Pear and Almond Yogurt Cake (Low-Fat Snack Cake)


How does a low-fat pear & yogurt cake sound for today? As we herald spring in California, seasonal fruits and vegetables can be seen in all their glory, and a trip to the farmer's market can turn out to be a visually delectable experience! This weekend I decided to bake a delicious and Healthy Pear Cake. Belonging to the apple family, pears are packed with a lot of health benefits. It has antioxidants that protects our body from free radicals, promote cardiovascular health, and are a good source of dietary fiber, vitamin C, copper, and vitamin K. And best of all, these fibrous fruits are a great way to naturally sweeten your cakes and muffins as well as provide them with shape and texture. I combined my pears with almonds and whole-wheat flour to make an almost fat-free and healthy yogurt cake/muffin that can be used as a snack any time of the day!

I did not use any butter in this recipe. The all-purpose flour was substituted by the whole-grain one; the recipe uses only 1 egg and some oil; the yogurt provides texture to the cake, but as there is no butter, this cake will not be as soft and moist as the others. If you are not looking for a healthy version, feel free to modify the ingredients to use 3/4 cup butter instead of yogurt and add 2 eggs instead of one with all-purpose flour.

Ingredients
1-3/4 cups whole-grain pastry flour
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup fat-free plain yogurt
1-1/2 tspn baking powder
1/2 tspn baking soda
3/4 tspn ground nutmeg (optional)
1/2 tspn salt
1 large egg
3 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tspn vanilla extract
2 ripe medium pears -peeled and cut into 1/2" chunks
2-3 tbsp slivered almonds

Method
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Coat a 9" x 9" baking pan with cooking spray. Instead, you can also use individual ramekins like I did.

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk the sugar, egg, and oil until smooth. Whisk in the yogurt and the vanilla essence. Finally, stir in the cubed pears.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir just until blended. Scrape into the prepared pan or the ramekins. Sprinkle the slivered almonds on the top.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes (about 25 mins if you are using the ramekins), until the cake is springy to the touch, shrinks from the sides and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. This cake will not be too dark on the top, so if you like the color, change oven setiting to BROIL and bake for another 40 seconds, not more. Let cool for 20-30 minutes on a wire rack, then slice and serve!

Tip: Roasting the almonds a little can add more flavor to the cake. If your pears are not too sweet, increase the sugar in the recipe as this recipe tends to be a little less sweet compared to others.

This light and low-fat pear and almond cake can be relished for breakfast or snack any other time of the day without feeling guilty. The pears make it soft while the almonds add a crunch to each bite.

Related Recipes:
Low-Fat Blueberry Muffins
Healthy Cranberry-Pistachio Biscotti
Eggless Cranberry-Walnut Scones


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50 comments :

Unknown said...

Love this cake Mansi, something that I can pick up and make straight, without thinking about modifications :)

Meeta K. Wolff said...

Oh boy this looks and sounds lovely. I am sure the yogurt kept this smooth and moist. Perfect!

Pelicano said...

They look splendid! I've been eating low-fat, (and egg-free) cookies made by a local bakery lately...they're expensive! See now...you could put a good price on those little cakes. :-) The pear-almond combo sounds delicious, and I like the use of yoghurt.

Bharathy said...

Pear, Almond and yogurt waht a perfect and healthy combo!..absolutely love the cake..Love the colour too :)..
Mansi pls go thru the tender coconut dosas I have blogged latest in my place...pls check if it qualifies for WBB..(feel free if it doesnt get thru the rules)..so that I can try someother goodie if time permits..:)

amna said...

cake with pear? wow! lovely!! you could send this to AFAM you know.. its over at raaga's :)

singingchef.blogspot.com i think..

Peter M said...

Mansi, the cakes look wonderful...great pairing (no pun) of ingredents!

Anonymous said...

boy, these looks absolutelu heavenly!! and that flavor combo is simply suberb!:) you do come up with great recipes Mansi!:)

-Amy

sandhya said...

lovely cake... nice combo...

bee said...

pears and almonds are a classic combo. sometimes, i substitute some part of flour with almond flour. it makes a richer cake.

Rachel said...

Now that is a delectable combination there....perfectly done..

Uma said...

wonderful combo cake, Mansi! Looks so delicious.

Kalai said...

Wonderful cake, Mansi!! Looks delicious. Are you sending this to AFAM? www.chefatwork.blogspot.com

Purnima said...

Mansi, novel concept of grouping pears n almonds for a snack time cake!! Simply marvellous!! Loved it, may I have a bite, pretty please?

Medhaa said...

looks lovely Mansi.

Suganya said...

They look gorgeous. How many mini-cakes did you get?

Mansi said...

Oh boy!! I have to catch up with your comments here!!:) hehehe..I'm so glad you guys like dit, and I'm even more happy to ahve found a perfect snack cake recipe!

Suganya - I got about 6 mini cakes with the standard ramekins...so maybe about 12 muffins or 6-8 mini cakes depending on the size of the bowls; or a 9x9 inch cake pan.

pelicano - I should really start selling them! thanks for the idea:) as for now, I'm giving them free, so grab one!

Thanks to everyone else for your gracious comments! and yes, I am definitely sending this to Raaga's event:)

Anonymous said...

this is amazing!! thank you sooooo much for sharing a wonderful recipe! and its almost fat-free!! means I can eat it every day!:)

-Melissa

Anonymous said...

Low-fat cake is what I need these days trying to lose some weight:) Thanks for sharing, Mansi. You have a cute blog!

Cham said...

I just make plain yoghurt cake, good idea to mix Pear or fruit. I love the almonds on the top.

Elle said...

I love using yogurt in baking! Those look delicious!

Lisa Turner said...

I just finished dinner and this is the second tempting treat I have seen in five minutes of blog browsing. I want this right now!

test it comm said...

A pear yogurt cake with almonds sounds good. They look nice a moist.

Anonymous said...

brilliant! just what I was looking for to include in my diet plan:) thanks a lot!

-Angie

Mansi said...

welcome farida - and thanks for your beautiful comment!:)

Elle - yeah, I'm glad I discovered baking with yogurt:)

Cham, Kevin, Lisa, Angie - thanks guys, and I'm happy you'll liked the cake experiment:)

Raaga said...

Thank you so much Mansi!! they look delish!

Raks said...

Looks perfect and nice entry!

Unknown said...

cake with pears ..thats lovely!!!

remya said...

wow!!! thanz for such aperfect healthy cake...they are heavenly beautiful....i was lookg for low fat ones...

Unknown said...

thats a nice healthy cake....i put walnuts instead of almonds and the same combo and it comes out nice and soft....i am also sending the same muffins as AFam entry:)

Emily said...

Wow, this sounds really different.
I need something healthy to eat. I feel like I've been eating a lot of junk lately.

srikars kitchen said...

lovely cake...looks nice

Trupti said...

pear, almond & yogurt..nice combination & healthy too.. nice photos..Manasi..
Thanks for sharing

The Short (dis)Order Cook said...

You are the go-to woman for the simple and perfect tasty dessert. I love pears and almonds together. I wish I weren't so tied up with rehearsals right now so I could bake more of your stuff.

Mansi said...

Thanks for the generous compliments! I benefitted alot by finding a low-fat cake as I'm a hard-core dessert person and it's very easy for me to gain all the ounds!!:) this recipe is indeed a great find:) do try it folks and lemme know how it works for you:)

Richa said...

that is a wonderful combo! yogurt makes it so good, i too like to add the whole grain pastry flour ;)

Anonymous said...

MANSI !!!!! :)

Tried the cake and it was so perfectly delicious !!! :)

It was so moist and yummy and so healthy !!! I just loved it....

Thanks so much for the wonderful recipe...such a perfect one while watching weight !! I added to egg whites instead one whole egg...

I wondered though if any other fruits+combinations would be this tasty !!

Thanks again !!!!

M

Mansi said...

hey M - its great that you testified about this delicious cake!:) thanks for trying and letting us know...as for other fruits, I think mago/coconut/almonds, apples/cinnamon/pecan, peach/almond/walnuts would all be great combinations I think!:) hope you get to bake more of these, and when you do, send them to me for sampling:)

Anonymous said...

i agree with nandita...this is something i am going to try right away...do you think i can use whole wheat atta (chappati atta) instead of the whole wheat grain you used?? is it the same?? when indulgences can be made healthy...what more can we ask for??

Anonymous said...

Hi again.....:)

I am so going to try these combo's too....

I will certainly let you know when I try these and how they turned out...I wish I could send you these :)

Always love your wonderful posts....great job with the blog...please keep posting more healthy recipes like this one...

M

Mansi said...

Arundati - much as I would like to say Yes, I think using chapati atta would not give the same texture and fluffiness as pstry flour. So I would suggest go for 1 cup whole wheat and 1 cup all-purpose flour to kind of balance it out so its moist, rises well, and can yet be healthy:)

Anonymous said...

Wow Mansi!!! That looks yumm yumm

eatme_delicious said...

Sounds and looks delicious! I've recently discovered how yummy pears are in baked goods.

Anonymous said...

These look really interesting. I think they would be great for an afternoon tea, or a brunch or something.

Anonymous said...

i do love fruity cakes - thanks mansi, for sharing this with the monthly mingle.

Kathy said...

Sounds delicious. Off to try this right now.

I didn't know you could substitute yogurt for butter. I've heard of applesauce, but this sounds even better since we always have yogurt. I guess I'm a little slow.

Anonymous said...

Isn't funny how you can substitute ingredients with healthier alternatives and the dish will still come out and taste great? It makes it so much more rewarding. Thanks for participating SnackShots and don't forget to check out the roundup soon!

Anonymous said...

wow! this look so delicious! Im gonna try this one. thanks for sharing it with us..

Rico said...

you can see by the comments you received that this is a great recipe and we all thank you for sharing it...saw you on Foodbuzz...I also have some good deserts on mine

Anonymous said...

I tried this recipe but there doesn't seem to be enough wet ingredients. I barely mixed it and it didn't resemble cake batter. It was a blob. This is strange because I live at altitude and usually have to add flour.

Janet said...

I've just made this as muffins, and it worked beautifully and tasted great. Next time, I would like to try to reduce the sugar, perhaps by adding dried fruit or replacing some of the yogurt with mashed banana. Thanks for a great recipe!