Peach upside down cake. A caramel poured over the peaches before baking melts into and saturates the peaches during baking.
There’s really nothing like an absolutely ripe peach. When I bite into one—peeled or not, the taste I get as the juices run into my mouth make me moan with delight. Does this happen to you, too? Peaches are at their peak right now, and instead of just eating all of them fresh or making a pie, cobbler or crumble, I decided on an upside down cake. I knew I didn’t want the cake to have a brown sugar butter topping because that would just about bury the yummy peach taste. While searching for some ideas on the web, I came across a 1988 recipe by Florence Fabricant in The New York Times that looked promising.
Recipe Tips
The recipe said to make caramel syrup and pour it over peaches lining the bottom of a buttered cake pan. Hmmm, I thought. The caramel sets, creating a hard shell, but during baking it melts right into the peaches, saturating them deliciously. I had never seen this method before, so off I ran to the kitchen to test it out. The cake is fantastic. The peaches taste really fresh, and they blend perfectly with the cake’s soft texture. But I had to tweak things a bit. The original recipe calls for 3 eggs, but that caused the unmolded cake to sink in the center as the cake cooled. Two eggs works just fine. But because the batter is quite thick, I stirred in 2 tablespoons milk to lighten it. I find that baked fruit desserts always taste better with just a tad of salt, so I whisked 1/4 teaspoon into the dry ingredients. And because I love what vanilla does for just about anything I bake, I plopped 2 teaspoons into the batter. I now have what I think is the perfect recipe for peach upside down cake. I think the magic ingredient is the caramel syrup. As you’ll see, it’s quick and easy to make. Even if you’ve never made caramel, just follow the directions and you will triumph. And carefully measure the flour. I encourage you to use a kitchen scale. But lacking that, do follow the directions in the recipe headnote. So, get ready, set, bake!