Gingerbread Peach Upside-Down Cake
Our 2020 grand-prize-winning recipe, Gingerbread Peach Upside Down Cake by Mary Leverette of Columbia, South Carolina, is a delicious way to use fresh in-season peaches. Her recipe uses our Miller's Choice Unbleached Flour and Muddy Pond Sorghum. The cake is full of spice and flavor, and the peaches add a touch of sweetness. This cake is best served warm, with a dollop of whipped cream or ice cream on top. Serve it for breakfast, brunch, or dessert.
“Each time I make this recipe it takes me home.
The recipe began with a clipping from a 1937 Farm Journal Magazine for gingerbread. We were apple growers in western North Carolina, and my grandmother Coela Coston added apples and pecans to make it an upside-down gingerbread cake. Mama Coston died in 1965, but she had already taught me the recipe.
When I moved to South Carolina, peaches were much more abundant than apples, so I adapted her recipe into this Gingerbread Peach Upside-Down Cake. It is one of the most flavorful and comforting desserts you’ll ever taste.” — Mary Leverette
GINGERBREAD PEACH UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons butter
- ¼ cup light brown sugar
- ¼ cup sorghum
- ½ cup finely chopped pecans
- 3 to 4 medium-ripe peaches, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup Muddy Pond Sorghum
- 2½ cups Miller's Choice Unbleached Flour
- 1½ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves or allspice
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup hot water
- Extra peach slices
- Whipped cream, if desired
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat, and stir in the brown sugar, sorghum, and pecans.
- Pour the mixture into a lightly greased 9-inch springform pan or deep cake pan.
- Arrange the peach slices over the sugar mixture.
- For the cake, place the sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl, and beat with an electric mixer on low speed until creamy, 30 seconds. Add the egg and sorghum and blend until smooth. Set aside.
- Place the flour in a medium bowl, and stir in the soda, ginger, cloves, and salt. Alternatively add these dry ingredients and the hot water to the creamed mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Beat until smooth. Pour the batter on top of the peaches. Place the pan in the oven.
- Bake the cake until it springs back when lightly pressed with your finger, about 35 to 40 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven, and invert at once onto a heatproof serving plate. If you are using a springform pan, invert, and then after 20 minutes unclasp the sides of the pan and carefully remove the base from the top of the cake.
- Garnish with extra peach slices. Serve warm with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
Notes
If desired, add 1 teaspoon cinnamon to the recipe. You can substitute nectarines or plums for peaches in this recipe.
