Peach and almond upside down cake

Ingredients:

• 55 grams cream cheese
• 115 grams butter
• 1 & 1/2 cups caster sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup peach juice (reserved from tinned peaches)
• 1 teaspoon almond essence
• 2 & 1/2 cups plain flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 cup slivered almonds, toasted
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 x 400g tin of sliced peaches in juice (drained, reserve 1/2 cup of juice)
• 2 tablespoons of brown sugar

Method:

• Grease a 20cm cake tin and preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.
• Cream the cream cheese, butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the peach juice and beat until just combined. Add the eggs one by one, beating after each egg. Finally, add the almond essence and beat until just combined.
• Sift the flour, salt and baking powder together into a medium bowl. Add a third of the flour mixture to the butter and eggs mixture and stir to combine, then add a third of the milk and stir to combine. Alternate the remaining two thirds of the flour mixture and the milk, stirring to combine after each addition. Finally, add the almonds to the batter and mix in.
• Prepare the topping: spread the melted butter across the base of the prepared cake tin and distribute the brown sugar across the base evenly. Lay the drained peach slices across the base in any form that takes your fancy. Spoon the cake batter into the tin, on top of the peaches.
• Place into the oven and bake 45 – 55 minutes, until the cake is pulling away from the edges of the tin and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the cake to loosen then turn out onto a plate. Place right-side up on a baking rack and allow to cool.

About this recipe

My peach and almond upside down cake is dense and hearty with a buttery topping of sweet sliced fruit. Inspired by the retro delight of a pineapple upside down cake, this version is comforting and appropriate for winter, with a sweet memory of summery tinned peaches on the top. It’s very sturdy – you can pick it up with one hand for generous bites – and the almonds add some toasty texture throughout.

I really do enjoy a good upside down cake. They look so pretty and make a pleasing centre piece for pudding, but are really very simple and unfussy to make with low risk of disaster in my experience. And many other people have thought so throughout history – although upside down cakes came to prominence in the 1920s and 30s, when tinned fruit was the new thing, the concept dates back to the Middle Ages. Upside down cakes throughout the years have been topped with nuts and fruit, and some were baked in an iron skillet over a hot fire. That version in particular must have been a real winter warmer.