Reviewed: Sep. 11, 2006

i'm used to making cakes with a hand blender, so to use a spatula to mix (gasp) was a change, but it's nice to go back to basics. the pears puree looks pretty good, my pears were just picked off my pear tree and so they weren't overripe. i substitued 1/2 the oil with apple sauce to cut down on calories and added 1 tsp of cinnimon. when i poured it into the pan it looked a bit liquidy. anyways i baked it and the sides burnt before the middle was cooked. and i had to cook ti for about 1 hour and 5 min to get the middle cooked. the edges and bottom of the cake are pretty charred. despite this it smelled great and tasted pretty good. i had to cut off the edges...but you can't really taste the pear though. and it's hard to cut. it's a nice sweet cake.

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Reviewer:

CHARLENE

Reviewed: Aug. 19, 2006

This cake tasted great although it did not taste of pears. I did modify the recipe a little, so maybe that's why. I added 1 Tsp of cinnamon and 1/4 Tsp of nutmeg. I baked it in a bundt pan for 1 hour. It was perfect. I will try it next time with very ripe pears and no added ingredients. Thanks for a great recipe!

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Reviewer:

Sandra S

Reviewed: Aug. 12, 2006

This cake was very good. Only thing I would recommend for others is to watch the baking time. I think 1 hour would have been long enough. Came out very dry for that reason. Great flavor though.

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Reviewer:

Amanda

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Living In: Anna, Ohio, USA

Reviewed: May 3, 2006

I wish I had cooked this in a loaf pan (I cooked it in the specified 9 by 13 pan)...it was much more like a dense sweet bread than a cake. My pears were very ripe (hubby couldn't believe I wasn't throwing them away! LOL) & I let them sit in the sugar mixture for longer than an hour (got distracted & left them for about 3 hours)...they had a lot of liquid in them so I decreased the oil down to 1/4 of a cup but I think it probably needed just a bit more. This cake has a very unique, subtle flavor that gets better bite after bite. I frosted this w/ Brown Sugar Sauce (from this site). My hubby ate two huge pieces! I forgot to add that the cooking time is indeed wayy off. I set the oven for an hour but because of my obsessive habit of opening the oven door, I caught it just in the nick of time w/ about 10 minutes still left on the timer.

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Reviewer:

IMVINTAGE

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Home Town: Fort Worth, Texas, USA

Living In: Keller, Texas, USA

Reviewed: May 2, 2006

This cake is fantastic! The only reason I didn't give it a full five stars is because I changed the recipe a bit. I didn't use any pecans, and I used 2/3 a cup of Enova instead of veggie oil. I also dusted the finished cake with a bit of powdered sugar instead of making an icing.

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Reviewer:

Hannah

Cooking Level: Beginning

Living In: Toledo, Ohio, USA

Reviewed: Jan. 24, 2006

WOW!! I just made this cake about and hour ago and it is awesome! This cake is so moist I wouldn't recommend changing anything although I did add a dash of cinnamon. I also made a simple vanilla icing for equal parts confectioners sugar and butter (1lb and 1 cup) and .5 tsp vanilla extract and it made it so sweet and tasty. All my boyfriend could say is, "WOW!!" with a mouth full of it! Thanks so much for this awesome recipe!!

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Reviewer:

Laine M

Cooking Level: Expert

Home Town: Cape Coral, Florida, USA

Living In: Gillette, Wyoming, USA

Reviewed: Jan. 15, 2006

I made this exactly as the recipe stated but I did cook in a round cake tin. I'm not sure how long this took to cook as having read the previous reviews I kept a close eye on it checking every 15 minutes or so. I did have to put paper over the top to stop it burning as it browned quite quickly but wasn't done inside. Worth the trouble though the texture of this cake is lovely and using very ripe pears gives it a great flavour. I will definitely make again. Thanks.

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Reviewer:

KEZ

Home Town: St Austell, Cornwall, England, U.K.

Living In: Plymouth, Devon, England, U.K.

Reviewed: Jan. 8, 2006

I was really looking forword to making and tasting this cake as I love pears. I read all of the reviews and decided to make in a pretty bundt pan. I was really unsure of the cooking times as many reviews descrived different time recommendations. I baked in a bundt pan for one hour and fifteen minutes and this was too long. The flavor was very good and it smelled heavenly, buy the cake got a rather hard crust and was a bit ont he dry side. I will try again in a bundt pan and keep in the oven for only an hour. Also, I may try to cut back on the oil as this is an excessive amount.

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Reviewer:

JUDYK3

Cooking Level: Expert

Home Town: Akron, Ohio, USA

Reviewed: Oct. 26, 2005

I made this cake in two 8 inch rounds instead of a 13 X 9. I made an icing with powdered sugar, milk, cinnamon, and salt which I put in between the layers and also on top. I was asked for the recipe at work, and the cake was gone well before the end of the day.

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Reviewer:

Holly

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Living In: Oshkosh, Wisconsin, USA

Reviewed: Oct. 10, 2005

This makes a wonderful Pear Bread. I followed another review & made it bread instead. I also forgot to add the oil, which turned out better because I used (really) ripe pears. With the ripe pears, no need for the cup of oil. I started a new job & made this for the office. When my probation period was to end, my bosses told me they could not release me from probation until I made more pear bread! I would recommend this recipe to anyone & this has become a standard baking recipe & requested often. Thanks for the recipe!

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