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Looking for a Thanksgiving dessert showstopper?

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Ultra-moist, rustic, seemingly wholesome, absolutely crammed with pears. Although there’s something about this Pear and Olive Oil cake that suggests the waning days of autumn, you can find cake-worthy pears in the grocery store throughout much of the year.

Makes 1 eight-inch, two-layer cake, serving 12

First, you’ll need to poach some pears and boil the poaching liquid down into a syrup. Then, make the cake. Next, make the frosting and assemble the cake. Finally, the cake will need a 24 hour rest before you serve it (and so will you).

For the poached pears and ginger-pear syrup

4 Bosc pears
1⅓ cups sugar
4 inches of ginger, peeled and sliced, divided

How to:

1. Choose a medium-sized saucepot that will accommodate the pears and poaching liquid. Cut a sheet of parchment paper into a circle just barely smaller in diameter than that pot, so that it will fit inside the pot and float atop the entire surface of the poaching liquid. Cut a half-inch-diameter hole in its center. Set aside.
2. Slice the pears in half stem-to-bottom, making sure to leave the stem intact. (As you split each pear, one half will retain the stem, and the other half will be stemless.) Peel them, leaving the stems still attached. Core them. (A sturdy teaspoon works well for this.) Of the halves that have stems, choose the two best-looking ones; set all the rest of the pears aside. Take a small horizontal slice off the bottom of the two better-looking pear halves, so that you are able to stand them upright.  
3. Pour 4 cups of water into the saucepot. Add sugar. Heat over medium-high flame, stirring occasionally, until sugar is dissolved. Add half the ginger. Add pears. (A slotted spoon will help you do this without splashing.) Fit the parchment into place. When the liquid comes to a boil, adjust the heat to keep it at a very low simmer. Simmer until pears are completely soft, about 25 minutes.
4. Allow pears to cool in their poaching liquid. If not using same-day, transfer (liquid and all) to a container with a tight-fitting lid and refrigerate. Pears can be held at this point for several days.
5. Strain the pear liquid into a saucepot. Discard any boiled ginger and set the pears aside. Add the remaining raw ginger to the pan. Over a high flame, reduce the poaching liquid to a thick syrup: 230ºF (thread stage), about an hour; half-way through, remove ginger.

Pear Notes:

This part of the recipe is based on David Leibowitz’s poached pear recipe. His post includes some useful suggestions about poached pear variations that would probably be beautiful for this cake.

Pears float, which means that some parts of the pear may rise above the poaching liquid. Those parts may discolor during the poaching process. The parchment helps prevent that, but it’s not 100% effective. As the pears poach, occasionally use the back of a large spoon to push them down into the liquid.

For the cake

145g golden raisins (½ cup, packed) or chopped cashews
1½ lbs (approx. 3) ripe yet firm Packham, Bartlett, or Yvedale Saint-Germain pears
155g bread flour (1 cup)
160g cake flour (1¼ cups)
1¼ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
¾ tsp cinnamon
¼ heaping tsp nutmeg
¼ generous tsp kosher salt
128g olive oil (½ cup)
150g sugar (¾ cups)
1 tsp vanilla
100g eggs (2 large, whole eggs)
Grated zest of 1 lemon
60g egg whites (from 2 large eggs)

How to make the cake:

1. Grease and flour two 8-inch round cake pans.
2. Pour 2 oz. of water into a glass measuring cup. Add the raisins, stir, and nuke until the water boils for a few seconds: approx. 70 seconds, total nuke time. Set aside. (If using cashews, skip this step.)
3. Peel and core the pears. Set aside 460g (approx. 1 lb.) of pear; reserve any beyond that for another use. Dice the set-aside pears into ¼-inch or pea-size pieces. (You should have about 3 cups of pieces.)
4. Preheat the oven to 325ºF.
5. In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, stir the flours, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt until evenly distributed: 30 seconds on speed 3 (of 10). Transfer to a large mixing bowl and set aside.
6. Beat the oil, sugar, and vanilla until combined: 30 seconds on speed 4. Add the 2 whole eggs, beating until incorporated: 30 seconds, same speed. On lowest speed, mix in the pears, raisins (strained) or cashews, and lemon zest until fully distributed: 15 seconds.
7. Continuing on lowest speed, add the flour mixture, beating just until incorporated: 20 seconds. Scrape the batter into the bowl that held the flour mixture.
8. Clean and dry the stand mixer bowl and fit it with the whisk attachment. Whip the egg whites to soft peaks: 30 seconds on speed 4, followed by 30 on 6, then 30 on 8, and finally approx. 30 seconds on highest speed. Fold into the batter.
9. Scrape the batter into the pans (about 1 lb. 7 oz. – or 653g – of batter per pan) and level them with a spatula. Bake for 30 minutes, or until the tops of the cakes darken to the color of a well-toasted marshmallow, the sides of the cakes begin to pull away from the edge of the pan, and a tester comes out clean.
10. Remove from the oven and leave to cool on racks. Only once the cakes are stone cold should you remove them from the pans and place them on flat plates or a cookie sheet.

Cake notes:

Microwave times may vary.

The flavor of the olive oil is readily apparent in the cake, so use something you like. If you don’t think you’ll enjoy the somewhat earthy quality that olive oil will impart, use something neutral, like safflower oil.

It’s easiest to grate the lemon right over the mixing bowl, with a microplane.

For the frosting

100g butter (7 Tbs, unsalted or not), room temperature
126g light brown sugar (½ cup)
3 oz. ginger-pear syrup (6 Tbs)
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

How to make the frosting and assemble the cake:

1. Beat together the butter, brown sugar, and syrup until light and airy: 3 minutes on speed 6. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the cream cheese and beat until the frosting is completely homogenized: 1½ minutes, speed 4.
2. Set aside the poached pears that you rigged to stand upright. You’ll use them to decorate the cake, later.
3. Turn one of the cakes upside down; this will form the bottom layer. Thinly slice 3 or 4 poached pear halves and distribute them evenly across the upside-down cake, keeping in mind that the edge of the cake will be visible. Spread decidedly more than half the frosting over the pears, pushing the frosting right to the edge of the cake. You may have to use your free hand to keep the pears in place as you spread the frosting. Spread remaining frosting over the other cake (the top layer). Stand the reserved “upright” pears in the center of the top layer. Slice remaining poached pears and use them to decorate the cake. (You may not use all of the pears; if so, extras can be used to garnish individual cake slices.) Place both cakes in the refrigerator and chill for 45 minutes.
4. Once chilled, stack the cakes on a cake plate. Return the cake to the refrigerator for 24 hours. This is a critical step that you cannot skip; it takes time for the cake’s flavor to develop, and for the pears’ moisture to migrate into the crumb. It needs 24 hours.
5. Just before presenting the cake, paint any exposed pears as well as the sides of the cake with ginger-pear syrup. Before slicing, remove the upright pears, slice them, and return them to the top of the cake. Serve the cake cold or at room temperature.

You need to put some protection between your partially-unfrosted cake and the refrigerator, so that the cake doesn’t dry out. A cake tote, a cardboard cake box, a careful job with plastic wrap … I list these in descending order of preference. You can hold off on installing the upright pears until presentation time; that will make storage much easier.

Logistics

The pears get better the longer they sit in the poaching liquid, so making them ahead is beneficial in that sense as well as in that it breaks the work up into chunks that won’t exhaust you.

Take the butter and cream cheese out of the refrigerator when the cakes come out of the oven.

After 48 hours, the cake is still perfect, maybe even better! This is the ultimate make-ahead cake.

It’s clear to see that this is a pear cake, and we eat first with our eyes. If you were taste-test it blindfolded and you were a bit careless, you might mistake the pears for apples.

Pear and Olive Oil Cake

Credit for images on this page: Make It Like a Man! Thank you, Kesor. This content was not solicited by anyone, nor was it written in exchange for anything.

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