French Pear Cake with Pear Brandy

This French pear cake with pear brandy is a house favorite! It was so simple to make. If you don’t want to use the brandy then that is not going to create a problem. We were gifted an amazing 20 year old bottle of Poire William (French pear brandy) and I wanted something to showcase the brandy. In search of a recipe that I could trust, I turned to Chocolate and Zucchini.

Pear cake still warm from the oven

When I asked her, Clothilde Dusoulier of Chocolate and Zucchini suggested I add 1 – 2 tablespoons of the brandy of any cake recipe and she suggested a traditional French yogurt cake. Another suggestion she made was to make a simple confectioner’s sugar glaze for the cake to showcase the brandy.
Clothilde also has  her grandmother’s pear cake recipe on her blog, so my thought was why not? Why not bake a French pear cake with pear brandy and it turn out beautifully. When you first remove it from the cake pan it looks like a traditional “upside down” cake.

Look at all that yummy goodness of pears that are will be on the bottom once the cake is flipped.

Now that the cake has been flipped it looks like it did when it was still in the pan. If it were not for wanting to showcase this awesome Poire William pear brandy, I would just lightly dust the cake with confectioner’s sugar.

The pear cake has now been flipped. You can dust with confectioner’s sugar or drizzle with the brandy glaze.

I think it turned out just lovely with the drizzle of brandy glaze and I now have more ideas for how to brighten up a basic glaze with a little flavored brandy.

Multiple comments on the CZ blog indicate that this recipe shines with apples, peaches, apricots and even cherries (oh yum!). It was in reading the comments again as I was typing this post that I realized I had made a horrible error and left out ALL of the butter except what was used for greasing the pan.

The glaze bursts with the flavor of the pear brandy and that crispy top edge of the cake is the perfect contrast to the sweet, tender pears.

I was amazed to discover the cake is wonderful despite lacking the butter. It is not a bit dry and I would definitely repeat this easy cake again without the butter. (Perhaps the addition of the two tablespoons of brandy helped to ameliorate my error!) The pear cake has the slight crispy edge that Clothilde says it should have and is moist, light and fruity. That said, I’ve included the exact recipe from the Chocolate and Zucchini blog which, of course, includes the butter! In square brackets, you will find my additions and noted omissions.)

Ingredients for Pear Cake with Brandy

• “125 grams (1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon) unsalted butter, melted and cooled [this is the ingredient I forgot to include]
• 4 large pears or 6 small ones (substitute apples, apricots, plums….), peeled and cut into chunks
• 150 grams (3/4 cup) sugar
• 2 eggs
• 60 grams (1/2 cup) all-purpose flour
• ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
• 20 grams (2 tablespoons ground almonds (a.k.a. almond meal or almond flour)
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder”

Basic Pear Cake with Brandy Instructions

• “Preheat the oven to 180 C (350 F). Grease the sides of a 20-cm (8-inch) round cake pan with a bit of the butter, and line the bottom with parchment paper. [If you haven’t yet begun lining all your pans with parchment paper when baking, then you are missing out on a wonderful discovery!]
• Place the pears in a single layer at the bottom of the pan.
• In a medium mixing-bowl, beat the sugar and the eggs until the mixture pales slightly. [No need to get out the electric mixer as a whisk works perfectly for this recipe.]
• In another bowl, combine the flour, ground almonds, and baking powder. Add to the wet ingredients and blend well, but without overmixing. Pour in the butter [oops – or not!] and blend again.
• [Add 2 tablespoons of pear brandy. And blend again.]
• Pour the batter evenly over the fruit, and bake for 40 to 50 minutes, until golden. [Be sure to check at 40 minutes]
• Let the cake settle on a cooling rack for 10 minutes.

Glazing your Pear Cake with Brandy

Invert the cake onto a plate so that the fruit side will be at the top. If any bit of fruit has stuck to the bottom of the pan, simply scrape and place it back where it belongs on the cake. Use a second plate to invert the cake again (the fruit side will then be at the bottom).

Let cool and serve, slightly warm or at room temperature. [Once cooled, I drizzled the cake with a glaze of 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon of pear brandy mixed with ½ cup powdered sugar until smooth and creamy.]
My apologies to Clothilde’s mamy for forgetting the butter but the cake was still yummy!!

Pear brandy makes a delightful glaze.

Closer to Christmas I will definitely use this brandy in a fruit cake but for now, the brandy is highlighting the fresh pears in this cake!
According to Clothilde’s blog, her grandmother originally called this Gâteau d’Ella because it was a recipe from her friend named Ella.