Amaretto Pear Cake; fluffy vanilla and cinnamon scented cake topped with soft pears, flaked almonds and laced with Amaretto liqueur.
Much like last week’s recipe for Parma Violet Cheesecake, this week’s recipe comes with a similar embarrassing admission. I don’t actually like Amaretto very much…
BUT I do love cake, and that love is a love that outweighs all other feelings and tastes.
My opinion wasn’t paramount when making this Amaretto Pear Cake though. This was made with the favourite fruit and favourite liqueur of someone special in mind. The gift of cake is essential when you’re like me and are too awkward to effectively convey your feelings.
The person in question, that this Amaretto Pear Cake was baked for, is a handsome Italian that waltzed into my life recently. No I’m not just talking about a bottle of Primitivo. This cake was to celebrate his return to grey, cloudy Aberdeen after a week in the sunshine of his homeland.
Enough about him though. Let’s talk cake.
A fluffy vanilla and cinnamon scented cake, with the slightest crispness to its crust. Soft pears cooked to a dessert-appropriate sweetness. The sheen of buttery caramel scattered with crunchy toasted almond flakes. Of course, all doused in the decadent stickiness of Amaretto almond liqueur.
This cake is wonderfully simple. It’s not much to look at, it isn’t particularly Instagram friendly, and it follows a very dull colour palette. It is delightfully tasty though. It provides a variety of textures, a gentle sweetness, and thankfully isn’t absolutely STINKIN’ of Amaretto like some boozy cakes can be!
Amaretto Pear Cake is also distinctly un-summery. It celebrates a fruit that isn’t quite in season yet, and a liqueur more commonly seen at Christmas in Scotland. However, tinned fruit and alcohol’s self-preserving nature means that cakes like this can be created at any time of year, even if it feels like you’re cheating on the warm weather a bit. Regardless of this, it’s easy to make, and even easier to eat. None of the faffing about with caramel that some upside down cakes call for, and none of the retro glacé cherries either!
To make your own Amaretto Pear Cake, simply follow the recipe below!
Amaretto Pear Cake
Notes
BE A MAVERICK: if you’re not a fan of pears, you can swap them out for apples instead!
MAKE IT GLUTEN FREE: simply swap out the self-raising flour for a gluten free self-raising blend and add 3 tbsp of milk!
Ingredients
- 300g pear slices, weighed once peeled and cored
- 50g melted salted butter
- 200g caster sugar
- 150g soft margarine
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 175g self-raising flour
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- 5 tbsp Amaretto
- Flaked almonds to decorate
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180 C / 160 C fan / 350 F / gas mark 4.
- Line a 7-8 inch (18-20cm) loose-bottom or springform cake tin with a circle of greaseproof paper.
- Pour the melted butter into the lined tin, making sure it is well-greased, with most of the butter pooled at the bottom.
- Sprinkle 50g of the caster sugar evenly over the bottom of the lined tin.
- Arrange the pear slices, on top of the butter and sugar, in a circular pattern on the bottom of the lined tin. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat together the remaining caster sugar with the margarine and the vanilla until light and fluffy.
- Crack the eggs in one at a time, stirring and beating well between each addition.
- Add the flour, cinnamon and 3 tbsp of the Amaretto and mix gently until you have a smooth cake mix.
- Tip the cake mix on top of the pears in the prepared tin and level the top.
- Bake for 40-50 minutes in the preheated oven. Once baked it should be golden brown, firm to the touch, and a skewer inserted into the centre should come out clean.
- Allow the cake to cool in the tin for at least 20 minutes before carefully removing from the tin.
- Invert the cake onto a wire rack (if serving cold) or your serving plate (if serving warm, straight away), pears-side-up.
- Drizzle over the remaining 2 tbsp of Amaretto and scatter over a handful of flaked almonds.
- Enjoy!
I baked this cake and must say it is GREAT. I bake a lot, usually celebrity chefs recipes, and this one can pair with some of the best recipes I tried. Lovely everyday baking recipe. Next time I will use a larger tin to get it flatter and with more fruit for a change 🙂
Thanks for such a lovely comment, Ewelina! Very glad you enjoyed this one.
Thank you for sharing, this cake is the great, must serve warm! My conversions, 3 1/2 tablespoons of butter, 1 cup sugar, 10 tablespoons margarine, 1 cup 6 tablespoons self raising flour. I bake for full 50 minutes turned off oven and let in for additional 10 minutes, my pears were home grown and very ripe/juice filled.