Peach Upside Down Cake was awesome. Even my husband loved this dessert. He’s not a cake lover by any means. In fact, he will rarely eat cake (even chocolate) unless it has fruit it in. But he loved this cake. The interesting thing is this is the very first upside down cake I’ve ever made. Really. My mom never made them and I always thought they looked like too much work. But really, this one is scrumptious and not overly difficult.

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I was looking online for recipes with which to use a boatload of fresh peaches. I found this recipe and thought I would give it a try. I looked through the hundreds of comments to see how others had fared and decided to make a few adaptions based on those comments. The nice thing about this dessert is you don’t have to peel the peaches before using them. Yay! You layer them in a parchment paper-lined baking dish.

Then you caramelize the sugar with vanilla and water. This is not a syrup that you stir over hot heat. But you do have to shake the saucepan every minute or so while it cooks to make sure it thickens evenly. The caramelized sugar is ladled over top of the fresh, unpeeled peaches. Then a simple cake batter is poured over top. The cake has to bake a full 45 minutes before it’s cooked all the way through and the middle isn’t goopy. But, oh my, once it’s baked it’s so delicious.

The cake is inverted almost immediately upon removal from the oven. Because it’s placed on parchment paper it comes out really easily. If you layer the peaches nicely, the top comes out looking quite beautiful too. While the recipe sounds like it’s kind of involved, it’s really not. I also used the same basic recipe with fresh cherries and that one came out just as divine as this one!

I received a free 20-pound box of fresh peaches from the Washington State Fruit Commission back in the middle of August. I made a ton of desserts with those peaches. They were some of the most beautiful peaches I’ve ever seen. The skins particularly, were beautiful and almost looked more like the skins of nectarines than peaches. They were really soft. I made several desserts with their fresh peaches— quite a few where I didn’t have to peel the peaches beforehand. That was a winner and a real time saver. 🙂

I gave one of these cakes to neighbors across the street. But because it was so good, I made another one just for us. We were all drooling over this recipe. While I served it with Cool Whip, you can also serve this with ice cream if desired. I did not store this in the refrigerator and it was eaten up in a few days.

If you want a luscious fruit dessert that will wow your company, give this amazing Peach Upside Down Cake a try. I’m sure you can make it with canned or frozen peaches if you dry them off a little bit first. That way you can make this tasty dessert any time of the year. Works for me. 🙂

This Peach Upside Down Cake is superb.

This is a terrific dessert to share with friends and family.

Fresh peaches made this Peach Upside Down Cake spectacular. However, if peach season is over, you can substitute canned or frozen peaches if you make sure they are well dried before putting in the baking dish.

Here’s what I did.

I used these ingredients, plus water.

Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit the inside of your baking dish. Grease both the baking dish and the parchment paper with butter.

Slice peaches in 1/8 to 1/4″ slices. You do not have to peel them. Layer the peaches in baking dish overlapping each other and on top of the greased parchment paper.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan over medium heat, add vanilla and 3/4 cup sugar.

Add 1/2 cup water and stir once to combine. Don’t use anything to stir the sauce from this point on.

Heat for 15 minutes bringing the mixture to a boil where it thickens and the sauce becomes amber in color. Every minute or two, lift the saucepan with a potholder and shake the ingredients in the saucepan. This will make sure it heats evenly and doesn’t harden.

At 15 minutes, immediately remove from heat. 

Quickly ladle the caramelized sugar syrup from the saucepan over top of the fresh peaches as evenly as possible. You have to do this pretty quickly or the sauce will harden up too much.

Meanwhile, as sauce is cooking on stove, prepare cake batter. Place UNBLEACHED flour in a mixing bowl. (Bleached flour toughens baked goods). Add nutmeg and baking powder.

Stir well to combine.

In a separate bowl, soften butter. Add remaining sugar and eggs.

Whisk to combine.

Add flour/nutmeg/baking powder mixture.

Stir ingredients to combine.

Pour batter over top of peaches and caramel sauce in baking dish.

Bake a full 45 minutes at 350. Otherwise the center will be goopy and not set up when you cut into it.

With a knife, cut around the edges of the baking dish.

Invert the cake immediately onto a platter or plate. 

If desired, decorate the cake with whipped topping, maraschino cherries and fresh mint before serving.

Peach Upside Down Cake is terrific for company desserts.

This is also a great dessert to make during the summer for Fourth of July and Labor Day picnics or potlucks when fresh peaches are in season.

We drooled over every bite of this fantastic cake.

Here’s the recipe.

PEACH UPSIDE DOWN CAKE

(Recipe adapted from Florence Fabricant, New York Times)

Peach Upside Down Cake is so good you’ll want to make it again and again.

This beautiful and festive cake is perfect for holiday dinners.

If you have a sweet tooth, you’ll love this Peach Upside Down Cake.

You may also enjoy these delicious recipes!

Peach Ice Cream Cake

Peach Dapple Cake

Peach Swirl Cake