By Melissa Clark
- Total Time
- 1 hour, plus cooling
- Rating
- 4(1,005)
- Notes
- Read community notes
Upside-down cakes are easy, adaptable and beautiful no matter what kind of fruit you use. This one calls for any kind of summer stone fruit — peaches, apricots, nectarines, plums — whatever looks ripe and juicy. Caramelizing the brown sugar in a skillet before adding the fruit gives it all a particularly deep, complex flavor. Because of the moisture in the topping, you’ll need to bake this cake a little longer than other, similar butter cakes. Underbaked cake will be soggy and apt to fall apart, but an ideal result will have a well-browned surface and dark, slightly crunchy edges.
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Ingredients
Yield:1 (10-inch) cake
- 4tablespoons/56 grams unsalted butter
- ⅓cup/71 grams light brown sugar
- 1½teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (see Tip)
- ¼teaspoon fine sea salt
- 3cups sliced ripe but firm peaches, or use 3 cups sliced nectarines, plums or apricots (about 1¼ pounds before pitting)
- ½cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled, plus more for greasing the pan
- 1cup/200 grams granulated sugar
- 1tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
- 2large eggs, at room temperature
- ½cup/118 milliliters sour cream or plain whole-milk yogurt
- 1½teaspoons baking powder
- ¾teaspoon fine sea salt
- ¼teaspoon baking soda
- 1½cups/195 grams all-purpose flour
For the Fruit Topping
For the Cake
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Preparation
Step
1
Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Step
2
Make the topping: In an oven-safe 10-inch skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Add the brown sugar, lemon juice and salt, and whisk until the brown sugar melts, 1 to 2 minutes.
Step
3
Let cook, whisking constantly, until the mixture starts to smell like caramel and darkens slightly, about 1 minute longer. (Don’t walk away or the mixture may burn.) The mixture will clump and separate, but that’s OK.
Step
4
Add fruit, gently tossing to coat with the caramel. Remove from the heat and arrange fruit into an even layer on the bottom of the skillet. Ignore any sugar clumps; they will dissolve during baking.
Step
5
Make the cake: In a large bowl, whisk together the melted butter, sugar, vanilla and lemon zest until thoroughly combined. Whisk in eggs, one at a time. Add sour cream and whisk until well mixed. Sprinkle in baking powder, salt and baking soda into the batter, one at a time, whisking vigorously after each addition.
Step
6
Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in flour until just incorporated. The mixture will be lumpy, but that’s OK. Don’t overmix. Scrape batter into the skillet over the fruit and spread evenly.
Step
7
Bake until surface is deeply browned all over (with darker brown edges) and the fruit is lightly bubbling around the sides of the skillet, about 35 to 45 minutes, rotating halfway through. A toothpick inserted into cake will come out clean.
Step
8
Once the cake is out of the oven, immediately run a butter knife or offset spatula around the edge of the skillet. Let sit for 10 to 15 minutes to cool slightly. Carefully invert cake into serving platter. If some fruit sticks to bottom of skillet, gently remove using offset spatula or knife and place back onto cake. Let cake cool until the fruit topping sets, at least 30 minutes to 1 hour, before serving. Cake is best served on the day it is baked.
Tip
- Since you’ll need the lemon juice for the topping and the grated zest for the cake, it’s best to zest the lemon before you cut it and juice it.
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1,005
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Cooking Notes
Euphemia
Good luck. Parchment paper on an upside down cake is decidedly a bad move. You'll never get the paper off, and to even have the paper compromises the shine, the beauty, the magic of the caramelized fruit and sugar. No. No parchment, no foil, nothing.
Phill
I would bake this in a 9" round pan, well greased and with a round of baking parchment paper on the bottom. It would make getting the cake out of the pan a lot less iffy and result in a higher cake.
janice c
I’ve made this recipe twice in two days now—It’s that good. First time used blueberries and the second time strawberries with peaches. My cooking pan was a 10” cast-iron skillet. I had no problems getting the cake to release. I chilled it before serving with whipped cream. Two thumbs up.
Glenda
I have been making these for ages. Berry upside down cake with brown butter and ginger, peach upside down cake with cinnamon and pecans. The banana one is new to me, must try it! The hardest part of making these is having the courage to turn it out of the pan. I say a little prayer every time, but if anything does stick, I just gently stick it back onto the cake.
Michele 53.5N
No need to peel the peaches. Holding the whole peach, cut thin slices through to the pit all around and then push the slices off all at once.
JC
Don’t bake this in a springform pan. Bad advice. I tried it and it’s a disaster. You lose all of the caramel (leaks out) and it’s a mess to turn. I should have followed the directions first.
Bill Hettig
Success! And next time I will up the ante with some nutmeg and a splash of bourbon [or champagne vinegar]; my tastes buds were looking for a subtle contrast to the sweet.
Pam
Fresh Mango & Black Cherries. To die…
Alice
I found it impossible not to bake this peach upside down cake once I had read the recipe, and I’m glad I did. It’s easy and great. I made it in a skillet. I was nervous about turning it upside down and a member of this household actually suggested we should leave it with the fruit on the bottom but I gathered my courage and flipped it over. Sure enough, just as everyone says, it stayed intact except for a few peach slices, which went right back into place.
Helen
Bake 45 min, 35 min not done in middle.
jessica
Can you freeze this? I am running out of time on my peaches!!
adrienne
Why does the ingredient list for the cake mention butter for greasing the pan? Then there is no mention of when one might do that. And it seems completely unnecessary. As our peaches, while local and perfectly ripe, were not super flavorful, I should have added some cinnamon or nutmeg or something to the cake itself to boost the flavor. The bourbon sounds like a good idea!
Christine
Made this tonight with peaches just off the tree. Didn't have 10" skillet so used 9" cake pan - melted the butter in the pan right over the burner. Added a dash of nutmeg and sliced almonds to the caramel. Came out of the pan beautifully, and was heavenly with ice cream.
John
I regularly cut the amount of sugar by 1/4 in almost every dessert recipe I make with no adverse effects. I would recommend using the full amount of brown sugar in the topping here, though.
DH
Followed directions to the T and used our 60+ year old cast iron frying pan. The cake came out nicely with only a few small pieces of fruit sticking to the bottom of the pan, easily returned to their places. Family agrees this is a keeper, with the cast iron pan caramelizing the peaches and plums perfectly.
jcsnuggy
I used overripe persimmon (fuyu) and really liked the resulting cake. I used a 12" cast iron skillet and baked for a few minutes less than directed without any mishaps. Also used maple sugar in the fruit topping. I wll be interested to try out other fruit e.g. cranberry, strawberry.
Peter
This turned out perfectly. I could have used a little more sauce, so you could add a bit more butter and sugar to make more caramel. But otherwise it was perfect in our cast iron pan.
MonicaTM
Made this today with one change to the recipe; used full fat Greek yogurt as that was all I had on hand. Delicious! Next time I’ll add bourbon!
DarcieD
Delicious. This time, wanted to use my larger 12" carbon steel skillet. Did not modify cake batter at all, but modified the peach layer: an extra 3/4 cup or so peaches, more brown sugar and lemon juice, some bourbon, and a bit of nutmeg. Wow. The cake was just a bit less high, and that was fine because the peaches stand out.
ljeanne
To convert to a 12 inch cast iron skillet, multiply each ingredient by 1.5. Bake for 45 minutes. Used white peaches - delicious!
Maryanne
I made this as directed. It’s perfect! Ty
Alina
This was fantastic. I made a couple of small modifications, just for my taste: cut sugar in the cake by 25%; added 4 T brandy to the batter; doubled the lemon zest; and sprinled another T of brandy over the top when done. Cooked it all up in my trusty old cast iron pan. This will be made again and again, and i'll try it with other fruits when peaches (and summer -- sob) are done.
dhwsmith
Made half in an 8 inch skillet. Needed more than half the peaches. I used about12 or 13 ounces and that was barely enough.
Marilyn from Wisconsin
I forgot the sour cream and it turned out beautifully! Baked in 40 minutes. Maybe this should be considered an excellent variation. I also added 1/2 tsp freshly ground cardamom to the cake recipe.
Julie A. Hubbard
Quite delicious! I baked it in an all clad sauce pan, 10”, no probs with sticking to pan.
Amanda S.
Delicious every time! The cake is so delicate - it's everything you want an upside down cake to be! I only had a vanilla full fat yogurt, and it substituted very well for the sour cream. This is an easy recipe with a beautiful and tasty payout.
Maria
Delicious and easy to make! I made two cakes simultaneously for a big dinner party. I used a cast iron skillet and an enameled skillet, too. When I turned them out, they both came out cleanly. One had two peach slices stuck to pan and I easily put them right back onto the cake. Both were beautiful and got lots of oohs and aahs.
Maria
I have used a cast iron pan and also an enameled iron pan and both times the cake came out very easily, nothing stuck. Delicious and easy to make! I will definitely make it again. Love Melissa Clark's recipes.
Mari
Made this as written with 2 tweaks: put in some grated nutmeg for oomph, and instead of mixing the peaches in with the caramel I actually put them at the bottom of a cast iron skillet and poured the caramel over top, then proceeded as written. Yes, I got one more pot dirty but I got my pretty shape once I inverted the cake. Absolutely gorgeous, would make again. Served it with bourbon whipped cream
Austro Girl
Sounds like you followed the "Peach Upside Down Skillet cake with Bourbon Whipped Cream" recipe, rather than this one. I blended the two recipes, shook in cinnamon. Yummy.
susan
I followed recipe and put a bit of bourbon in the caramel based on other recommendations. I thought this dessert was pretty and easy to make, but a little bland. Not a do over for me.
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