Peach Upside Down Cake

Now that summer is well under way, the summer fruits are finally available at Pick Your Owns. Picking your own fruit is so much fun. You get to sample all the fruit that are available while walking through orchards and you get to go home with a bushel of fresh fruit. My family and I went peach picking at Linvilla orchards in Media. It’s a great place to hang around and they have so many kinds of fresh produce – apples, grapes, tomatoes, peaches and more. Apparently they have 34 varieties of peaches, but to me, there were only two types- white peaches and yellow peaches. They also have rich and creamy home made ice cream. I heard that the graham slam is the best, but I guess I’ll decide for myself next year (when I can eat chocolate).

We left Linvilla with a whole box of fresh, juicy, ripe peaches. I cut up 5 peaches into slices and put them in the freezer so that I could use them later for smoothies. That left me with about 20 more peaches. When I have too many of one type of fruit I seem to always resort to baking. It’s an easy way to use up lots of fruit and it basically guarantees you a healthy dessert. Plus, there are many recipes that use fresh fruits and it’s not common to always have so much fruit available. So here was my chance to make this upside down peach cake that I’ve wanted to make when I had 1 ½ pounds of fresh peaches to spare.

Ingredients

3 cups thinly sliced peeled peaches (about 1 1/2 pounds)
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp lemon juice
Cooking spray
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 tsp grated lemon rind
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
11/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Combine the peaches, sugar, cornstarch, and lemon juice in a bowl. Spoon into a 9-inch round cake pan coated with cooking spray.
3. Place 2/3 cup sugar, butter, lemon rind, vanilla, and egg in a large bowl. Beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (for about 5 minutes).
4. Combine flour, baking powder, and baking soda, stirring well with a whisk. Add the flour mixture to sugar mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture; mix after each addition.
5. Spoon the batter over the peach mixture in pan. Bake for 45 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.