Ciambella is a ring-shaped cake with many variations throughout Italy’s regions. In its most basic form, it is essentially an Italian bundt cake, made with flour, eggs, milk, baking powder, sugar, and butter.

Here we’ve added pears into the mix, giving this simple cake a sweet and juicy twist.

Pear Ciambella

Makes 1 ring cake

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
Salt, q.b.
2/3 cup butter melted
1 cup sugar
4 eggs, separated
1 cup whole milk, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 pears, peeled and cubed
Powdered sugar, for dusting

Method

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Butter and flour a ring-shaped pan.

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, add the sugar. Beat in the egg yolks, one at a time.

Whisk in the flour mixture, ½ a cup at a time, to the egg and sugar mixture, until smooth and there aren’t any more lumps.

Slowly add in the melted butter, mixing until combined (about 1 more minute).

Next, add in the milk and the vanilla.

In a medium-sized mixing bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form.

Gently fold in the egg whites into the batter, a little bit at a time, until everything is well mixed.

Finally, fold in the cubed pears.

Pour the batter into your prepared tube pan. Even out the top of the batter with a spatula and tap the pan on the counter to level out the batter.

Bake 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean. Let cool before gently flipping the cake out of the pan.