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
Ornah Levine-Dolberg says
May 2, 2020 at 12:30 pmCouldnt 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……
Vegan Richa Support says
May 2, 2020 at 12:46 pmgreat solution for insomnia! I don’t currently have the photo sharing feature on.
Shilpa Rao says
May 3, 2020 at 4:05 pmI tried this cake for my wedding anniversary. It was perfect for a vegetarian family. Loved it. Thank you🙂👍
Vegan Richa Support says
May 3, 2020 at 8:18 pmThat is lovely, much appreciated.
Michelle says
May 12, 2020 at 1:37 pmMade 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.
Vegan Richa Support says
May 21, 2020 at 7:34 pmexactly! you don’t have to miss out on flavour with vegan recipes at all!
Kitty T says
May 24, 2020 at 7:19 pmLoved 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 🙂
Vegan Richa Support says
May 25, 2020 at 11:27 amGreat to hear Kitty =). no more guess work and wasted ingredients
Clare says
May 28, 2020 at 12:09 pmThis 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.
Vegan Richa Support says
May 28, 2020 at 7:29 pmmmmmmmm hazelnut oil. sounds good. thx for the info. I love cinnamon in savoury dishes as well!
Yolanda says
June 4, 2020 at 10:52 pmHello, 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
Vegan Richa Support says
June 5, 2020 at 11:43 amThat should work, just check to see if it needs to bake longer.
Rebecca Andrews says
June 13, 2020 at 11:40 amHad some pears going off and this was perfect! Excellent recipe, very easy to follow. Delicious cake. Everyone enjoyed it in our house.
Vegan Richa Support says
June 13, 2020 at 7:52 pmit’s about to go off!! Thanks Rebecca
Lynn Smith says
June 30, 2020 at 1:03 amI 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
Lynn Smith says
June 30, 2020 at 1:06 amI forgot to rate this delicious upside down pear cake top Mark’s 5 stars
Vegan Richa Support says
June 30, 2020 at 9:33 amAwesome, thank you!
Vegan Richa Support says
June 30, 2020 at 9:33 amGreat, I’m so glad!
G K says
July 1, 2020 at 12:48 pmHi 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.
Vegan Richa Support says
July 1, 2020 at 9:53 pmHi, 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.
G K says
July 2, 2020 at 5:24 pmThanks so much. I will try again. Last time I didn’t have yogurt so instead I risked to use only puree
Richa says
July 2, 2020 at 6:23 pmIf 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
Shaina Sutton says
July 6, 2020 at 6:34 amHi, this looks amazing and will definitely be trying soon! Do you know if the cake freezes well?
Vegan Richa Support says
July 6, 2020 at 7:23 pmgreat! 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.
Bronte says
July 11, 2020 at 6:19 pmThanks for sharing this easy but delicious recipe.
Vegan Richa Support says
July 11, 2020 at 7:19 pmIT’s my pleasure. thanks for stopping by and the amazing review!!
Amber says
July 12, 2020 at 6:47 pmReally easy to make and really delicious. My kids (both vegan and non vegan) loved it.
Richa says
July 12, 2020 at 6:58 pmYay
Talia Briski says
July 22, 2020 at 4:12 amLooks delicious and very easy and helpful recipe and instructions. Am serving in 2 days – what is best way to store?
Vegan Richa Support says
July 22, 2020 at 3:14 pmThank you!! Keep it in the fridge as air tight as you can and bring it out a few hours before serving.
Davide says
July 30, 2020 at 3:25 pmHello, 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.
Richa says
July 31, 2020 at 10:55 amIt’s for moisture so I would definitely add it if you’re making gluten-free because gf needs even more moisture
Davide says
August 2, 2020 at 1:27 pmHello, 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!
suzy says
August 6, 2020 at 11:16 pmAmazing! 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?
Richa says
August 6, 2020 at 11:50 pmAwesome. It’s a fruit based cake, refrigerate
Michelle says
August 14, 2020 at 1:30 pmI 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 😀
Vegan Richa Support says
August 16, 2020 at 6:29 pmmmmm mmmmmm sounds like you made it scrumptious! haha if it makes it to the party!
Carole says
September 6, 2020 at 3:37 pmTurned 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!
Vegan Richa Support says
September 7, 2020 at 3:08 pmAwesome – thanks a million