A recipe for this was seen by me approximately 8 years ago, but I did not have it. Since then, I have tried to find it on many websites, but to no avail. This Christmas, I made the decision to give it a try, and my spouse said it was a success! I hope you like it as much as we do!
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 20 mins |
| Servings: | 12 |
| Yield: | 12 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 2 tablespoons cinnamon sugar
- 3 ½ cups cake flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup butter, softened
- 1 ⅓ cups white sugar
- 4 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 ¼ cups sour cream
- 3 medium pears, cored and finely chopped
- ¾ cup packed light brown sugar
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- ½ cup caramel ice cream topping
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Generously butter a 9 inch Bundt or tube pan. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar into the pan, and tilt to coat the buttered surface. Shake out the excess.
- In a medium bowl, stir together the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl, cream together 3/4 cup of butter and white sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each. Stir in the vanilla and sour cream, mixing just until blended. Gradually stir in the flour mixture until fully incorporated. Fold in the chopped pears using a rubber spatula.
- In a small bowl, stir together the brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger and pecans. Spoon 1/3 of the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle with 1/3 of the pecan mixture. Repeat layers two more times, ending with the pecan mixture on top.
- Bake for 50 to 60 minutes in the preheated oven, until the top of the cake springs back when lightly pressed, or a knife inserted into the crown comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan for 15 minutes, then run a knife around the outside edge of the cake. Carefully invert onto a cooling rack. If the cake won’t come out of the pan, tap it firmly with a knife on the bottom and sides of the pan. Set aside to cool completely.
- When cool, transfer the cake to a serving plate using two spatulas. Drizzle with the caramel ice cream topping before serving.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 612 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 89 g |
| Cholesterol | 106 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 3 g |
| Protein | 8 g |
| Saturated Fat | 12 g |
| Sodium | 444 mg |
| Sugars | 40 g |
| Fat | 27 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
This is a good tasty coffee cake and a good way to use up excess pears. I’m not sure how I feel about the ginger, but it is an interesting switch from the usual cinnamon coffee cake. I agree with the reviewer that said the pear is hard to taste unless you get a good sized piece. I now know why everyone’s cake was overflowing – a teaspoon and a half of baking powder AND baking soda, plus 3.5 cups of flour! I have a feeling it could do without so much powder and soda. I only used 3 cups of flour and had plenty of batter. I didn’t want to deal with a Bundt pan today, so I used a 9 x 11 pan. There was too much batter for the pan, so I put the excess into a smaller pan. I just sprinkled the sugar/nut mixture on the top and bottom of the batter and it came out just fine. Thanks!
I followed the recipe to a T… next time I’ll use an 18-inch Bundt pan (if one exists) or perhaps two 9-inch pans? It’s a lava cake… I kept exchanging cookie sheets under it and eating the “cookies”. They were delicious! I should have known better. It didn’t make sense that the pan filled up so much, but I thought maybe it wouldn’t rise much and would be like a dense pudding cake.
I make it pretty much to recipe except I only had 1/2 cup sour cream so I had to add plain yogurt to make it to the amount needed. The cake was good but it was almost like a very firm pudding in the middle of the cake. It was also pretty rich
This is a great way to use overripe pears but the recipe was much too dry. The flour can be decreased to 2.5 cups and the cinnamon doubled to actually taste it. The flavor of this was great, just too much flour.
This is a great coffee cake!! I did make subtle changes- instead of butter (didn’t have enough) I substituted for vegetable oil (used butter to oil conversion chart via google), instead of vanilla extract, I used same amount of maple syrup. I found the consistency when mixing a little thick, so I added a couple splashes of milk. Instead of pecans used chopped walnuts. Will make again! 🙂
I followed the recipe exactly and my bake time was 50 minutes. I didn’t put anything on top and it was delicious!
I’ve been baking for 50 years and I have to say, this is one of the top 5 cakes I’ve ever made! Subbed plain Greek yogurt for the sour cream (I’m a nutritionist, always do this sub) and diced up frozen pears from my orchard instead of fresh and was fabulous! Better the next day! Next time, I’m doing same recipe but with apples, then I think I’ll try my frozen peaches…maybe even try my frozen bananas! Try it, delish
This came out great and super moist. The only variation I made was using canned pears and the juice
I made this cake and really like it.I substituted toffee chips for nuts also.(my brother can’t eat nuts) I also used vanilla yogurt for sour cream.Nice texture , not to sweet.Used four ripe parts and half cup less sugar.
It wasn’t awful, but the outside of the cake was pretty dry, and the cake batter itself really didn’t have any flavor, aside from the pear chunks. Underwhelming, but with enough vanilla ice cream on top, we made it work.
I made this recipe as written except made homemade caramel sauce. This cake is very good except you can’t taste the pear. Pear is very delicate and was overwhelmed by the other flavors.. This cake would be much better made with tart apples. Next time I use this recipe I will make it a Sour Cream Caramel Apple Cake… just my preference. Thank you for sharing.
This recipe was a really big hit at our Christmas gathering this year. The “coffeecakiness” is exactly what I was looking for. it has crunch and dry crumbliness and moistness all at once. I made only slight changes, sticking pretty closely to the recipe as written. 1. I couldn’t find any ripe pears, so I had to use canned. I used about a can and a half or so and just sort of bluntly cut them into smaller pieces before adding to the recipe. 2. The amount of ginger in the recipe scared me a little; it smelled so strong when I started to measure it out, that I only put half, and then I put a little extra cinnamon. 3. After I added the caramel topping, I also sprinkled the top with powdered sugar through a little sifter, and it brightened up the look of it a little bit. I ignored all of the optional ingredients, including the nuts. And I used all purpose flour instead of cake flour. The ginger and pear smelled amazing together while baking, and the ginger was not overwhelming in the flavor, as I was afraid of. Next time I may try adding the full recipe amount. One note, which is just an observation – the batter is very thick, more like a dough. And it made me think I might have done something wrong. I didn’t. So if you run across that also, don’t worry. Other reviewers have mentioned that the caramel topping seemed like too much. I disagree. It was perfect. The whole thing was perfect, and everyone loved it.
I made this cake today – we had lots of pears this year! I didn’t have sour cream and used plain greek yogurt! Also I only used 1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger. My husband loves it!
A very nice cake! Thank you for sharing your recipe 🙂
Delicious and moist. I used all purpose flour, omitted the ginger and added more cinnamon. I also did not use the caramel topping. I did however use a light powdered sugar/milk/vanilla icing. The brown sugar/cinnamon/pecan topping is the best part. A bit time consuming but well worth the effort.
My pears must have been on the large side–the pan filled a bit too full and then overflowed just a bit while baking. AND it took 70 minutes to finish baking. The batter is very thick, but settles into shape nicely. I wasn’t able to tip it out of the pan, but that wasn’t an issue for me. Otherwise, nice texture and flavor. I’m with the rest of the reviewers that it’s plenty sweet as is and didn’t need the caramel sauce.
Great recipe, easy to make and awesome mix of flavours. I used about a teaspoon of fresh ginger chopped up into very small pieces.
my only changes were to increase the cinnamon and used all purpose flour. 1/4 tsp did not sound like much. However, there is the cinnamon suagr in the crust when it was buttered and it didn’t really need the extra cinnamon after all. Great way to use up the too many ripe pears I had on hand! mine came out nice an moist. I did not use the carmel. I like carmel…but this cake is quite sweet as it is and added carmel would make it just too sweet for me.
Two words MOIST & DELECTABLE!
I made this cake and everyone loved it. I also had a few people ask for the recipe. I made it exactly as written except I substituted splenda for the white sugar to cut some of the calories.
This cake was wonderful. I used more cinnamon instead of ginger and walnuts instead of pecan. Everyone love it. will definately make again. I also used all purpose flour instead of cake flour and it turned out great. Thank you