Pear Snacking Cake With Brown Butter Glaze
- Total Time
- 1¼ hours, plus setting and cooling
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
Yield:12 servings
- 1cup/227 grams unsalted butter (2 sticks), at room temperature, more to grease the pan
- 1cup/200 grams granulated sugar
- ½cup/100 grams dark brown sugar
- 1¼teaspoons baking powder
- 1teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1teaspoon grated nutmeg
- ⅛teaspoon ground clove
- ½teaspoon baking soda
- 4large eggs, at room temperature
- 4large pears (2¼ pounds/1 kilogram), peeled, cored and shredded or finely chopped (to yield 2½ cups)
- 2¾cups/350 grams all-purpose flour
- ¾cup/75 grams rolled oats
- ½cup toasted walnuts or pecans, chopped (optional)
- 5tablespoons/70 grams unsalted butter
- 2tablespoons/25 grams dark brown sugar
- 1cup/125 grams confectioners’ sugar
- 3tablespoons/45 milliliters heavy cream or milk, more as needed
- 1teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pinch of salt
For the Cake
For the Brown Butter Glaze
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (12 servings)
567 calories; 27 grams fat; 15 grams saturated fat; 1 gram trans fat; 7 grams monounsaturated fat; 4 grams polyunsaturated fat; 77 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams dietary fiber; 45 grams sugars; 7 grams protein; 329 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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- Step 1
Prepare the cake: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-by-2-inch square or 9-inch-round pan and line bottom with parchment paper.
- Step 2
Using an electric mixer, beat butter until light and fluffy. Add sugars, baking powder, salt, vanilla, nutmeg, cloves and baking soda and beat for 1 minute. Beat in eggs, one at a time.
- Step 3
With the mixer on low, beat in half the pears, and then beat in the flour until smooth. Beat in remaining pears, then the oats, beating until well incorporated. Beat in nuts.
- Step 4
Spread batter in the prepared pan and bake until the top springs back when lightly pressed in the center of the cake, 40 to 50 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Step 5
Prepare the glaze: In a small saucepan, melt butter, then let it simmer until the foam on top falls to the bottom of the pot and turns brown, about 3 minutes. It will smell nutty and rich when it’s ready.
- Step 6
Whisk in brown sugar until it dissolves. Whisk in confectioners’ sugar, cream, vanilla and salt until you’ve got a thick glaze with the texture of hot fudge sauce. Spread this over the cooled cake. Let the glaze set for at least 2 hours before serving.
Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
Ellen
Wow--you people are rough! It's a cake, not breakfast, lunch or dinner. Actually, without the glaze, the cake isn't so sweet, though I'm no sugar hater--I thought the glaze was great. :) My concern was that no way was it done in 40 min, or even 50. I baked it a full 60-65 min until the center top was not soupy. 2 3/4 cup flour is a lot for a 9 inch pan. My pears were juicy and sadly, I just couldn't discern "pear" in the cake after it was baked.
lenora
I changed the sugar amount b/c of the comments...150 grams total...50 was brown sugar...and upped the nutmeg...grated some of the pears and cut 2 into chunks. Quite tasty. Not too sweet. I also opted to use earth balance instead of butter in the cake. Used butter in the frosting. A wonderful moist cake. And not too sweet.
MsKranky
Heck, I think there are enough eggs, butter and sugar that you could use grated broccoli or asparagus and it would taste wonderful!
outofstate
why so much butter and sugar in such a small cake? and much more in the glaze...yikes! I would definitely scale back these two ingredients.
FM
I tried it with Honeycrisp and Gala apples and it worked perfectly. I will say that I thought it was a little light on the spices. It needed a little more pop of flavor in my opinion. Still very delicious and not too sweet.
grannychi
Great for active teens: two tablespoons of fat and nearly three tablespoons of sugar per recommended serving size.
JG
I'm surprised to read the mixed reviews. I've baked this three times in a springform pan (it's either 9 or 10 inches) sitting on a baking sheet just in case . . . I agree that after baking, it is hard to discern pear, but the brown butter glaze is awesome, and my whole family loves this cake. In the size pan I used, it didn't bake too much longer than what the recipe says, and i've never had it turn out too liquidy. It's literally been perfect every time.
Edward
This is a good cake. I think there are 2 issue for the home baker.
1.) the type and ripeness of the pears makes a big difference with respect to their juiciness.
2.) the volume difference between a 9in square and 9in round pan is 2 whole cups.
The huge variation in baking times are probably due to these factors.
Linda
The cake keeps well when stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, though the glaze will lose its snap from the chill. Or, bake the cake ahead, then glaze it a few hours before serving for the best texture. You can freeze the unglazed cake as well, up to a month ahead.
Izzybella
Made this cake to recipe, using a 9 inch square pan, for Thanksgiving. Came out fine. Ended up having to freeze it (downsized Thanksgiving) and great two months later, thawed without the icing. Not too sweet. Good for breakfast.
Delz
Comments were spot on; halve the sugars in the cake (100g granulated sugar, 50g brown sugar), and use 100g of confectioners sugar for the glaze. It was plenty sweet enough. As well, roughly chopping the pears gave a great pear flavor that shone through. With the deep buttery glaze, so delicious.
SonomaSMB
The glaze alone is 103 cal, 26 grams sugar, 4.7 grams fat.
That is per serving. From Myfitnesspal.
Melissa Clark
For butter cake recipes like this one, it actually doesn't matter where you add the baking soda and powder. I find it easier to add it to the butter/sugar mixture rather than mixing it into the flour, which would require and extra bowl. But if you mixed them into the flour it would work, too.
moreonions
I reduced all ingredients by 25 % because I only had 3 eggs and an 8x8" pan. The cake rose to 2-and-a-half inches in the center! The cake was very moist and dense, but no discernible pear flavor. The oatmeal makes a nice texture. I loved the glaze. Yes, as stated, it's full of butter and sugar. Next time I will chop, instead of grate, the pears (or use apples) and halve the recipe for my 8x8" pan.
MJC
I made this with success in a large bundt pan. I get 24 servings out of it!
I weighed the pears but did not measure how many cups - it looked like a lot, but I did dice, not grate, them (about 1/3" cubes).
I cooked the cake for 55 mins and it was a bit underdone - needs at least an hour. But very tasty, all the same.
However, my "glaze" turned sugary :-( Not sure why.
Linda Townshend
This is a follow up. The cake was delicious, but when I cut in for a second row of pieces the center of the cake was still wet/incompletely cooked. I had done a toothpick test in the center of the cake, but I guess the toothpick lied. I will cut around the wet part because it is too tasty to dump. Question about the glaze: do you whisk in. The brown sugar on or off heat? Confectioner’s sugar?
Linda Townshend
I used a 11-1/4” x 7-1/2” pan. Added 1 tsp. grated ginger. Less than 2# Bosc pears grated to 2-3/4 cups. The batter nearly filled the pan, but it didn’t overflow. It was done at 40 minutes, about 1/2” above pan. Didn’t have cream so used vanilla ice cream and half the vanilla. Unfortunately I had the temperature too high and too long while whisking everything—it got grainy. We were impatient so I put the glaze on the still very warm cake and we only waited one hour to eat it. Delicious!
Pat Bagg
I share the opinion “where’s the pears in the cake”? Completely undiscernable. Oh but the glaze that indeed is a keeper recipe and will go on some other cake. I’m thinking carrot.
marie
We enjoyed this cake. But I read comments and made adjustments. First as I always do I cut the total sugar in half. I upped all the spices and added ginger one tsp and cardamom one tsp. I also decreased eggs by 3. I removed all the pear juice by squeezing the shredded pear and used it for making pear lemonade. That helped decrease the baking time. The pear flavor was very subtle. I added candied ginger pieces, cranberries and walnuts (total one cup). Cake baked in 40 min in a cast iron pan.
MC Salander
Husband is vegan, so I tried to make this with vegan butter and a liquid egg substitute, Simply Eggless. Baked it for 50 minutes. It was raw in the center. I’ve used both the vegan butter and the egg substitute in many other NYT recipes, most successfully. I was really disappointed with the waste of ingredients and time that went into this.
Jeanne
One 8x8 pan and six rather fill cupcakes worked perfectly. I used rehydrated dried pears and their soaking water. This also worked perfectly.
Ryan
Add pecans
Diana
After reading the comments, I added a bit of De Kuyper Pear Liqueur, and chopped the pears instead of grating. I love this cake, and will be making it again in future. Brown butter was a revelation - delicious! For people that are concerned about too much butter and sugar in recipes, please skip them - there are many of us who enjoy the recipes as written, and do not need a lecture about fat/butter/calories/health with every recipe. Information about substitutions is fine.
Chelsea
If you have a food processor, or blender - I highly recommend using it to chop the pears up after peeling/coring! I tried the box grater - but my pears were so slippery, I kept dropping them. Loved this recipe!
Tracey
This was absolutely delicious! Served for a family birthday brunch and everyone raved about it. I used 2 large pears diced with the skin on and decorated with extra toasted and chopped pecans. Although I reduced the granulated sugar in the batter to 3/4 cup, I added a little more (2-3 tbsp) confectioners sugar to the glaze to thicken it. The baking time was perfect for my springform pan (used Pam, no parchment necessary). Will definitely be making again!
SP
I did not peel the pears. I grated half and diced the rest in various sizes. The result was a fruity texture and taste. I think a lot of flavor is in the skin because the pear taste was obvious. I also reduced the sugar in the batter and the glaze. The batter fit well in two bread loaf pans but I did end up baking for about 65 minutes. Delicious!
mosaic
Making this cake has become an annual ritual in my household. Ive made it as written. Ive varied spices, Ive toasted the oats and roasted the pears. Ive used a thinner version of the glaze with pumpkin pancakes, donuts and over ice cream. Both the cake and glaze recipes are solid and versatile.
Colette
This cake is in my oven currently. I agree with others that the baking time seems short. So far I am at 55 minutes and it still shows liquid on a cake tester. This filled my 9" round cake pan so full I wondered if it would fall off the edges. So far, so good. However next time I may bake it in two loaf pans. One hint: cut your pears in half and grate the flesh out of the peels rather than peeling and then grating the pears.
Christine
This took nearly twice as long to cook as called for, maybe because we chunked rather than shredded the pears. Next time I will shred half, chunk half. Didn't keep the family from gobbling half the cake before it was even iced!
Madcat
I should have read the notes. I like sweet. Total sweet tooth, BUT with the glaze, I can't eat it. (I cut off the glaze). I wasn't going to frost it, but hubby talked me into following the recipe. I knew the cake was sweet (I always taste the batter.) Without the frosting/glaze the cake is tasty. It IS sweet, but with a strong cup of coffee, to cut the sweet, it is delish. And like another poster said, it takes a bit to cook.
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