juice, vanilla extract, and almond extract. Mix until well combined.
- Lastly, add in the pears and orange zest. Mix until just combined.
- Pour the batter into the greased bundt pan and spread in an even layer (it’s a thick batter so I like to use a large cookie scoop to scoop the batter into the pan).
- Bake for 55-65 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean (mine took exactly 62 minutes).
- Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes, then place a serving dish or cooling rack on top of the pan. Holding the serving dish or wire rack and the bundt cake pan, carefully flip both over (so the bundt cake easily falls onto the dish to cool).
- Let the cake cool another 15 minutes before making the vanilla spice glaze.
- In small-medium sized bowl, whisk 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar with cinnamon, ginger, vanilla extract, salt, and 2-3 Tbsp of heavy cream (or milk). If the glaze is too thin, add in the remaining 1/2 cup of powdered sugar. If the glaze is too thick, add in the remaining Tbsp of heavy cream.
- Drizzle the icing over the top of the warm cake. Allow to set about 5 minutes before slicing and serving (if you drizzle the icing on top of the cake when it’s still hot, the glaze will either slide off or soak right into the cake).
If you want to use pumpkin pie spice or apple pie spice, use 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon + 2 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice or apple pie spice.
If you don’t have almond extract, you can just omit it or add 1/4 tsp more of vanilla extract.
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