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pear bundt cake with vanilla icing cut into slices on a wood cake stand.
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Pear Bundt Cake

This fresh Pear Bundt Cake with a vanilla glaze is one of the easiest fall spice cakes! It’s a super fluffy pear cake made with cinnamon and ginger, and it makes an easy Thanksgiving dessert.
Prep Time30 minutes
Cook Time1 hour
Total Time1 hour 30 minutes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: pear bundt cake
Servings: 12 slices
Author: Michelle

Ingredients

Pear Cake

  • 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 3/4 tsp ground ginger
  • 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1/4 tsp ground cloves
  • 1/4 tsp ground allspice
  • 3 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 1 cup canola oil
  • 1/2 cup sour cream or plain greek yogurt
  • 1/4 cup applesauce
  • 1 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/4 tsp almond extract
  • 2 tsp orange zest (about the zest of 1 medium orange)
  • 1/4 cup fresh orange juice (about the juice of 2 medium oranges)
  • 3 cups pears, chopped into small cubes

Spiced Vanilla Icing

  • 1 1/2-2 cups powdered sugar
  • 3/4 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp ginger
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3-4 Tbsp heavy cream (or milk)
  • Pinch of salt

Instructions

Pear Bundt:

  • Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and grease a 12-cup bundt cake pan very well (bundt cakes notoriously stick to the pan so make sure you’ve greased the pan really, really well).
  • In a large bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer, mix together all dry ingredients: flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients.
  • Add the eggs and the oil to the well in the center of the dry ingredients and mix until combined (the well helps disperse the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients more evenly). The batter will be thick and dry—that’s okay.
  • Next, add in the sour cream (or greek yogurt), applesauce, orange juice, vanilla extract, and almond extract. Mix until well combined.
  • Lastly, add in the pears and orange zest. Mix until just combined.
  • Pour the batter into the greased bundt pan and spread in an even layer (it’s a thick batter so I like to use a large cookie scoop to scoop the batter into the pan).
  • Bake for 55-65 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean (mine took exactly 62 minutes).
  • Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes, then place a serving dish or cooling rack on top of the pan. Holding the serving dish or wire rack and the bundt cake pan, carefully flip both over (so the bundt cake easily falls onto the dish to cool).
  • Let the cake cool another 15 minutes before making the vanilla spice glaze.

Spiced Vanilla Icing:

  • In small-medium sized bowl, whisk 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar with cinnamon, ginger, vanilla extract, salt, and 2-3 Tbsp of heavy cream (or milk). If the glaze is too thin, add in the remaining 1/2 cup of powdered sugar. If the glaze is too thick, add in the remaining Tbsp of heavy cream.
  • Drizzle the icing over the top of the warm cake. Allow to set about 5 minutes before slicing and serving (if you drizzle the icing on top of the cake when it’s still hot, the glaze will either slide off or soak right into the cake).

Notes

If you want to use pumpkin pie spice or apple pie spice, use 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon + 2 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice or apple pie spice.
If you don’t have almond extract, you can just omit it or add 1/4 tsp more of vanilla extract.