Peach upside-down cake

Peach upside-down cake

TV chef John Torode shares this delicious recipe for peach upside-down cake.

Growing up in Australia, my Nanna used to grow lots of fruit in her back garden – ladyfinger bananas, passionfruit, apples, limes, lemons, mulberries and strawberries – but my favourite were the peaches.

Whenever I cook this peach upside-down cake I feel as though I could be nine years old again, standing next to Nanna on a sunny Saturday, peaches just picked from the tree at the side of the house and the smell of her perfume and the wood-burning stove.

Ingredients (makes 1 cake)

5–6 peaches, cut in half and stones removed

400g caster sugar

1 vanilla pod, split in half lengthways and seeds scraped out

200g plain flour

1½tsp baking powder

200g butter

4 eggs

30ml milk

Icing sugar, for dusting

Method

Heat the oven to 180°C/gas 4. Line the base of a 23cm springform cake tin with baking parchment.

Pop the peaches in a large pan with 200g of the sugar and the vanilla seeds and pod, cover with water – just enough to cover the fruit – and bring to the boil.

Turn off the heat and cover with a lid and leave them for 20 minutes.

To make the cake batter, sift the flour and the baking powder together into a bowl three times to aerate.

Beat the butter and the remaining sugar until white and doubled in size (an electric whisk is good for this).

Add the eggs one at a time, beating until well mixed, then add the sifted flour and milk and mix well.

Lift the peaches out of their cooking liquid and then arrange the wet peaches, cut-side down, over the base of the cake tin.

Pour the cake batter over the peaches and bake in the oven for 25–30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Allow the cake to cool in the tin a little – about 10–15 minutes – then gently turn out onto a plate and carefully peel off the paper.

Leave to sit for 30 minutes. Dust with icing sugar and serve warm.

Recipe courtesy of John Torode – liverpooleecho.co.uk.

You may also like this Strawberry and Cream Stack or these Baobab Brownies!