Peach Upside Down Cake
Peach Upside Down Cake is the perfect summer dessert. This treat is made with ripe summer peaches, caramel topping and melt-in-your-mouth almond-flour buttermilk cake.
Have I told you about my love affair with summer peaches? Seriously, the other day I was eating a peach after lunch and randomly said to my son “I’m so glad there are summer peaches in the world”. He looked at me like I was a little crazy and just shook his head.
When peaches are in season you’ve got to eat as many as you can, in as many ways you can think of.
So lets make a peach cake, shall we? The cake part of this recipe is a variation on the basic buttermilk cake that I use for Apple Upside Down Cake and Blueberry Crumb Cake.
Peaches and almonds are a natural pairing:
Peaches have an affinity with almonds since the middle of the peach pit has that bitter almond flavor. I added almond meal to the cake for tenderness and almond extract for flavor.
You can use slightly under ripe peaches for this recipe or you could even use frozen peaches. If you use frozen peaches with sugar added you might want to adjust the amount of sugar in the topping.
How to make a Peach Upside Down Cake:
See the recipe card for detailed ingredient amounts and instructions.
- Boil the peach juices with the sugar to form the caramel topping for the cake.
- Arrange the peaches on the caramel and place the pan in the freezer while you make the cake batter.
- Carefully pour the batter over the peaches. Try not to stir up the caramel too much.
- Allow the cake to cool for 10 minutes before turning out onto a serving plate.
I love this cake slightly warm from the oven, but the flavor of the cake gets even better the second day. Peach Almond Upside Down Cake goes great with Sweet Corn Ice Cream or Buttermilk Ice Cream.
More Peach Recipes
- Peach Dumplings
- Peach Bread
- Peach Mango Pie
- Peach Cheesecake
- Peach Crumb Pie
- Peach Shortcakes
- Peach Coffee Cake
- Peach Melba Cake
- Fried Peach Hand Pies
- Homemade Peach Ice Cream
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Peach Upside Down Cake Recipe
Ingredients
Topping
- 4 peaches (peeled, pitted and cut into 8 slices each)
- 4 oz brown sugar (½ cup)
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- 2 oz unsalted butter
Cake Batter
- 1 large egg
- 2 large yolks
- 4 oz buttermilk (½ cup)
- 1/2 teaspoon real almond extract
- 7 oz cake flour (1 ½ cups, see note)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 8 oz granulated sugar (1 cup)
- 2 oz almond flour (½ cup)
- 4 oz unsalted butter (cut into 1″ pieces)
Instructions
Topping
- Toss 4 peaches (sliced) with 4 oz brown sugar and ½ teaspoon almond extract. Allow to macerate for 30 minutes to an hour. Line the bottom of an 8" square or 9" round pan with parchment paper or butter and flour the pan.
- Drain the peaches and set aside. Combine the peach juice with 2 oz unsalted butter in a small saucepan and bring the mixture to a boil. Allow to boil for 1 minute to thicken. Pour the warm caramel into the prepared pan. Arrange the peach slices onto the caramel. Place the pan in the freezer while preparing the batter
Batter
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F. Combine 1 large egg, 2 large yolks, ½ of the buttermilk and 1/2 teaspoon real almond extract in a small bowl and set aside.
- Sift 7 oz cake flour, ¼ teaspoon salt and 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder into a mixing bowl, add 8 oz granulated sugar and 2 oz almond flour. Run the mixer on low speed for 30 seconds to combine the dry ingredients.
- With the mixer running on low, toss 4 oz unsalted butter into the dry ingredients. Add the remaining buttermilk and turn the mixer to medium high. Mix for 2-3 minutes until the batter lightens in color and becomes aerated.
- Turn off the mixer and scrape the bowl and the beater. With the mixer running on low, add the egg mixture in two batches, scraping between addition. Remove the pan from the freezer and spread the batter over the peaches, being careful not to disturb the caramel and peaches.
- Bake until the center of the cake springs back lightly when pressed, or a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes.
- Unmold the cake while it’s still a little warm by running a paring knife around the sides of the cake and inverting onto a serving platter. If any caramel or peaches stick in the pan scrape them out with a small spatula and replace on the cake while still warm.
- Serve warm or room temperature.
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Enjoyed this cake. I don’t like almond extract so subbed vanilla. I wasn’t sure I boiled the juice and butter enough to thicken (gave it extended time) but it worked well based on the finished product. Good buttery, kind of spongy, cake with delicious peachy topping. (I did reduce the serving size to 6 servings, but used a whole egg instead of the 1/2 egg the reduced recipe called for.)
This is delicious! The almond compliments the peach perfectly. I did have to cook the sauce a few minutes to carmelize it, and cooked the cake for closer to 50 minutes. Definitely a keeper!
The cake was delicious, yet the directions were not clear in stating exactly what was needed. I did not have access to the video, only the printed directions. The pan should have been a deep 9 inch pan on the written directions on the recipe. The peach juice and butter did not thicken in a minute; the directions should have noted that more time was needed. I wouldn’t put a warm/hot pan in the freezer; it would lower the temperature for the items already in the freezer. Instead, I placed the pan over a bowl of ice cubes to lower the temperature so I could put it in the freezer. Because the peach juice mixture did not thicken, it caused a major problem when I added the batter and put the regular pan in the oven. It spilled over onto the oven floor and the oven started to smoke. I had to take the cake out of the oven, turn the oven off and put the cake in the toaster oven to finish baking. The next day the cake was still overly wet, so I continued baking it in the toaster oven while I spent over an hour cleaning the oven. I’ve noted all these clarifications on my recipe and I will make the recipe again, yet please be more precise in writing the directions for your recipes.
There is not a specific recipe video for this cake, but here are detailed step by step photos that show exactly how to put the cake together and it clearly shows the type of pan used. Once the caramel is poured into the pan and the peaches added, the pan is not excessively hot to the touch and I was quite comfortable putting it in the freezer. For future reference, if you want to see the videos on my website make sure you don’t have an ad blocker turned on.
Beautiful cake. The crumb looks just perfect. As does the caramelization on the peaches. BTW, I”m happy there are summer peaches in this world too.
Thanks Kim!
Thanks. It was so good it disappeared in one day.
I’ve always thought that fresh peaches have one of the most heavenly scents imaginable, so I’m with you on being glad that peaches exist! This cake looks wonderful, and I love that you added in some almond extract and almond flour. What wouldn’t I give for a slice of that right now!