Peach Upside Down Cake Recipe

Even on the most well liked days of summer time, you’ll discover me in my kitchen with the oven on, dreaming up methods to show my weekly farmers market corridor into baked delights. Certainly one of my favourite methods to have fun that haul is popping my favourite stone fruit—peaches—into this luxurious the wrong way up cake. This topsy-turvy cake might look fancy, but it surely’s easy sufficient that even an inexperienced baker can nail its good flipped presentation.

The method of constructing any the wrong way up cake, together with this one, is pretty easy: The fruit goes within the backside of the cake pan together with melted butter and sugar, then cake batter is poured on high. After baking, you flip the pan over to disclose a stunning cake with golden-brown caramelized edges and juicy peaches above a sturdy however tender cake. It’s peach perfection.

However to make sure that the cake is flavorful and releases from the pan simply in one-fell swoop, there are just a few strategies to get proper. We requested recipe developer Marianne Williams to methodically flip cake after cake till she perfected the method. Right here’s what we discovered about the best way to bake an ideal peach the wrong way up cake that is certain to be a-peach-iated by everybody who eats it.

Ideas for Perfecting a Peach Upside Down Cake

Begin with recent or frozen peaches. Sure, the previous adage rings true right here, “recent is greatest.” However recent isn’t all the time doable. The place I stay in New England our peach season is transient—perhaps six weeks, tops. When recent peaches can be found, they’re my go-to with this cake. One of the best recent peaches for baking are ripe however nonetheless a bit agency—the fruit ought to have a bit give however should not bruise when gently pressed. If the peaches are too ripe they’ll flip mushy and crumble as soon as baked and flipped out of the pan. Additionally keep away from underripe peaches, which are inclined to lack the flavour improvement and sweetness of ripe ones, which might result in a bland cake. (For extra data on peach storage and ripening, you possibly can learn our information on how to ripen peaches.)

When you do not have recent, in-season peaches available however nonetheless need a chic peach cake, we advocate utilizing frozen peach slices. We will affirm by means of rounds of testing that this cake remains to be extremely scrumptious and could have the identical spectacular presentation when made with frozen peaches. Keep in mind that frozen peaches are frozen at their peak of ripeness, which helps virtually assure constant high quality. If utilizing frozen peaches, make certain to search for slices which might be about 3/4-inch thick and keep away from chopped peaches, which can overcook and switch mushy when baked. To keep away from extra moisture that may make the cake soggy, you should definitely thaw, drain, and pat the peaches dry with paper towels totally earlier than including them to the pan.

Skip the stand mixer and preserve it easy with a hand-whisked batter. No want to drag out a stand mixer or meals processor. In our testing, we discovered that hand-whisking was not solely extra sensible, but it surely additionally minimized the danger of over-aerating the batter, which might lighten and tenderize the cake an excessive amount of. When a cake batter is made in a stand mixer, the method includes creaming and lightening butter with sugar earlier than vigorously whipping the batter. The objective of that is to include as a lot air as doable to assist lighten and tenderize the cake. That is nice in case your objective is a fragile, fluffy cake, however right here we wanted a sturdier cake that may help the peach topping and maintain collectively as soon as flipped. So, put your arm muscle groups to work and get whisking.

Construct taste with brown butter and cardamom. Whisking easy melted butter into our cake batter labored completely effectively in our checks, however we discovered that taking just some minutes to brown the butter first produced a richer, nuttier taste that complemented the candy peaches. A touch of cardamom introduced a delicate heat to the cake, which added depth of taste. When browning the butter, make certain to swirl the pan continuously to keep away from burning the milk solids as they cook dinner. As soon as browned, shortly switch the butter to a bowl. If left within the skillet too lengthy, the browned milk solids might overcook and switch bitter.

Cool the cake briefly earlier than flipping it. Cooling the cake for about quarter-hour after which inverting it whereas it is nonetheless heat ensures a simple launch. In case you’re not 100% assured together with your cake-flipping expertise, you possibly can place a parchment spherical within the backside of the cake pan to additional insure a simple launch earlier than layering elements in. Simply word that utilizing a parchment spherical will decrease the caramelization across the backside edges of the peaches. Our remaining recommendation for ensuring the peaches all launch from the pan as soon as flipped is to simply be assured together with your flip. Flip the cake in a single swift, regular movement. If just a few peaches stay caught to the pan that’s completely nice—simply use a fork to softly carry and rearrange them on high of the cake and nobody will even know.