I was looking through the chest freezer the other day and saw a few bags of peaches from last summer. This peach gingerbread proved to be a delicious way to use some of last year's local peaches. The peaches are baked in the bottom of the pan but you flip the cake over before serving. The spicy gingerbread was the perfect complement to the sweet peaches...a match made in heaven!Peach Gingerbread Upside Down Cake (adapted from this recipe from King Arthur.com)
Topping
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp. water
4 cups peeled, pitted, sliced fresh peaches or frozen peaches that have been thawed and drained
Cake
6 Tbsp. butter, softened
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ginger
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1/3 cup molasses
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or all-purpose)
1/2 cup buttermilk (or almond milk with 1 tsp. vinegar)
Preheat the oven to 350*. Lightly grease a 9" square cake pan.
To make the topping, stir together melted butter, water, and sugar. Mix together with the peaches and layer the peaches in the bottom of the prepared pan. Try to arrange them in an even layer.
To make the cake: Beat butter, sugar, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, and salt together until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until smooth. Beat in molasses. Gently mix in the flour, then the buttermilk. Spoon the thick batter over the peaches gently in an even layer. Bake the cake for 35-40 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
Remove it from the oven, wait 1 minute, then invert it onto a serving platter. As an alternative, you can keep the cake in the pan and flip over each piece of cake as you're ready to serve it.
Yield: ~16 servings
