Gluten Free Italian Pear Cake with Honey Glaze

This easy to make gluten-free Italian pear cake is the perfect dessert to have at home or on the go. It’s an easy and unique recipe, where the flavors of sweet almond, juicy pear, and fresh lemon come together in a honey-glazed spongy oatmeal cake.

This is a no sugar cake made with oil instead of butter and it’s perfect if you are looking for a healthier cake recipe.

We took inspiration from the traditional American apple pie and the Italian lemon and pear cake but we used selected ingredients to make this recipe both gluten-free and dairy-free! If that wasn’t awesome enough, we have cut down on refined sugars by using honey and replaced butter with oil.

We love using honey instead of refined sugars because it keeps the sweetness we all love but gives us tons of vitamins and minerals while also adding a unique and special taste to the whole recipe.

Follow our easy step-by-step instructions below to bake a perfect, spongy and tasty pear cake with lemon and oat. The success is guaranteed!

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Step 1

Make sure all the ingredients are at room temperature before you prepare this healthy pear cake recipe with honey. This way the ingredients combine better and the cake will be soft and spongy.

Preheat the oven to 160°C (320°F).

In a mixing bowl, beat the egg yolks with 95 g of honey and grated lemon zest using a whisk or even better an electric whisker. Keep the lemon aside as you’ll need it in the next steps.

Combine the sunflower oil with the almond extract and then pour into the egg mixture. Beat for 3 minutes into a frothy batter.

Step 2

Blitz the oat flakes into a powder using a food processor and transfer into a clean bowl. If you are using ground oat or oat flour, you can skip this step. To avoid a crumbly cake the oat flour should be as fine as possible.

Combine the potato starch and baking powder with the oat. Mix well to distribute the baking powder in the flours to minimize doming and get an evenly raised cake when baking.

Add the flour to the egg and oil batter slowly one spoon at a time to avoid lumps. Beat with the electric mixer into a smooth mixture.

Step 3

Squeeze the lemon juice into a clean bowl with the help of a lemon squeezer to extract all the juice.

Wash, peel and core 1 pear. Cut it into small chunks and add them to lemon juice to avoid browning and infuse the pear with a delicious lemon flavor. Next, incorporate the pear cubes into the cake batter.

Whip the egg whites with a pinch of salt into a separate bowl using the electric whisker at low speed until foamy and frothy. Then, increase the speed until they become whipped and form stiff peaks.

Gently fold the beaten egg whites in the cake batter with slow circular movements to incorporate as much air as possible preventing the foam to collapse. Use just a fork or a hand whisk.

Step 4

Once the egg whites are well incorporated pour the pear cake batter into a greased and floured 20 cm baking round tin.

Wash 1 pear and cut it into thin slices, then dip them into the bowl with lemon juice to avoid browning.

Arrange the pear slices over the cake mixture and sprinkle with oat flakes if desired.

Transfer the tin into the oven in the middle shelf and cook for 35 minutes. Then place a sheet of aluminum foil over it to prevent the pear slices from burning and cook for an additional 5 to 10 minutes. The cake is ready when a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Step 5

Turn off the oven and keep the door ajar for 3 minutes, then remove the cake.

Allow cooling down in the tin and then transfer to a cooling rack to get even air circulation.

In the meantime, heat 30 g of honey in a pot or in the microwave until it becomes loose and runny. Brush it over the cake to get a nice glossy honey glaze.

Enjoy this gluten-free honey pear cake with lemon and almond as a healthy dessert or breakfast treat. After all, it’s gluten, sugar and dairy free!

Tips

Replacing normal flour for gluten-free alternatives is not always easy, as if may require to tweak the amount of the other ingredients to get the same results. Oat is an amazing cereal rich in antioxidants and fibers and brings many health benefits including reduction of blood sugar and cholesterol levels. When replacing wheat flour with oat flour, the cake will generally rise less, due to the heavy weigh of oat grains and their lack of gluten.

To overcome this problem simply add more baking powder than you would normally use. For every cup of oat add 2 and 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder.