Upside Down Pear Crunch Cake

Close-up of a pear coffee cake slice on a white plate.

An upside down pear coffee cake with a crunchy brown sugar and cinnamon topping.

Course Cakes, Cupcakes & Cheesecake

Cuisine American

Keyword breakfast, cake, coffee cake, dessert, pear, upside down

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 40

Total Time 1

Servings Servings

Calories 427kcal

Author Barb

Ingredients

For the Crunchy Topping

1 ½ cups demerara sugar or brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon flour
2 tablespoon butter

For the Coffee Cake

2 large pears cored and sliced into 1/2 " slices with skin on
4 ounces unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 Large eggs
1 cup sour cream
¼ cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cup flour
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Instructions

To Make the Topping

Work all ingredients together with a food processor, spatula or your fingers and set aside.

To Make the Cake

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees convection. (Without a convection oven, baking will take longer).
Cream the butter and sugar together with a spatula or in a mixer with paddle attachment.
Add the eggs and combine to mix thoroughly.
Add the sour cream, milk and vanilla extract and mix into butter and egg mixture thoroughly.
Add dry ingredients just to combine.

To Assemble

Spray the inside of two loaf pans with vegetable oil or rub lightly with butter.
Sprinkle half of the topping mixture divided between 2 loaf pans. Divide the pear slices lined down each loaf pan on top of the crunchy layer. Divide batter over the pears in each pan. Finally, divide the rest of the Crunch topping over the batter in each pan. Bake for 30 minutes until cake is set (see notes).

To Serve

Cool completely, this takes awhile, be patient. Then invert cake upside down when cool, slice and serve.

Notes

The recipe I received called for 30 minutes using a convection oven. I'm lucky to have one and because I'm at altitude I increased my temp to 350 degrees. We had to bake this coffee cake for an additional 20 minutes at least so I've indicated a bit longer baking time but please be sure to test with a toothpick; it should come out clean after inserting into the center of the cake.

Nutrition