This post contains affiliate links. Please see our disclosure policy.
Vegan Pear Upside Down Cake. This amazing Vegan Upside Down Cake needs just 1 Bowl and 40 mins. Use other fruits for variation. Vegan Nutfree Soyfree Recipe. Glutenfree option. Jump to Recipe
I had some pears leftover after entertaining my niece recently and whipped up this upside down cake that she could take along. For some reason hubbs isn’t fond of pears and lately they’ve started giving me headaches if eaten raw. Go figure. But everything works out for everyone in this cake! A gooey caramelized top, soft delicious cake, a dollop of whipped coconut cream.
The pears are sliced and arranged on the bottom of a pan. Maple syrup or brown sugar helps them caramelize during baking. Then a simple vanilla batter on top. Bake until done, then serve with some whipped coconut cream or vanilla ice cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon. Delish! Use the same method to make pineapple upside down cake or use peaches or apple.
More Cakes and bakes
- Cinnamon Swirl Cake
- Eggnog Pound Cake
- Easy Coffee Cake – Cinnamon Streusel Cake GF option
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Marble Cake
- Applesauce spice cake GF option
- Pumpkin Cake with Chocolate Pumpkin Frosting. GF option
Gluten-free
- GF Cashew Butter Chocolate Marble Cake.
- Gluten-free Cinnamon Roll Bread yeast-free.
- GF Carrot Banana Bread – Also grain-free.
- Sweet Potato Crumb Cake. GF
Step by Step Photos:
Assemble the ingredients. Line the bake pan with parchment or grease really well. Arrange the pear slices. Drizzle maple syrup or sprinkle brown sugar all over.
Mix all the wet ingredients. Then add dry and mix to make a smooth batter. Pour over the pears, even it out and bake.
Vegan Pear Upside Down Cake
Ingredients
- 2 Pears, , thinly sliced (1/4 inch thick
- 3 tbsp maple syrup , or brown sugar for more caramelized, or half of each
Cake:
Wet:
- 3/4 cup non dairy milk, such as almond, soy
- 1/4 cup pear puree or applesauce, (I usually blend up leftover pear and use it)
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice or chai spice, or cinnamon + cardamom
Dry:
- 1.5 cups flour, (I use a mix of all purpose and wheat), see notes for Glutenfree
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
Instructions
- Line a 8 or 9 inch cake pan with parchment at the bottom. Arrange pear slices as you like. Pour the maple syrup (or sprinkle the sugar) all over the pear slices. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180C)
- Blend the remaining pear in a blender with 1-2 tsp of water until it is like applesauce. Measure out 1/4 cup of the puree and use in the cake. Or use applesauce.
- Mix all the wet ingredients in a bowl until well combined.
- Mix the baking powder, baking soda and salt into the flour. Add 1.25 cups flour to the wet and mix in. Add 1-2 tbsp more at a time to make a thick batter, not too stiff but not too flowy.
- Pour gently on top of the pear slices in the cake pan and spread to even it out.
- Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick from the enter comes out clean.
- Cool for 15 mins, then remove cake by inverting it over a dish. Carefully peel off the parchment.
- Sprinkle a good pinch of cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice or other fave spice blend on the pears. Cool for another 10 mins, then slice and serve with whipped coconut cream or vegan ice cream
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Made this GF for my family and we all loved it!! The cardamom and cinnamon variation was so yummy!! Unfortunately when I made the GF mixture I used the blender to make the oat flour. It seemed that for some reason the oat flour got moist? That caused the whole mixture to clump together a bit. Ultimately I used the mixture and added some all purpose GF flour and it came out wonderfully! Was definitely a bit more dense than yours but I enjoyed that.
Yummmm cardamom. This can happen if the oats were refrigerated. If you were unable to get a fine ground on your oat flour, or feel like you still see chunks after two minutes you may want to sift your oat flour. You can do this without a fancy sifter. Just use a mesh strainer over a piece of parchment paper.
Hi Richa: The recipe says 1.5 cups of flour but in your directions you only use 1.25 cups of flour. Please clarify. I wanted to make this weekend for my husband. Thanks.
When Mixing the dry ingredients with wet (Mix the baking powder, baking soda and salt into the flour. Add 1.25 cups flour to the wet and mix in.). the other 0.25cup of flour is used in the 4th step: (Add 1-2 tbsp more at a time to make a thick batter, not too stiff but not too flowy.). So add 1-2tbsp more from the remaining 0.25 cup little by little until it becomes thick but not too thick and still flows.
Hi, I have made this cake several times, always a winner. Thank you for so many fabulous recipes
Glad you enjoyed the recipe, thanks for stopping by!
Hi Richa, I made this cake using mashed ripe banana instead of pear puree as I didn’t have any. Turned out beautiful!! Thanks again 🙂
Awesome! 🙂
Richa, this was my first ever pear cake, and the recipe worked like a dream! Easy, flavourful, and pretty too! My family loved it too. I added cardamom as someone suggested in comments, and it was even more fragrant and delicious! I’ll try the oil free version next time, see how it compares! 🙂
So glad you enjoyed it!
5-star recipe! The sweetness was perfect. Such an easy recipe. I didn’t even have to grease the pan.
This cake is so good!!! And super easy to make.
Thank you for the great recipe 🙂
So glad you enjoyed it!
Do you peel the pears?
Made this today and it turned out great! 🙂 My baking pan was a bit bigger and I needed to use more pears to cover the bottom, so the pear-to-cake ratio turned out a bit more in the favour of the pears, but nobody was complaining about that. I was a bit worried about having too much moisture, but the cake came out perfect! I was just wondering, is upside down cake the same as tarte tatin?
Thanks for the lovely recipe, lots of love from Belgium!
Awesome
No, tarte tatin has more of a pastry/pie crust while upside down cake is more of a densely textured cake. Both are delicious ways to bake with fruit.
I’ll be trying this recipe tonight. Thanks for creating it!
Hi Richa,
I want to make this, but I don’t have all-purpose flour, thanks to the pandemic. I do have a ton of whole wheat atta, some almond flour, and some coconut flour. Can I use those? How can I do that without messing up the recipe? Thank you!
Swati
use the whole wheat flour, add in 2 tbsp cornstarch or any starch.