Upside down peaches and cream cake

Barely a day goes by when I don’t read at least one recipe (I'm wondering if this is obsessive?), and like anything, the more you do it the better honed your radar becomes. Not only did this cake look luscious but it had something that stopped me in my tracks - and I don’t say that lightly! The genius of this cake is that the filling is made with clotted cream. Clotted cream! Usually when a cake has a cream filling it’s whipped cream. But how naughty (and calorific) is it to fill it with clotted cream? Clearly this cake and I needed to become better acquainted.....

My caramelised peach topping came out a little wet and squidgy – it was still beautiful but I think it was due to me spooning over the liquor that came out of the peaches when I tossed them in sugar. You can see the juices all gathering in the bottom of the tin before I’ve even added the cake:


Next time I would just line the peaches in the tin and abandon the sugary juicy liquor (although it did taste divine, really divine – oh, decisions, decisions!). I used fresh peaches and as they were very ripe and juicy found it difficult to cut them into perfect segments. While using tinned peach slices would give a more professional look, the intense peachy smell of the cake when cooked more than compensated for the lack of precision in the slices. The basic idea of the cake would work with lots of different fruits – plums and mangos are two that spring to mind.


I served this as a dessert but it would work equally well at teatime. It is a delightful taste and texture sensation: soft juicy peaches, moist golden sponge, whipped clotted cream. Contentment, thy name is cake.

Here’s my arty close up to show the lovely texture of the sponge. The clotted cream filling is inspired and I will definitely be using it again in other cakes!

My nephew (AKA my trusty side kick The Boy Wonder) declared this cake "a masterpiece" and took the remaining chunk home with him for breakfast tomorrow. The kid's got style......

Ingredients:
For the cake:

200g unsalted butter, at room temperature
200g self raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
200g golden caster sugar
4 eggs
2 tablespoons milk (whole or semi skimmed)

For the peach topping:
3-4 ripe peaches (or 2 tins of peach slices)
85g light brown sugar

For the filling:
300g clotted cream (I used a tiny bit more)
2 tablespoons golden caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

How to make:

- Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/Gas mark 4.
- Line two 20cm sandwich tins with baking paper.
- The sponge is an all-in-one recipe. This means you put all the cake ingredients into a bowl and beat together until smooth and well combined. Put to one side.
- If using fresh peaches halve and stone them then cut each half into four i.e. each peach will yield 8 slices. If using tinned peach slices, drain them and let the juice run off them a bit so they’re not wet.
- Toss the peach slices in the sugar and arrange in a single layer in the bottom of one of the sandwich tins.
- Spoon half the cake mix over the peaches – be gentle so you don’t disturb them. Spoon the other half into the empty sandwich tin. I wrapped the cake tin containing the peaches in foil in case any juice leaked out during cooking.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Mine took 25 minutes. The half with the peaches will take slightly longer to bake: about 5-10 minutes more.
- Leave to cool in the tins on a wire rack. Be extra careful when removing the cake with the peaches from the tin. As the peaches make the sponge juicier it will be fragile.
- Whisk the clotted cream with the sugar and vanilla. Beat until stiff. Spread over the plain sponge and top with the peach sponge (be careful!). I made the sponges the day before I needed them and kept them overnight in air tight tins. I made the cream and assembled the finished cake on the morning of the day I wanted to serve it.
- Bask in glory at the wonderful thing you have made.
- Eat.