Upside Down Gingerbread Pear Cake
This almost effortless Gingerbread Pear Upside Down Cake is tenderly spiced with fall flavors, drizzled with an easy salted caramel sauce and studded with perfectly cooked pears. It is the perfect holiday cake to serve to guests (or have for breakfast) when you need a beautiful yet easy fall dessert.
What I love most about creating dessert recipes is the ability to make a rather simple recipe but have it turn out looking and tasting like it needed hours and perfect technique.
Epic in taste, yet almost effortless in the kitchen.
Love a good gingerbread recipe? Try these for your fall baking:
For this recipe, I wanted something a little milder and less “spiced” than some gingerbread recipes.
So this time I used half molasses and half honey, and seriously cut down on the amount of spices that I used.
The result is a tender and moist cake that is slightly spiced, drizzled in an easy salted caramel sauce, and studded with perfectly cooked pears.
How do you make a gingerbread cake?
This pear gingerbread cake is so easy to make, it’s almost effortless! For the full set of directions make sure you scroll down to the recipe card below.
Make the caramel sauce
- Melt the butter, brown sugar, and pinch of salt together until it starts to caramelize.
- Pour the sauce into a cake pan and arrange the pears in the caramel sauce and set aside.
Make the cake batter
- In a mixing bowl, make the gingerbread cake by creaming the butter and sugar together. Add the eggs, vanilla, honey, molasses, and mix until combined.
- Mix in the spices and dry ingredients, and then add in the milk.
Assemble and bake
- When the batter is smooth, carefully pour over the arranged pear slices.
- Bake for 30-40 minutes.
- Cool on a wire rack for a little while before inverting onto a serving platter.
Storage Information
Store this cake, covered, in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. The caramel will harden a bit in the cold, but you can warm it in the microwave for a few seconds to warm it back up if desired.
Try these other great fall recipes:
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Upside Down Pear Gingerbread Cake
Ingredients
Caramel Pear Topping:
- 4 TBSP butter
- ½ cup dark brown sugar
- pinch salt
- 2 firm Bosc pears
Gingerbread Cake :
- ½ cup butter room temp
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup molasses
- ⅓ cup honey
- 1 cup milk
- 2 ¼ cup flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp ginger
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 F.
- Liberally grease a 10" cake pan with butter and set aside.
- In a medium saucepan, melt the 4 Tablespoons of butter.
- Add in the sugar and simmer for 4 minutes, without stirring.
- Remove the pan from heat, and then carefully stir in the salt.
- Pour the caramel into prepared cake pan, using a rubber spatula to scrape the sides of the pan, and smooth evenly over the bottom.
- Arrange the pear slices on top of the caramel sauce in a pretty pattern. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat together 1/2 cup of room temperature butter and sugar untill light and fluffy.
- Add in the egg, vanilla, molasses and honey and mix until combined.
- Add in the spices, salt, baking soda and flour.
- Mix in the milk until combined and the batter becomes smooth.
- Carefully pour the batter over the pear slices and smooth to create an even layer.
- Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
- Cool the cake in the pan, on a wire rack, for 10-15 minutes, and then turn out onto platter by inverting the cake pan. You might want to loosen the edges with a dull knife first.
- Serve warm, with a dollop of whipped cream or ice cream, if desired. The cake is also good room temperature.
- Enjoy!
OH my Jenni, this is a glorious looking dessert. Loving that caramel covering the entire thing.
Thanks so much, Wendy! 🙂
I never would have thought to combine caramel and pears PLUS Gingerbread!!! Now I’m in love!!! Looks fantastic!!
I love ginger and pear, I have never had them together but this sounds so good! Great twist on a classic.
oh, ww! That looks and sounds delicious. Pear and ‘gingerbread’! Very smart.
Love the pear gingerbread combo! Wish I had a slice to go with my coffee!
What a gorgeous pear dessert! I love pears but do not cook enough wiht them! Now I know what I’ll be making for next national Pear day!
That sounds wonderful!
I love all the upside down cakes. When I was a kid they were all tired things with canned pineapple and cherries (and not much flavor) but this just sings with flavor!
This sounds so amazing! What a great combination for the season. I pinned it.
This looks so pretty and so delicious. I can almost smell the gingerbread spice. Love dark brown sugar in cakes so I love the color of this cake.. Saving for late. Can’t wait to try.
LOVE gingerbread. In fact, pumpkin and gingerbread are the best flavours for so many delicious recipes. This rustic looking dessert is elegant enough to serve to guests. Beautiful and delicious.
Oh my! I’m afraiid that wouldn’t leave my kitchen looking that pretty! I’d be too tempted to take a bite out of it!
this sounds perfect for holidays!
Wow, that looks amazing! I love pear & ginger together!
This is one of my all time favorite recipes to make, I think pear is so underappreciated in fall with all the apples and pumpkins going around!
It doesn’t look effortless by any means…it’s so perfect looking! What a great cake for the fall/winter season! I’ve never thought of using pears like this!!
What a great idea. The flavors sound so good! I bet it would be so good with some vanilla ice cream. Yum!
YUM! This looks so good and your photos are gorgeous!
What a lovely cake. It looks so dense and rich. I bet the flavor is delicious.
This is so pretty and sounds so yummy with all things going in! I would love to have a bite 🙂
Ahh!!! This will be so good with a cup of ginger tea, especially with the cold weather I have been experiencing. The warmth of the spice plus the heat of the tea, talk about a breakfast hug.
At least you guys got your first fall day, bc we, here in North California, are still living is some 85 degrees heat… love upside down cakes btw!
I have been making this recipe for about 30 years, and everyone loves it. I hope that the people who said it looks good really good actually do make, because it is easy to make, the presentation is beautiful, and the taste is unbelievable.