Brown Butter Pear Cake with Almond Crumb and Orange-Cardamom Icing

Tom
Jun 14
2 min read

Updated: Jul 14

This brown butter pear cake is rich and fragrant, layered with almond crumb and finished with a silky orange-cardamom icing that melts into every bite. I macerate the pears with lemon and sugar until they’re juicy and tender, then use their syrupy liquid in the batter for a cake that’s deeply infused with pear flavor from the inside out.

Ingredients: Macerated Pears

• 4-5 Bosc Pears

• 4tbsp sugar

• 1 lemon

• 1tsp lemon zest (optional)

Ingredients: Almond Crumb

• 1/4 cup flour (30g)

• 1/4 cup light brown sugar (55g)

• 2tbsp cold butter (28g)

• 1/4 cup sliced almonds (25g)

Ingredients: Orange-Cardamom Icing

• 1tbsp fresh orange juice

• 1/2tsp lemon juice

• 1/2tsp cardamom

• 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Ingredients: Cake

• 170g butter (browned)

• 67g white sugar

• 73g light brown sugar

• 3 large eggs

• 1 cup macerated pear syrup

• 1tsp vanilla extract or paste

• 220g all purpose flour

• 6g baking powder

• 2g baking soda

• 2g salt

Process: Macerated Pears

Peel and cut up the pears in roughly half-inch cubes or smaller. Toss with sugar and lemon juice. Cover and rest in fridge 24 hours. Next day strain and save all the syrup.

Process: Almond Crumb

Add flour, butter, brown sugar and sliced almonds into a bowl. Rub under your fingers until you get a coarse, crumbly mixture. Optionally, pulse in the food processor instead working with your fingers.

Process: Orange-Cardamom Icing

Whisk powdered sugar, orange juice, lemon juice and cardamom together until smooth.

Process: Cake

Grease and line with parchment paper a 9” round cake pan. Preheat oven to 175C (360F).

Brown the butter (see instructions in recipe for Banana Bread). Hand-whisk the brown butter, sugars, eggs, vanilla and pear syrup. If you don’t get one full cup of syrup by macerating pears, add apple juice to fill up the needed quantity.

Sift then whisk in the dry ingredients. Pour into the prepared pan and add the pears on top. With a spatula gently scatter them all over the top and only slightly press the pears in.

Scatter the almon crumb all over the pears. Place in the oven and bake for 50-90mins depending on your oven strenght. Check by inserting a toothpick into the center, it should come out clean or with only a few crumbs.

Cool the cake for 1 hour. Transfer to a cake stand/plate (or keep in the cake pan!)

Pipe or spread the orange-cardamom icing on top.