Vegan Pear Upside Down Cake. This amazing Vegan Upside Down Cake needs just 1 Bowl and 40 mins. Use other fruits for variation. Vegan Nutfree Soyfree Recipe. Glutenfree option. Jump to Recipe
I had some pears leftover after entertaining my niece recently and whipped up this upside down cake that she could take along. For some reason hubbs isn’t fond of pears and lately they’ve started giving me headaches if eaten raw. Go figure. But everything works out for everyone in this cake! A gooey caramelized top, soft delicious cake, a dollop of whipped coconut cream.
The pears are sliced and arranged on the bottom of a pan. Maple syrup or brown sugar helps them caramelize during baking. Then a simple vanilla batter on top. Bake until done, then serve with some whipped coconut cream or vanilla ice cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon. Delish! Use the same method to make pineapple upside down cake or use peaches or apple.
More Cakes and bakes
- Cinnamon Swirl Cake
- Eggnog Pound Cake
- Easy Coffee Cake – Cinnamon Streusel Cake GF option
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Marble Cake
- Applesauce spice cake GF option
- Pumpkin Cake with Chocolate Pumpkin Frosting. GF option
Gluten-free
- GF Cashew Butter Chocolate Marble Cake.
- Gluten-free Cinnamon Roll Bread yeast-free.
- GF Carrot Banana Bread – Also grain-free.
- Sweet Potato Crumb Cake. GF
Step by Step Photos:
Assemble the ingredients. Line the bake pan with parchment or grease really well. Arrange the pear slices. Drizzle maple syrup or sprinkle brown sugar all over.
Mix all the wet ingredients. Then add dry and mix to make a smooth batter. Pour over the pears, even it out and bake.
Vegan Pear Upside Down Cake
Ingredients
- 2 Pears , thinly sliced (1/4 inch thick
- 3 tbsp maple syrup or brown sugar for more caramelized, or half of each
Cake:
Wet:
- 3/4 cup (177 ml) non dairy milk such as almond, soy
- 1/4 cup (40.25 g) pear puree or applesauce (I usually blend up leftover pear and use it)
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/3 cup (66.67 g) sugar
- 1/4 cup (56 ml) oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice or chai spice or cinnamon + cardamom
Dry:
- 1.5 cups (187.5 g) flour (I use a mix of all purpose and wheat), see notes for Glutenfree
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp (0.25 tsp) baking soda
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) salt
Instructions
- Line a 8 or 9 inch cake pan with parchment at the bottom. Arrange pear slices as you like. Pour the maple syrup (or sprinkle the sugar) all over the pear slices. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180C)
- Blend the remaining pear in a blender with 1-2 tsp of water until it is like applesauce. Measure out 1/4 cup of the puree and use in the cake. Or use applesauce.
- Mix all the wet ingredients in a bowl until well combined.
- Mix the baking powder, baking soda and salt into the flour. Add 1.25 cups flour to the wet and mix in. Add 1-2 tbsp more at a time to make a thick batter, not too stiff but not too flowy.
- Pour gently on top of the pear slices in the cake pan and spread to even it out.
- Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick from the enter comes out clean.
- Cool for 15 mins, then remove cake by inverting it over a dish. Carefully peel off the parchment.
- Sprinkle a good pinch of cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice or other fave spice blend on the pears. Cool for another 10 mins, then slice and serve with whipped coconut cream or vegan ice cream
Video
Notes
Nutrition
For the gluten free version, can I use tapioca starch instead of potato starch?
Thanks!
Really nice cake. Light and fluffy with delicious caramel pears. I made it to take to a friend’s house. Everyone enjoyed it.
Excellent !
This came out really good. I made the gluten free version, so it wasn’t as fluffy as yours. It was still really good. I like that it wasn’t overly sweet or even overly pear flavored. My family had ours for breakfast with tea/coffee. I would recommend and definitely make this again. I made mine in a pie pan and baked it for 40 minutes.
sounds like a lovely breakfast , thank you & good to know
hey there
i am about to make this but, I was wondering, can I use cake flour vs ap or do you think it would make a difference??
thank you
yes you could
This cake looks fancy but is actually so easy to make! I love the flavors – the pear really shines through, and it’s sweet but not too sweet. This may become my go-to dessert to bring to dinner parties.
Perfect
Can you use all purpose flour only or does it have to be a mix?
all AP is fine
For pear-sauce, do I need to cook pear and then blend it? Or is it okay to skip cooking pear?
It’s just blended raw pear. I just purée the leftover pear left after slicing
I have used this recipe twice now, but used sliced plums off my tree instead of pears. It’s delicious and loved by others too. Thank you.
We made this cake this morning and the whole family thought it was delicious! We will definitely be making it again – thank you for the recipe
thanks for popping in ♡
My first upside down pear cake. Made the gluten free version. Made the pear sauce using my cold press juicer, adding the juice back to the mushy bits and mixing into the wet ingredients. I did use a bottom removable cake pan and all the juicy deliciousness of the maple syrup slipped its way out of the bottom, still it was ultra delicious. I imagine it will be even more incredible when the cake absorbs all of the sugar juices when I use the right pan. Many thumbs up!
wow – sounds great. exactly – sometimes the pan makes all the difference
Just made this!
Very yummy.
Used coconut sugar instead of sugar and it waw still plenty sweet for me.
So good! Certainly recommend it!!
perfect!! thank you
Fantastic recipe! This cake was so easy to prepare and had a great, springy texture even when made oil-free. The pears took on a lovely and mellow flavor after being cooked. I can’t wait to try this recipe out with other fruits!
so happy to hear, thank you
Lovely Cake! Would you happen to have any substitute fo roil? My mother’s fave is pineapple upside down cake but she follow an SOS (no sugar, oil, salt) diet for medical reasons. I can sub the sugar and salt but i am stuck with sub for oil. Any suggestions i can test i would greatly appreciate 🙂 thanks for your delish recipes!
i’m sorry, i just saw the notes with oil fre eoptions…. 🙂 🙂 thanks anyways I’ll let you know how it turns out. Apple sauce on pineapple cake should work great 🙂
Delicious recipe. I just made this for the third time and it’s always worked out. This last time I used whole meal spelt flour because that’s what I had. Added a tbs of arrowroot to help it along. A tbs of panela sugar and some vanilla make the syrup which works its way into the cake when you turn it upside down. I only use cardamom/vanilla as aromatics in the batter because I loooove the flavor that combo produces with the pear. A++++
I am very excited about eating this cake but it took me longer than I thought and my egg-free toddler cannot have a sugar rush… How do I save it overnight? Fridge? Thanks!
yes, the fridge =
This was a lovely recipe! I honestly never know what to do with pears when I get them from the market since I don’t love eating them by themselves. Your desserts are such a nice balance of sweetness. Here are my little subs for what I had on hand. Instead of using milk I just blended 1/2 cup of oats with a cup of leftover chai tea I had brewed. Then threw in half a pear and hit my measurement marks. I used kombucha vinegar instead of lemon and added almond extract for the vanilla! Woo very tasty. Really compliments the pears and makes me want to double the pear next time! I never know how to eat them but this is the way for sure. Keep up the great work and thank you for sharing your time and expertise.
thanks for the info & great review!
Yum! I was short on “milk” so I replaced 1/4 cup with chai concentrate and skipped the spices (except for the cinnamon sprinkle at the end.) A great use of my many misfit pears.
Can I use canned Asian pears( home canned)
the result will be more soggy, bc canned pears are already cooked…… so try to keep them thicker slice as you can – but it depends how much you’ve already cooked them
I am thinking to make this cake for our Plant-based Thanksgiving Feast. What kind of pears work best in this recipe?
Thankyou
Macrina
Bartlett
I made this last night with gluten-free baking four. It was amazing! It takes like spice cake with maple glazed pears The whole family raved about it.
😃 😄 excellent ! thank you
Excellent! So easy. We all loved it!
I am making this for a friend. Can I leave out the lemon juice, she cannot have citrus, vinager or cream of tart.
Yes
Very good, I used apple
Hello Richa, thank you, this recipe worked a treat, and was delicious. I think a 9inch pan would have been better than the 8inch as the cake was quite dense, but it was lovely. Julie, Australia.
If it turned out dense then I think there was a problem with the batter, it probably needed more flour. IBe made this cake several times in the 8 inch pan. Did the cake rise and then fall?
I made it with my little one. We baked it in two different trays and put it together adding vegan pumping hummus in the middle and the top. It was a beautiful birthday cake. Thank you Richa!
Awesome
This cake was great, had few pairs to use and this cake certainly looks impressive. I realised halfway through making this I had ran out of cinnamon so I used ground ginger and it worked great. I was concerned that the cake wasn’t cooked as the colour is quite light but it was perfect. Will be adding this one to the repertoire, super easy and delicious with a cuppa.
Awesome! I’m so glad you enjoyed this, thanks for stopping by!
Loved this recipe! It turned out perfect
Excellent !!!
Turned out great! Made the GF, no oil version and the cake was perfect! I used 1/2 cup oat flour, 1/2 cup sorghum flour, 3/4 cup almond flour and coconut sugar in the flour blend with the flax and potato starch as per recipe. Perfect way to use up overripe pears. Thanks this is a keeper!
Awesome – thanks a million
I just made this for the first time and it was so good!! I added a bit more sugar to the pears (2 tbsp brown sugar and 2 tbsp maple syrup), I also added a little bit of vegan yogurt in there (maybe like 2 tbsp max). It also looks really pretty so I would definitely make this to take to a dinner party … eventually 😀
mmmm mmmmmm sounds like you made it scrumptious! haha if it makes it to the party!
Amazing! This was so delicious. I will make again! Served warm with some coconut whip cream – so good! Quick question – would it be okay left out on the counter for a day or two or should it be refrigerated?
Awesome. It’s a fruit based cake, refrigerate
Hello, is the apple sauce/pear purée in this recipe to lower fat content or just to bind the dough? I’ll be doing this gluten free so I will be adding a 1/4 tsp of xanthan gum so that should bind it well. In this case will how about adding an extra 1/4 cup of oil? Any ideas would be great.
It’s for moisture so I would definitely add it if you’re making gluten-free because gf needs even more moisture
Hello, thanks for your reply. I followed your exact recipe but replaced some of the flour with almond Flour because my cake was almond flavour oriented. Now I don’t know what happened but I think my cake tin was too big – as I was pouring mixture it seemed abit scarce- this lead to my cake being thin and it broke 🙁 flavour and texture is good tho!
Looks delicious and very easy and helpful recipe and instructions. Am serving in 2 days – what is best way to store?
Thank you!! Keep it in the fridge as air tight as you can and bring it out a few hours before serving.
Really easy to make and really delicious. My kids (both vegan and non vegan) loved it.
Yay
Thanks for sharing this easy but delicious recipe.
IT’s my pleasure. thanks for stopping by and the amazing review!!
Hi, this looks amazing and will definitely be trying soon! Do you know if the cake freezes well?
great! you could freeze it after its baked. the texture of the pears may change slightly and release moisture when thawing. so it won’t be exactly the same as freshly baked but it will still be very good.
Hi Richa,
I tried your one bowl orange cake successfully before. But this time this upside down cake didn’t turn out and I don’t understand what went wrong. I followed the recipe exactly except for the oil part, I put 1/4 pear puree instead (so total wet ingredient has 1/2 cup puree, oiless). The cake turned out gluey and the pear topping was wet. But otherwise the taste was good and ate it as pudding cake instead.
Hi, G K. In the notes I recommend to Use 2 tbsp apple sauce + 2 tbsp non dairy yogurt. It will turn out much better with the non dairy yogurt.
Thanks so much. I will try again. Last time I didn’t have yogurt so instead I risked to use only puree
If it was gluey, it needed more flour. The pairs might’ve had extra moisture. So the purée along with the layered pears added more moisture to the cake than it could handle. You want a thick batter. So add more flour and also bake a few mins longer
This is how mine turned out as well- gluey batter and wet pears. I did the GF (Arrowroot starch instead of potato starch, 1:1 swap) and oil free version as per your notes. I ended up adding more of the GF mix but maybe my batter still wasn’t thick enough? Also my pears were somewhat ripe and wet from the start. After I turned the cake upside down, after cooking it at 180C for 45 minutes, I placed it back in the oven for another 10 minutes. Pears didn’t look as wet. My family said it was good and they did go for seconds but personally I felt it could have been better with consistency and thickness. It didn’t rise very much or if at all. Would like to make it again. I have a few questions:
1. Do ingredients need to brought to room temp before mixing?
2. Is it possible to over mix the batter?
3. If there a difference with how it turns out using oil and not using oil?
4. How do you know when the batter is thick enough?
Did you include the rice/oat or almond flour as well??
I made this cake for my daughter who is vegan and I taste all my cakes myself and I have to say it was delicious so simple to make and goes down a treat as mentioned with ice cream. I’m making another one for my husband and myself
I forgot to rate this delicious upside down pear cake top Mark’s 5 stars
Awesome, thank you!
Great, I’m so glad!
Had some pears going off and this was perfect! Excellent recipe, very easy to follow. Delicious cake. Everyone enjoyed it in our house.
it’s about to go off!! Thanks Rebecca
Hello, do you think this will work on a Bundt cake mold? Since there’s no way to put parchment paper on the Bundt will non stick spray work ? Thank you
That should work, just check to see if it needs to bake longer.
This was wonderful! I had to adapt it some for our low-sugar needs: we only eat 1 1/2 teaspoons of added sugar per serving. To get to that, I used 2 tablespoons of brown sugar sprinkled on the pear slices and then 2 tablespoons of white sugar in the cake itself. To boost the flavor to make up for that lost sweetness, I opted for your suggestion of half-and-half white to whole wheat flour, used freshly made almond milk (slightly thicker version of Minimalist Baker’s recipe), used pureed pear as you do to replace the applesauce, used roasted hazelnut oil, and added a couple of tablespoons of the almond paste left over from the almond milk batch. (Next time, I think I’ll up that to a quarter-cup: it’s not really liquid and not really dry, so it didn’t seem to upset the ratio.) I also boosted the cinnamon to 2 teaspoons and added half a teaspoon of ginger. (That combination makes a low-sugar food taste sweeter.)
It turned out beautiful! We didn’t miss the sugar that was left out.
mmmmmmm hazelnut oil. sounds good. thx for the info. I love cinnamon in savoury dishes as well!
Loved the crumb of this cake, found it to be a good breakfast cake like a banana bread replacement. Really happy I found your site I usually try converting “normal” recipes to vegan and it’s hit and miss, it’s good to have a reliable site like yours thank you 🙂
Great to hear Kitty =). no more guess work and wasted ingredients
Made this 2x now. 1x for my dad who doesnt like pears. He had many slices over the next few days. When my MIL saw the pics, she told her husband who kept asking about it. So I made another for their house. They loved it too. Didnt understand what “vegan” meant but certainly didn’t stop them from thoroughly enjoying.
exactly! you don’t have to miss out on flavour with vegan recipes at all!
I tried this cake for my wedding anniversary. It was perfect for a vegetarian family. Loved it. Thank you🙂👍
That is lovely, much appreciated.
Couldnt sleep and had a bag of pears. An hour later – voila – an amazing, easy, fragrant pear cake. Thank you!!
I have some photos but not sure how I can upload them……
great solution for insomnia! I don’t currently have the photo sharing feature on.