With peach season coming to a close here soon, I knew I needed to squeeze in just one more delicious peach recipe. With my peach cobbler cookies on my mind, I had a few more peaches left I knew I wanted to make into an easy, but super tasty, cake. My peach upside down cake is packed with peach flavor, and turned out to be quite a cinch to throw together, too! Let’s dive right into this stunning cake, shall we?

MIllions of peaches

We recently visited an orchard that serves peach ice cream sundaes (heavenly) and I left with a 10 lb box of fresh peaches. We’ve been using them for snacks, smoothies, cookies, and then THIS gorgeous cake! Pineapple upside down cake is one of my all-time favorite cakes, so transforming my pineapple cake into a PEACH upside down cake was a pretty easy call. You won’t need a million peaches for this recipe, though – just three will do :).

Peach Upside down layer

For our peach upside down cake, you’re going to need three ripe peaches, sliced. I know there’s been a bit of debate on my Instagram page in the past about whether we should be keeping the skins on or off. I personally love the look with the skins on (and love the taste and extra nutrition they provide), but you can certainly slice off those skins of they bother you!

When making this cake, we have to add in the peaches into the cake pans (I used two 8″ ones for this recipe, but you can do three 6″ if you’d like a taller cake). But first, you’ll need to layer on a couple things:

  1. Melted butter – add in melted unsalted butter into the bottom of each prepared cake round.
  2. Brown sugar – sprinkle it around until it’s in a mostly-even layer. I used light brown sugar.
  3. Layered Peaches – slice the peaches nice and thin, then lay them sideways, slightly overlapping, right on top of the brown sugar layer.

The butter/brown sugar layer caramelizes with those juicy peaches and makes the flavors really pop!

Next, you’ll add the cake batter right on top! This cake batter is made with my yellow cake mix, a touch of cinnamon, and then a little bit of peach flavoring. The flavoring is optional, but if you’ve followed me for two seconds, you know I love sneaking it into my peach bakes for extra flavor.

Some of the other ingredients I used for the cake batter are:

  1. Buttermilk – room temperature.
  2. Sour Cream – room temperature.
  3. Eggs – always large, and room temperature.
  4. Vanilla – I prefer the Costco one.
  5. Cinnamon
  6. Vegetable Oil
  7. Yellow Cake Mix – I love Duncan Hines, but any other brand will be similar.
  8. Peach Flavoring

I know some people say it’s bad to tap your cakes on the counter. But I LOVE it. It gives the cake better texture! And it gets rid of large pockets of air in your cake layers. So tap away, friends! Just don’t go too crazy and mess up those layered peaches at the bottom of this one, haha.

Bake it up and flip it over! If you’ve prepped your cake pans correctly (I always do a swipe of shortening and a little dust of flour before I add in anything to my cake pans), they should flip out beautifully. Aren’t they gorgeous? If you’re worried about them sticking, some people have used parchment rounds for things like this, and that’s totally fine, too. I found I didn’t need to.

Let the cake layers cool completely, and then wrap them up to freeze quickly before assembly. They stack better when they’re slightly chilled.

With or without buttercream

My upside down peach cake could be made into a 9×13 pan just fine, and you could serve it warm, without buttercream, and a la mode! OR you could do a tall 8″ pan (3″ tall instead of my 1 1/2 ones here). So it could be a little coffee-like cake without any buttercream – breakfast anyone?

I love it with a little buttercream, and my classic vanilla buttercream simply can’t be beat! Its simply made with a few ingredients:

  1. unsalted butter
  2. salt
  3. vanilla
  4. heavy cream
  5. powdered sugar

See below for tips on making the fluffiest vanilla buttercream in the directions.

That’s it! Are you excited? It’s so gorgeous, and I can’t wait for you to try it! Peach season is summer-fall for me, so I think there’s still time to bake up this beauty.

As always, I’d love to see your BwB-inspired bakes! Make sure to tag me @bakingwithblondie so I can join in on all the fun on Instagram. 🙂

Happy Baking!

xo, Mandy

Get the Recipe: Peach Upside Down Cake

Soft Peach Cake with Fresh Peaches baked right on, and frosted in a classic vanilla buttercream.
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Ingredients
 

Peach Brown Sugar Layer (baked into cake)

  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
  • 2/3 cup brown sugar
  • 3 large peaches, sliced. I also leave my skins on, but you can slice them off if you prefer them that way.

Peach Yellow Cake

  • 3 whole eggs, room temperature
  • 2/3 cup sour cream , room temperature
  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 2/3 cup buttermilk, room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon peach flavoring (LorAnn), *optional, but adds great peach flavor
  • 1 15.25oz Box Yellow Cake Mix , I prefer the taste and texture of Duncan Hines, but any other brand will be similar.

Classic Vanilla Buttercream

  • 1 1/2 cup (or three sticks) unsalted butter, left out at room temperature for about 10 minutes
  • 1 pinch salt
  • 1 Tablespoon pure vanilla
  • 1/4 cup heavy cream
  • 7-8 cups powdered sugar

Equipment

  • 1 scallop cake comb
  • 2 8" cake pans

Instructions
 

Peach Upside Down Cake

  • Preheat the oven to 325 degrees, prep two 8" cake rounds with a swipe of shortening and dust of flour to prevent sticking.
  • Split the melted butter between the two cake pans and brush along the bottom until it's in an even butter layer. Split the brown sugar between the two cake rounds, then lay down the peach slices along the bottom of the pan in an even layer. Set aside.
  • Hand-whisk all the cake ingredients in a large bowl together except for the cake mix. Sift in the cake mix and gently stir to combine. Split the cake batter between the two prepared peach-layered cake rounds. Bake for 30-32 minutes until the cakes have been baked through completely.
  • Remove the cake rounds from the oven and flip out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Wrap the cake rounds carefully in plastic wrap and freeze for at least 30 minutes for ease of assembly.

Classic Vanilla Buttercream

  • In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, whip up the butter until it's light and fluffy. Add in the salt, vanilla, and heavy cream and whip up again. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Turn the mixer on low speed and add in the powdered sugar slowly. You may need to add in a little more heavy cream (about 2-3 Tablespoons if needed) to thin out the mixture. Set the mixer on high speed for 2 minutes until the buttercream is light and fluffy.

Assembly

  • Add a little buttercream in the center of a cardboard cake round on a cake turntable to act as "glue". Place down the first cake layer (fruit side up), then add on a layer of buttercream. Crumb coat the cake, but leave the top exposed (so we can all see the gorgeous peaches!).
  • Add on a layer of buttercream around the sides of the cake. Using a cake turntable and scalloped cake scraper, carefully go around the outside of the cake to create the textured finish. Slice and enjoy!