My husband and I moved away from our decade-long home of Southern California on Monday, but before we left we got in a few good weeks of the stone fruit. The first peaches showed up at the Farmers’ Market about a month ago, and by the time we left, peaches, nectarines, plums, pluots, and other stone fruits were overflowing the farm stands. I knew I needed to get in some good baking in my own kitchen before we became nomads for the next 12 months, and a week or so before we left I baked a peach upside-down cornmeal skillet cake to take to dinner at a friend’s house in Laguna Beach. It was our last visit to the beach before we left, but the dinner we had was too good for me to dwell on that, and this cake was the perfect end to a summer dinner.
I originally picked out this recipe because of a few peaches in the fridge quickly entering their softest phase of life, and knew I had to post it here because of its incredible resemblance to the cornmeal cookies I posted recently. A little less flour, a little more cornmeal, half the amount of butter, and the addition of just under a cup of buttermilk makes cookies a cake, apparently. Substitute a lime glaze for sliced peaches and caramel, and you have a beautiful, elegantly simple and rustic dessert.
The cornmeal, the skillet, and the whole upside-down business make for a crispy edge on each piece of cake, with a soft interior and a gooey, sweet caramel glaze. The peaches and the cake sort of melt into each other on the top, making those fruit-adjacent bits of cake particularly delicious.
You can easily make this cake with any sort of soft fruit you have in the house, particularly stone fruits and berries. The peaches go especially well with the caramel sauce, I think, but I’m sure other fruits would be great too.
I used a 10-inch cast iron skillet here, but my guess is that a 9-inch cake pan would work as well. You may need to increase the baking time a few minutes to make sure the thicker cake is baked all the way through, and just make sure you let it cool significantly in the pan before you flip, to insure against the lovely fruit and caramel layer staying behind in the pan.
Recipe is adapted from Rustic Fruit Desserts, by Cory Schreiber and Julie Richardson.
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Peach Upside-Down Cornmeal Skillet Cake
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 8 servings
Description
This Peach Upside-down Cornmeal Skillet Cake features a crispy edge with a soft interior, topped with gooey caramel and sweet, juicy peaches.
Ingredients
For the Peach Topping:
- 4 ripe but firm peaches, pitted and sliced
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter (57 g)
- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar (100 g)
For the Cornmeal Cake Batter:
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (150 g)
- 1 cup fine or medium cornmeal (150 g)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature (113 g)
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar (100 g)
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup buttermilk (240 ml), room temperature
Instructions
Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Use a 10-inch cast iron skillet. A 9-inch cake pan can also work, but the cake may need a few extra minutes in the oven.
Set the skillet over medium heat.
Add the 1/4 cup butter and let it melt.
Add the brown sugar and stir until the mixture is mostly combined.
The mixture may look grainy or slightly separated at this stage. That is fine; it will settle as the cake bakes.
Remove the skillet from the heat.
Arrange the peach slices over the butter and brown sugar mixture in an even layer.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Set aside.
In a large bowl, beat the 1/2 cup room-temperature butter with the granulated sugar until blended and slightly lightened.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.
Beat in the vanilla extract.
Add about one-third of the dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated.
Add half of the buttermilk and mix again.
Repeat with another third of the dry ingredients, the remaining buttermilk, and then the final third of the dry ingredients.
Mix only until the batter comes together. Avoid overmixing once the flour has been added.
Spoon the batter over the peaches in the skillet.
Spread it to the edges with a spatula, taking care not to disturb the peach layer too much.
Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the top is set and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
The cake should pull slightly from the sides of the skillet, and the center should spring back when touched.
Let the cake cool in the skillet for 10 to 15 minutes.
Run a thin knife around the edge of the skillet.
Place a large plate or serving platter over the skillet.
Using oven mitts, hold the skillet and plate firmly together and invert the cake in one motion.
Lift the skillet away.
If any peach slices stick to the pan, place them back on the cake.
Let the cake cool slightly before slicing.
Notes
- You can substitute other stone fruits or berries for the peaches.
- If using a 9-inch cake pan instead of a skillet, you may need to increase the baking time slightly.
- Let the cake cool significantly in the pan before flipping to ensure the fruit and caramel layer stays intact.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Category: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 320
- Sugar: 30
- Sodium: 240
- Fat: 10
- Carbohydrates: 55
- Fiber: 2
- Protein: 5
- Cholesterol: 55
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Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use a regular cake pan instead of a cast iron skillet?
Yes — the article says a 9-inch cake pan should work, though you may need to increase the baking time a few minutes to ensure the thicker cake bakes through. The notes also confirm this and add that you should let the cake cool significantly before flipping to keep the fruit-and-caramel layer intact.
Can I substitute other fruit for the peaches?
The article says you can use any soft fruit, especially stone fruits (nectarines, plums, pluots) and berries. The author thinks peaches pair especially well with the caramel sauce, but is confident other fruits would be great too.
What does the cornmeal contribute to the cake’s texture?
The article describes the cornmeal as the ingredient (along with the skillet and the upside-down method) that creates a crispy edge on each slice with a soft interior. The ratio is 1 cup (240 ml) cornmeal to 1¼ cups (300 ml) flour.
How long should the cake cool before I flip it?
At least 20 minutes on a wire rack, per the instructions. Both the article and notes warn that flipping too soon risks the fruit-and-caramel layer staying behind in the pan.
Can I eat this cake the next day, or is it only good fresh?
The recipe says it is best eaten the day it is made, but the article also notes it makes a fabulous breakfast the next morning — so it keeps well overnight at room temperature.
Why don’t the ingredients match the recipe, suddenly it calls for baking soda which isn’t listed in the ingredients. It says melt butter for caramel, but then there’s more butter that gets creamed into the cake? I’m so mad, I bought everything for this and now realize the recipe doesn’t work.
Hello there!
You’re absolutely right, and we are very sorry — the recipe card was missing a couple of important details.
The baking soda should be listed in the dry ingredients. Use:
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
And yes, there should be butter in two places: one amount for the peach caramel, and a separate amount for the cake batter. The corrected butter amounts are:
For the peach topping:
1/4 cup unsalted butter
For the cake batter:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
The cake batter butter is creamed with the sugar before the eggs and dry ingredients are added.
So the corrected ingredient additions are:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Thank you for calling this out, and so sorry again.
Thisis my absolute favorite new recipe. Making it again tonight. Love it with peaches, but i usually have pears mpre readily available. My secret is I finely chop an additional pear and fold that into the cake batter. We eat it warm with some whipping cream poured on top. It is divine! thank you so much for sharing this recipe!!!!!
I had a bunch of fresh local peaches and found this recipe while thinking about what to do with them. I’m so glad I did! I can honestly say it’s one of the best cakes I’ve made, and it has a perfect summer flavor. I added some fresh lemon thyme leaves and cut back on the sugar just a bit, but everything else was done as described. My husband loved it and my mom asked for the recipe. Definitely a winner!
Hi Lorecina – the great thing about this is that you don’t need to be picky or persnickety about the caramel at all. Perhaps “fairly smooth” is a little misleading, but it’s okay if it’s kind of grainy and lumpy – it won’t look like caramel that you’d pour over ice cream, or something like that. Because you’ll be baking it with the cake, it will smooth out a bit and soak into the fruit and the batter. Hope that helps!
I never got past the first step, so I guess mine is a rating for the caramel portion of the recipe — something as persnickety as cooking sugar needs a more detailed set of instructions (for the uninitiated, at least?). Even an image would help — my caramel came out gritty and lumpy after three attempts at three different temperature settings, and the sole image above it tough to use as a guide.