Butter cake with pears and cinnamon Recipe
A soft, buttery cake with pieces of juicy pear and a delicate hint of cinnamon. In Poland, this kind of simple butter cake is often baked in autumn, when pears are sweet and ripe and the house starts to feel a bit chilly. The flavour is somewhat reminiscent of apple pie, but milder and more pear‑forward.
This butter cake with pears and cinnamon combines the simplicity of an everyday traybake with the cosy flavours of autumn. The soft, buttery crumb contrasts with juicy chunks of pear, and a hint of cinnamon adds warmth without overpowering the fruit. It’s the kind of cake you can quickly mix up on a cool afternoon, filling the house with the smell of home baking and making even an ordinary day feel a bit more special.
Chef's tips
Use ripe but still fairly firm pears – very soft ones can release too much juice and make the cake heavy. Make sure the butter is properly softened before beating; well‑creamed butter and sugar are the key to a light, fluffy texture. Don’t overmix once you add the flour, and if your pears are very juicy, you can lightly pat them dry with a paper towel before folding them into the batter.
How to serve
Serve the cake slightly warm with tea or coffee for an afternoon treat. For a simple dessert, dust it with icing sugar and add a spoonful of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. It also works well packed into a lunchbox as a sweet snack for school or work – the pieces are easy to eat by hand.
Ingredients
- pears - 400 g
- wheat flour - 280 g
- butter - 150 g
- sugar - 160 g
- egg - 3 piece
- baking powder - 10 g
- vanillin sugar - 8 g
- cinnamon - 1.5 teaspoons
- salt - 1 pinch
- breadcrumbs - 10 g
Preparation
- Take the butter out of the fridge in advance so it softens. Preheat the oven to 180°C (top and bottom heat). Prepare a rectangular tin about 24×28 cm, line it with baking paper or grease with butter and dust with breadcrumbs.
- Peel the pears, cut them into quarters, remove the cores, then cut into medium‑sized cubes. Set aside.
- Put the softened butter into a large bowl, add the sugar and vanillin sugar. Beat with a mixer for 4–5 minutes, until the mixture is pale and fluffy.
- Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition until combined. If the mixture looks slightly curdled, don’t worry – it will smooth out once you add the flour.
- In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and a pinch of salt.
- Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and mix briefly with a spoon or on low mixer speed, just until combined. The batter will be quite thick.
- Add the chopped pears to the batter and gently fold them in with a spoon so they are evenly distributed.
- Transfer the batter to the prepared tin and smooth the top with a spoon or spatula.
- Place the tin in the preheated oven and bake for 35–40 minutes, until the top is golden and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out dry (it may be slightly moist from the pears, but without raw batter).
- After baking, remove the cake from the oven, leave for 15 minutes, then take it out of the tin and cool on a wire rack. Serve cut into squares.
Storage
Store leftover cake well wrapped at room temperature for up to 2 days, or in the fridge if your kitchen is warm. Because of the fresh fruit, it’s best eaten fairly quickly; you can gently reheat slices in a low oven to refresh them.
This is one of those cakes I bake when I come back from the market with more pears than planned – it comes together quickly and makes the kitchen smell like autumn within minutes. It reminds me of the simple traybakes my grandma used to make, only with pears instead of apples, and it always disappears faster than I expect.
