Pear Almond Cake with Cinnamon Brown Sugar Buttercream
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You know what makes a birthday really neato? Having not one, but TWO birthday cakes. All for mom. This is precisely what happens when you don’t coordinate well enough with Bonus Dad about the plans for your mother, other than “Yeah, come on down. We have no plans for her birthday other than hauling rocks”. *pause* On her birthday? Crazy people. Long story short, my parents are building a house and have been for quite some time and between the garden, the landscaping and house building there is alot of rock hauling still involved. So I gave my mom two things on her birthday, a day of reprieve from hauling rocks – and cake. This cake to be precise – a pear almond cake with cinnamon brown sugar buttercream. That’s the kind of daughter I am. I made her cake, that has to count for something in the Awesome Column. I jest, I jest.
Oh and that lack of coordination and planning also meant that my Bonus Dad ordered my mom a cake too. Two cakes for the win!
My mom and I have several things in common, including our love of carbs and cheese, our non-love of our ginormous Czech calves and each of our blind left eyes. And standing next to her I can pretty much see what I’m going to look like in 25 years. Not half bad, I think.
The other thing of course, is that she, like me, used to be an axe thrower when she was in college studying forestry. There is some silly cliche coming to mind about apples falling out of trees…Hmmm.
Our near daily phone calls absolutely complete my day, even when there is nothing to talk about. After work, the phone comes out and the call to Mom happens. It’s just routine, comforting and rounds out the day.
Her totally full-on Gammy-mode over Huck just melts my heart and shows me that Ben’s and my imaginary future children are done for.
And saying that she really is one of my best friends, would be equal parts the biggest cliche you’ve ever heard, but also simultaneously the understatement of the century.
So – uh, thanks mom for all that hard work. I know I didn’t always make it easy. Thanks for putting up my teenage tantrums, hauling me to college, teaching me the way of the Bread, how to make proper Czech dumplings, and most of all letting me vent over our gargantuan calves.
You’re just the bestest.
This is the holy trifecta of cake combinations here and I can’t even get over it. And I know you won’t either. The cake is a simple, classic yellow cake with a pear twist and the buttercream is something I can make a face mask out of and lick it off my own face. Cheryl of TidyMom really knocked this frosting out of the park. As soon as I saw it topping her Gingerbread cupcakes , I picked my jaw up off the floor and I knew it would be the most fabulous addition to the pear and almond flavor. It’s so cozy. You know, as frosting goes.
This I’m sure will be an instant family classic. After just this one time, I know it will be in my family!
It’s Mom approved.
Check out these other divine cake creations:
7 Layer Tres Leches Cake – Bakers Royale
How-To Make a Rose Ombre Cake (tutorial) – Country Cleaver
Ribbon Candy Ruffle Cake – Bakingdom
Strawberry Champagne Cake – Country Cleaver
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Pear Almond Cake with Cinnamon Brown Sugar Buttercream
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
- Yield: 2 8-inch layer cake 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
Description
This cake is a simple, classic yellow cake with a pear twist and the buttercream is the most fabulous addition to the pear and almond flavor. It’s so cozy!
Ingredients
Pear Almond Cake:
- 3 cups cake flour sifted
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 Tbsp butter, melted and cooled
- ⅔ cup Pear, pureed
- 1 3/4 cups sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp Almond Extract
- ½ tsp Vanilla
- 3/4 cup milk
Cinnamon Brown Sugar Buttercream:
- 1/2 cup browned butter (softened)
- 1/4 cup vegetable shortening
- 1/3 cup dark brown sugar, packed
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1/8 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
Instructions
Pear Almond Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350°. Spray bottom of 2 nine-inch rounds with vegetable pan spray.
- Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, then almond extract and vanilla extract to creamed mixture and beat until thoroughly mixed. Add in pureed pear.
- Add flour mixture to creamed mixture alternately with milk, beating well after each addition. Continue beating until just incorporated.
- Pour into prepared pans. Bake 30 -35 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
- Cool on grid 10 minutes. Gently run a thin spatula around edge of cake. Turn out onto cooling grids. Cool completely before icing.
Cinnamon Brown Sugar Buttercream:
- In stand mixer bowl with paddle attachment or with hand mixer, whisk softened brown butter and shortening until fluffy.
- Add brown sugar, salt, vanilla and cinnamon and beat until smooth.
- Add in one cup of powdered sugar at a time, beating well after each addition.
- With mixer on medium high speed, steadily pour in the heavy whipping cream pouring nice and slow until desired consistency. When incorporated and fluffy stop mixing.
- Spread onto layered cake.
Notes
Cake adapted from Wilton Yellow Cake – Buttercream adapted from TidyMom.net
Totally digging these photos and the wood background. This cake looks amazing, how lucky is your mom to have that cake for her bday?! I’m sure you got a check in the awesome column for that!
Thanks Carrie! The wood background is actually shelves from my bookcase that Ben made me. I had two extra, I use them ALL the time!!
Woah. This cake. And these pictures. So gorgeous! How ’bout you fly this thing across the country in May and share some with your roomie? Mmmk? thanks. 🙂
I hear as long as I can get a cake through the metal detector TSA will let me fly with a cake… so that might actually happen 😉
I had a simultaneous “aww” and “yummm” going on in my head while reading this post 🙂 🙂 🙂
Such a sweet post! And that cake is absolutely gorgeous!!!
Thanks so much hun. 🙂 My mom was very surprised by the cake. She loved it all.
What a beautiful cake! I love mom’s! They make everything better!
Is it too much for me to propose because of this?
Yes? Oh well… 😉
This looks almost too beautiful to eat! Almost… I think my Mum would absolutely love this cake too.
This looks SO INCREDIBLY delicious. I love this.
Happy birthday to your mom! This is such a sweet post and I love that you have a great relationship with your mother dearest. A great mom is so important and she definitely desserves this one helluhva deeeelicious cake!! So..if that “extra” jar of buttercream is up for grabs, I’ll take it off your hands! 😉
So sweet of you to make a cake for your mom and even funnier that you and your dad both planned for a cake!
awww what a sweet picture and beautiful post! i bet your mom will cry reading this! haha 🙂
PRETTY PICTURES!!!!!! (cake and mom)
Your mom is one lucky lady to have you and this cake! Happy Birthday to Mom!
What a lovely tribute to your mom! And this cake… well it looks epic my friend.
What a great cake for a birthday celebration. This is a beautiful post and beautiful cake!
Beautiful cake! and I can completely commiserate on Czech calves. One question: how does one get browned butter softened? The only way I know how to brown butter is to melt and brown it in the pan.
Hi Adrienne! Sorry about that confusement on that one. I make a boat load of brown butter and just keep it solid in my fridge when I need it. So I had made some and had to remove it from my fridge to let it soften. I’ll clarify the directions. Don’t use hot browned butter. If you brown butter for this recipe, let it cool so it becomes nearly solid again.
I love the sound of all the flavors in this cake Megan. The pear, almond and cinnamon sounds so good, definitely something that would be comfort food for me. 🙂
It’s totally comfort food!! The cinnamon totally sealed the deal on this cake being “cozy”. 🙂
Excited to make this – your photos look amazing. One question: Did you use canned or fresh pears? Was it necessary to drain them? Thank you for posting – love your humor too!
Hi Whitney, I used fresh pear for this recipe. You should be able to use canned pears if fresh aren’t available. 🙂 But if you use canned, yes be sure to drain them just use the fruit itself. Hope that helps and can’t wait to hear how it turns out!
Pear and almond cake is perfectly paired (get it?) with this delightful cinnamon butter cream. Your mom’s a lucky ducky!
Okay, so I REALLY hope that asking this isn’t rude, but would you mind going into more detail about your blind left eye? Like, you’re legitimately blind in it or just see really poorly? I ask because on January 8 I had scleral buckling and vitrectomy surgery to repair a detached retina, and in the process became legally blind in my right eye. I just learned this week that I’ll never again have visual clarity with it. It’s been hard and sad and incredibly disconcerting. So if you tell me more about your eye, I can pretend like we are commiserating?
Hi Stacey, I’m so tragically sorry to hear about the circumstances in your eye. And I’m also so sorry to have made light of my eye situation, my left eye is quite bad, and lazy and it’s definitely inherited from my mom who is legally blind in her left eye and has glaucoma. I fear mine will follow that same path, but for now, I’m still fairing pretty ok. I sincerely hope that making light of my “blind left eye” doesn’t offend you. And if it has I’m so sorry. My fingers are crossed so hard for you. Hope to see you back around here and keep enjoying the recipes and stories. All the best, Megan
I wasn’t offended in the slightest, you hear me? 😉 I feel like it was probably pretty rude of me to ask you, but I was dying to know. I’m 28, and don’t know very many other people who aren’t elderly who have any sort of eye issues! So when you said that I was like “Wait! I wanna know more!” You have every right to make light of your eyeball situation. Ever since the surgery I’ve been joking that I look like the Terminator and that I have a bionic eye. The buckle they put in stays permanently, and there’s a good chance that the muscles will be effected and I’ll develop a lazy eye too. All the pictures of you on here are gorgeous, and I’ve never even noticed anything different with your eye. So if I handle my eye issues with half the style and grace you do, I’ll be just fine! Thanks for the well wishes and the reply! You’re wonderful!
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Do you think I could make this ahead of time and freeze it? Maybe without the frosting and then frost it when I’m ready to use it? I’d like to make this for an event, but it’d be too crazy to do the day of!
Yes, you should be able to make the cake and freeze them. Just let them unthaw completely before frosting or the condensation that is locked in the cake during freezing will liquify the frosting. 🙂
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what is softened brown butter? i’ve browned butter before, but i would consider that melted, not softened, so I’m thinking this is something else? thanks! look delicious and can’t wait to bake this!
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This combination sounds so good, and I love the pictures!
I absolutely love the combination of pear and almond together in baked goods! And oh my goodness that frosting…I’d be lucky if there was enough left to frost the cake!
Now I want to run out and buy two cakes… and an axe. Lovely recipe!
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