After buying a 25-pound box of pears from a fundraiser recently, I found myself with piles of pears and only a few days of perfect ripeness in which to eat them. We were doing pretty well snacking on pears—each of us eating about 4 a day—but enthusiasm was waning. I went online for some recipes and was happy to find several. Judging from the pears still overflowing on my table, I was going to need several!

Coffee cake is one of my all-time favorite treats, so Sour Cream & Pear Coffee Cake caught my eye. I’m not sure if there’s an art of coffee cake making, but this simple beauty certainly makes me think there should be. The cake batter comes together without a mixer in a few minutes, and provides the perfect pedestal for the fresh pear slices that adorn the top. And the pear doesn’t even require peeling. This is my kind of cake!

Begin the recipe by combining the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Measure out the flour by spooning it into the measuring cup and leveling with the back side of a knife.

Next, add the sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Stir this together with a whisk until well combined.

Next, whisk the sour cream and eggs together in a medium bowl.

When the mixture is smooth, simply add it to the dry ingredients.

The batter will be thick, like a quick bread. Use a spoon or spatula and mix until the dry ingredients are moistened. Just takes a minute—maybe less!

When the batter is mixed, spread it into the greased pan. I prefer a springform pan for this recipe, as it makes it so easy to display and serve the cake.

It’s time to add the pears! For each of the two pears, begin by slicing half the pear off just outside the core.

Then, set the cut half aside, and place the half with the core flat on the cutting board. Cut again, straight down to the left and also to the right of the core. This gives you two other large pieces.

Last, lay flat the remaining slice of pear that is still attached the core, and, again, cut away from the core.

Now simply slice the pieces of pear into ¼-inch slices.

These two pears should give you plenty of nice looking slices to create the pinwheel on the batter. Simply place them in the same direction all the way around.

My pear slices didn’t reach quite to the middle, so I cut two half circle shapes from remaining pieces to fill in the center.

The final optional step is to sprinkle 2 tablespoons of brown sugar onto the top. I decided it would add some color and enhance the pears, so went ahead and used the sugar.

A little sticky for sprinkling, but I was able to get most of it onto the cake! Now, bake the cake for 40-50 minutes. While the cake is baking, mix together the sour cream and sugar for the topping.

At 50 minutes, my pear cake was beautifully browned and my cake tester came out clean. I declared my coffee cake ready!

After a few minutes of cooling, I placed the springform pan onto a dinner plate. Using hot pads, I opened the latch and, holding the ring open a bit, lifted it up off the cake.

Gorgeous! The base of the pan can stay in place for cutting the cake.

The recipe calls for serving the cake warm, so after about 15 minutes we crowded around. The cake cut and served beautifully.

The sour cream topping was certainly a nice addition. Simply spoon on a heaping tablespoon, and enjoy!

Move over apples! Pears soften and sweeten in an amazing way, sinking into the edges and top of this Sour Cream & Pear Coffee Cake, creating an unmatched mellow deliciousness. And the sour cream adds a moist richness to the cake, making it rather muffin-like in texture. We covered our cake and left it out for breakfast the next morning, and found the second half to be equally moist and fantastic 12 hours later. We decided this would be a great recipe to share and plan to make it again very soon. We hope you’ll try it, too—I’d love to hear from you if you do!

And now I’m off to make lots of pear sauce …

Check back in a few days when Amanda makes some extra special French toast.

Liz is paid to write for the Land O'Lakes Recipe Buzz® Blog.