This Peach Upside Down Skillet Cake showcases sweet summer peaches in a delicious way. (Yes, you can use thawed, frozen peaches in the off-season.) The cake has added flavor and structure by adding ground almonds to the batter. Peach slices are layered over an easy-to-make caramel. Once baked, the cake is inverted to reveal a show-stopping beautiful peach cake that will impress anyone!
Summer Peaches are my favorite stone fruit. Our peach tree is still in its early years, so it has been a bit stingy is providing us with more than a few peaches. I purchased a few peaches at my local Farmer’s Market and they were at peak ripeness. Should I make a “Dutch Baby” Pancake with them?
When looking for inspiration, one of my most trusted sources– America’s Test Kitchen never fails to give me inspiration. I own several of their cookbooks and one of my favorites is “Cook It In Cast Iron“. I own three Cast Iron Skillets and I use them a lot! Their recipe for “Cast Iron Pour Over Peach Cake” was perfect. For one, peeling the peaches is a step that could be skipped.
Our garage freezer has an assortment of nuts (to keep them from going rancid). My Ninja Air Fryer to toast the almonds, then pulsed them until finely ground.
The cake batter is really simple to make, and you can don’t need an electric mixer: flour, sugar, leaveners, ground almond, melted butter, eggs and lemon zest. Done and done!
I used my 10″ Le Creuset Cast Iron Skillet (though I also own Lodge10″ Cast Iron Skillet) to melt butter and sugar together over medium heat. There! The ingredients have melted and caramelized. Remove the skillet from the heat…
Layer the fresh peach slices into the caramelized butter-sugar. Simply pour the batter over the peaches and slide into the oven for about 25 minutes. Test the cake at 25 minutes, with a toothpick. In my case, a couple more minutes were needed.
Allow the cake to settle in the pan for about ten minutes. To better flip the cake over, set a cooling rack on top. The handle can be super hot, so use very thick oven mitts. Ready, set, go!
The cake slid right out! Yay! Now, to allow this cake to completely cool.
TASTING NOTES: Wow! The cake “crumb” is surprisingly tender. The ground almonds are very subtle, yet give a nice texture to the cake. The caramelized peaches are baked to a lovely soft and chewy texture. I loved the slightly crisp edges of the cake, from the caramel sugar. I could taste the lemon zest, however, I think next time I would omit the lemon zest and add some almond extract– I love anything with an almond flavor! I could easily see using sliced plums, or even pineapple, in this recipe.
Amazing Cast Iron Pour-Over Peach Upside Down Cake
Equipment
- 1 10" cast iron skillet see notes
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons butter, plus for the skillet
- 6 tablespoons butter melted and cooled (for the batter)
- 1 cup sugar; divided (7 ounces )
- Salt
- 1 pound peaches (about 2 or 3 peaches_ halved, pitted, and cut into 3/4-inch wedges, or 12 ounces frozen sliced peaches, thawed and drained
- ½ cup sliced almonds toasted (for the batter)
Dry ingredients:
- 1 cup all-purpose flour 5 ounces
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ⅛ teaspoon baking soda
- ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg
Wet ingredients:
- 1 large egg plus
- 1 large yolk
- 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest note: I think almond extract would be a great flavor substitute
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup whole milk
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees.
Prepare toasted sliced almonds:
- Pulse almonds in food processor until finely ground, about 10 pulses; set aside.
For the skillet:
- Melt 2 tablespoons butter in 10-inch cast-iron skillet over medium heat.
- Add ¼ cup sugar and pinch salt and cook, whisking constantly, until sugar is melted, smooth, and deep golden brown, 2 to 4 minutes.
- Off heat, carefully arrange peaches cut side down in tight circle around edge of skillet, overlapping as needed. Arrange remaining peaches in center of skillet.
For the cake batter:
- Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, ¼ teaspoon salt, and ground almonds together in large bowl.
- In separate bowl, whisk milk, egg and yolk, lemon zest, vanilla, remaining 6 tablespoons melted butter, and remaining ¾ cup sugar together until smooth.
- Stir milk mixture into flour mixture until just combined.
Bake the cake:
- Pour batter over peaches and spread into even layer. Transfer skillet to oven and bake until cake is golden brown and toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes, rotating skillet halfway through baking.
- Using oven mitts, transfer skillet to wire rack and let cake cool for 10 minutes.
- Being careful of hot skillet handle, run paring knife around edge of cake to loosen.
Release the cake:
- Place wire rack over skillet, and holding rack tightly, invert cake onto rack and let sit until cake releases itself from skillet, about 1 minute.
- Place rack over baking sheet to catch drips. NOTE: I found I didn't have any drips. Using a large cake spatula, I transferred the cake onto a large plate.
- Remove skillet; gently scrape off any peaches stuck in skillet and arrange on top of cake. Let cake cool completely, about 1 hour. Serve with whipped cream for a delicious finish.
Notes
I have fresh peaches from my tree and thought i would try this recipe. I use a similar Pineapple upside down cake skillet recipe. Loved the recipe. Used the almond extract suggestion. I also ised brien sugar with the butter for the skillet bottom. I used buttermilk instead of milk. Was delicious.
Thank you for the positive review. I’ll bet that the buttermilk added great richness to the cake!