We have peaches!  And for the first time in a long time, we seem to have good peaches!  My stomach is smiling!

But after all the savory peach dishes a few days ago, I thought it time to revisit an old favorite – Peach Upside Down Cake.

Pineapple may be the more traditional fruit, but absolutely anything can be used in an upside down cake.  i have used everything from Apricots to Grapes, Peaches, Apples, Bananas…  You get the picture.  They all work.

I use a 12″ cake pan because I have a 12″ cake pan! Otherwise, I’d use a 12″ skillet like my mother used to do.

Peach Upside Down Cake

The Topping (or bottom…)

Melt between a half to 3/4 stick butter and pour into pan.  Sprinkle brown sugar on top of butter.  Arrange fruit in pan to look nice when you take it out of the pan.  Don’t crowd the fruit – you want the batter to reach the bottom of the pan.

The Cake:

There are Bisquik recipes out there, sponge cakes, boiling water cakes, all sorts of things for upside down cakes.  I suppose any of them wopuld work.  It’s what you’re used to, I guess.

I make a basic yellow cake and replace the vanilla with whatever flavoring I’m making the cake.  If you don’t have a cabinet full of flavorings, just use vanilla.  If you’ve never baked a cake from scratch before, this is a really easy one to make.  Or… use a mix.  BUT… choose a mix that does NOT have partially-hydrogenated fat in it. (Almost all of them do…)

  • 2 cups cake flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 2 tsp vanilla (or flavoring of choice…)
  • 3/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350°.  Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla or flavoring to milk. Slowly add flour alternately with milk. Don’t overmix, but batter should be smooth.

Carefully pour over fruit and bake 30-35 minutes or until cake is done.

(You can also use this recipe as a layer cake!  2-9″ pans, greased and floured, and bake about 20-25 or so minutes.)

It really is that simple!