Peach Upside Down Cake

It's peach season, the most yummiest of seasons! Besides being the sweetest, juiciest, most satisfying of summer fruits, peaches rank number one for me in fond childhood summer food memories. It just sort of comes with the territory when you grow up in South Carolina, the first second largest grower of peaches (we all know monstro-agro California doesn't really count, right?).

One of those memories is of peach upside down cake my Mom used to make after visiting the State Farmer's Market, a huge market with 500 stalls (makes Philly's city markets look laughable) about a mile from our house where sun-wrinkled, old farmers from all over the state would convene to sell the season's bounty out of the back of their filled-to-the-brim pick-up trucks.Sweet peach slices are placed in melted butter and brown sugar at the bottom of a pan, then a basic, homey cake batter is poured over top, and the whole thing is popped in the oven. Out comes what looks like any ordinary cake, but upon a flip of the pan onto a platter, the caramelized peaches and magic of peach upside down cake is revealed. Oh, how I loved that flip of the pan!

My mom's recipe for peach upside down cake must have appeared in a magazine or popular cookbook in the 70's, because I can find identical recipes (almost word for word) out there, so there's a good chance you've eaten this cake, too. I did a little updating to bring the cake into the 21st century: butter replaces vegetable shortening; and the brown sugar and butter that the peaches sit in has been slightly reduced.Peach Upside Down Cake

1/4 cup butter, plus 1/3 cup butter for batter
3/4 cup light brown sugar
3-4 large peaches, peeled and sliced
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
2 eggs
1 2/3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt

• Place 1/4 cup butter and brown sugar in an oven-proof skillet and heat slowly on stove-top, stirring constantly until well browned.
  
• Remove skillet from stove, and place peaches in melted brown sugar and butter mixture. (If you don't have an oven-proof skillet, just transfer melted butter and brown sugar mixture to a medium-sized oven-proof dish before adding peaches.)
• In a large bowl, cream together 1/3 cup butter and sugar. Add milk, vanilla extract, almond extract, and eggs and mix thoroughly.
• In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and salt.
• Add flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix until incorporated.
  
• Pour batter over top of peaches in skillet, smoothing batter out to the edges.
  
• Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for 30-40 minutes, or until the middle is firm and the top is golden.
  
• Cool cake for 10 minutes, then place a platter on top of the cake dish. Carefully invert the cake dish while holding the platter on top so that the cake slides out onto the platter . . . upside down!
  
• Serve warm or room temperature.