Upside Down Peach Cake

For some time now, I wanted to make a cake incorporating fruits. Initially, it was the veritable treasure of fruits I saw in the market that got me thinking on these lines. A search on the internet gave cake recipes with apples, pineapples, apricots, peaches and pears. So when I saw tinned peaches in a factory outlet in Kasauli, I quickly bought one expecting to make some lovely desserts.

Ingredients
for caramelization

Butter - 1/4 cup

Brown sugar - 1/2 cup
for cake
Peaches, cut into slices - 2 large or 3 medium sized
Butter, softened - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 2/3 cup
Egg - 1
Flour – 1.5 cups
Baking powder - 2 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Milk - 2/3 cup
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp

Melt the 1/4 cup butter in 8 or 9" cake round (here I used a 7" x 11" baking dish and it worked just fine). Mix in 1/2 cup brown sugar and make sure entire bottom is coated with this mixture. Gently lay peaches in butter/brown sugar. I used tinned peaches, about 3 halves, both to line the bottom of the cake pan and chopped some to add to the batter.

Cream 1/2 cup butter and 2/3 cup white sugar until light and fluffy. Beat the egg in. In a separate bowl stir together flour, baking powder and salt. To the creamed mix, add the flour mix alternately with milk and continue beating. Finally, add the vanilla essence. If you have any left-over peach slices that didn't fit in the bottom of the pan, chop them up and add them to the batter. Gently spread the batter over peach slices, there will be just enough batter to cover the slices.

Bake at 175 degrees C for 30 to 40 minutes or until you have a lightly browned top. Check if the cake is done after 30 minutes and if not done bake for some more time. Once done, allow to sit for 5 minutes. Loosen cake edge with knife and invert onto serving plate. If you wait too long, it will stick to the pan. Or use a springform cake pan like I did and only the bottom needs to be loosened.