Nectarine Upside-Down Cake
A vibrant cake with fresh nectarines drenched in sweet, buttery goodness!
I’m a HUGE, no wait, actually, I’m the BIGGEST, cake person ever. If I could, I’d eat cake for breakfast, lunch, dinner and as a midnight snack. But, because I don’t look like anything close to Heidi Klum and my metabolism moves at a snail pace, I could only eat cake once in a blue moon. And even when I do, I have to do portion control.
But I’ll let you in on a little secret. Portion control = sucks.
Okay so that’s not much of a secret but I just wanted to point that out.
That being said, I made this AH-MAZING nectarine upside-down cake and I didn’t do a very good job of portion control. And then I gained like 5 pounds.
But you know what? It was completely worth it. Every single bite was to die for, especially those corner pieces where the peaches got really caramelized and their amazing juice just dripped down the sides.
Crap, now I need to make this again and eat the whole dang cake by myself. Spin class, here I come!
So here’s how you make this:
Let’s first start with the dry ingredients.
Then we’ll whisk together the wet ones – buttermilk, 4 tablespoons butter and eggs.
Next we’ll stir the wet to dry.
Now let’s swirl around the remaining 4 tablespoons butter in the bottom of a cake pan, or cast iron skillet if you wish. You want to make sure you get the sides too. We don’t want the cake sticking to the pan because, well, that would be a nightmare.
Next we’ll sprinkle on some brown sugar goodness.
Then comes the sliced nectarines. Gorgeous, right? I could seriously eat this as is.
Last but not least, we’ll top it off with the batter.
Be sure to smooth out the tops.
Then it goes in the oven for about 45 minutes. Mine came out a bit disfigured and I totally thought this was an epic fail but once you flip it…
TA-DA! You have this major beautifulness. Easy peasy, right? As long as you butter up your pan, your cake should come out without any trouble.
Then grab a plate, cut a slice, and eat. When you’re done with your first slice, go get some seconds. And thirds. And fourths. No one’s judging. I promise. Well, at least not me. I had at least 3 slices!
Nectarine Upside-Down Cake
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
- ½ cup 1 stick unsalted butter, melted and divided
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup brown sugar, packed
- 4 nectarines, sliced into 1 1/2-inch thick wedges
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.
- In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk together buttermilk, 4 tablespoons butter and eggs. Pour mixture over dry ingredients and stir using a rubber spatula just until moist.
- Add remaining 4 tablespoons butter to the bottom of a cast iron skillet or 9-inch cake pan, swirling the pan until the bottom and sides are well coated. Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over the melted butter. Arrange nectarine slices on top in a single layer. Scoop the batter evenly over the nectarines, smoothing out the top.
- Place into oven and bake for 45 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Let cool for 5-10 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the cake and turn upside down onto a serving plate.
- Serve immediately.
Did you make this recipe?
Tag @damn_delicious on Instagram and hashtag it #damndelicious!
Hi, I tried this recipe and it came out well. However, it has a funky smell to it and I’m not sure if the smell is normal as it has fruit in it or if I did something wrong!
Such a pretty and delicious cake, and very easy to make! Came right out of the baking dish when flipped. Perfect balance of tart and sweet. I will definitely make it again!
I made this and wow!!!!
Thanks for the recipe! The cake was yummy! Making it again right now.
It’s killing me that I have to wait for my husband to come home to cut into this!
I had a thought about people who complained about a runny batter. Possibly they didn’t shake the buttermilk before measuring? That could be an explanation, also maybe used jumbo eggs? Definitely was not an issue for me.
I can always depend on you for wonderful recipes, I recommend your site to all my friends!
I made this today and it was delicious! My pan was pretty full so I put a baking sheet under as a precaution and I did have some butter and sugar bubble over, but it all worked out and was great.
Thanks for the easy yummy recipe!
Really lovely recipe. With my oven could have done with a slightly lower temperature as it seemed ready but the when I turned it out the top was slightly under but just popped it back in for another 10 mins and it was delish! My while family loved it and I’ll defo be making again and trying a peach/pineapple version.
Can you use apricots?
Yes, absolutely.
I baked this cake recipe twice successfully! Thanks Chungah.
Hi, I was looking forward to making this cake with my daughters and we did. However when I placed it in a springform pan and as soon as I put it in the oven the butter was dripping out of the bottom of the pan and fumed up the entire house. It was very inconvenient with the smells in the house and dirty oven. Is there a way to make the cake without so much butter poured on the bottom of the cake to prevent dripping? Thanks!
As an update, after getting the fumes out of my house and cleaning out the oven, I stuck the cake back in to bake and it came out delicious! I placed the springform pan onto a baking pan to prevent butter from dropping.
I have found that wrapping the lower half of a springform pan with aluminum foil helps control leakage.
I have my cake in the oven and its fragrance is wafting thru the neighborhood now…. 🙂 My batter was not thick as your picture was. I used the recipe’s exact measurements. I placed a pan under the cake so if there were any drips they would end up on the pan. Can’t wait until it is done!
First let me say that I have been baking for many years and I collect recipes and I thought my husband would enjoy this cake. With this being said, I followed the recipe to the letter, my batter looked nothing like what is shown, it was like pancake batter. With the batter being thin I baked an extra 10 minutes which was not enough time, totally I baked an extra 20 minutes. I have let the cake cool for 30 minutes and my husband is going to taste test. My husband is the best taste tester there is, he does not hold back with his truthful comments, good or bad. His comment was OK. I always try a recipe more than once so I will try again. My verdict is still out.
Trease, thank you for trying my recipe, and for your honest feedback, although I’m not entirely sure why the batter was so thin! As you can see from the images here, the batter is supposed to be very thick.
I made this tonight with frozen peaches and it was delicious! Thank you!!
This looks amazing!! Can you substitute peaches?
Yes, absolutely!
Hey! I made this recipe today for Easter and it turned out perfect! I was a little nervous as I don’t bake often at all. Your instructions were spot on and this turned out to be such a wonderful dessert. You always have the most reliable recipes 🙂
Thanks for this recipe, I tweaked it and shared it with my Dutch readers! http://www.mamawijs.nl/overrijpe-nectarines-3-heerlijke-recepten/
Hi Chung, I made this recipe today and my cake rose above my baking pan causing the butter drip over and smoke my oven, which is fine, I just have to clean it next time I use it. My main concern is even though the recipe only calls for 1 tsp of baking soda, I could smell the baking soda as soon as I cut into the cake and it was all I could taste. Did I do something wrong?
Lily, it’s very difficult to answer what went wrong since I was not in the kitchen with you. 1 tsp of baking soda is not a very large amount and is generally tasteless so I am not sure what you were tasting. You can also use a springform pan for next time to avoid batter dripping over the top.
Hi, just wanted to share a trick my mom taught me when baking with baking soda. Place the amount of baking soda needed into a small bowl and pour a little vinegar over it. Then add it to the batter. It still allows the cake to rise but doesn’t leave the baking soda taste in the cake. Hope that helps!
Doesn’t the buttermilk have the same effect?