Caramel Pear Walnut Cake

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Studded with juicy pears, topped with a rich and sticky caramel sauce with toasted almonds, and featuring a wonderfully moist and tender crumb, this Caramel Pear Walnut Cake is mouthwateringly delicious!

caramel pear walnut cake recipe baking christmas thanksgiving holidays baking

The creation of this cake resulted from two things: First and foremost, a massive craving for something sweet and secondly, I had two pears on the verge of death that were begging to be used. My mind starting drawing associations: What goes well with pears? Caramel. What goes well with caramel and pears? Walnuts. And with that I went to work and a cake was born that is simply out of this world delicious!

I love pears but they’re a little frustrating. They’re often either way too hard and green and never ripen into anything palatable, or they go from ripe to over-ripe overnight. (Try purchasing pears in bulk and watch the latter happen to them all at the same time and try to figure out what to do with an entire box of over-ripe pears. That’s happened to me on more than one occasion and the answer for me was making bulk Caramel Pear Butter.) But if you only have a few over-ripe pears to contend with I have the perfect way to use them: This incredibly delicious Caramel Walnut Pear Cake! And the riper the pears the better.

This cake is truly something special. It is so lusciously moist and flavorful and the toasted walnut caramel topping is positively irresistible. Give it a try and I’m confident you’ll agree.

Caramel Pear Walnut Cake The Daring Gourmet

Table of Contents

Caramel Pear Walnut Cake Recipe

Preheat the oven to 350 F, spread the walnuts out on a lined baking sheet and toast them for about 10 minutes or until lightly browned and fragrant. Set aside for later.

In a small mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and salt.

toasted nuts combining dry ingredients

Mash up one of the ripe pears. Set aside.

In large mixing bowl, combine the brown sugar, melted butter, eggs, mashed pear, milk, and vanilla extract. Beat until combined.

combining wet ingredients

Stir the flour mixture into the wet mixture.

Stir the pear chunks into the batter.

combining wet and dry ingredients

Pour the batter into a well-greased 9-inch springform. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes (yes, just 25 minutes) or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Five minutes before the cake is done, combine the brown sugar, butter and cream in a small saucepan. Bring it to a boil and simmer for 2 minutes until slightly thickened.

Add the toasted walnuts and continue to boil for another 3-4 minutes.

making caramel walnut sauce