Gluten-Free Peach Upside-down Cake

This recipe is a complete rip-off of homage to SusanV’s Vegan Peach Upside Down Cake that, like pretty much all other FatFree Vegan recipes, is just knockout. It’s a simple but beautiful idea; the glossy caramel showcases the peaches, the real star of this dessert, and the cake plays backup to the beautiful fruit.

It seems to be peach season in New York - white peaches came in my CSA share and I’ve been buying up all the ripe yellow ones from my farmer’s market in Brooklyn. They are just too good to share and quite frankly it’s going to be apple season for a looooong time. In other words, get your local peaches now; you can always get apples later.

This is my first foray into Gluten Free Baking. I read Karina’s gluten-free baking guidelines at Gluten-Free Goddess (I’m also a big fan of her blog in general) and felt empowered enough to give it a try. Instead of buying 10 different kinds of flour I simply purchased a mix of gluten-free flour (I used Arrowhead Mills brand baking mix, but there are other ones out there too.) I added oats for texture and used agave nectar, which has a great fruity taste and a low GI index, instead of sugar. If you don’t have gluten concerns, try replacing all or some of the flour with whole wheat flour and even adding some ground flax seeds for a more rustic tart with bonus omega-3s. Down-sided up with sliced peaches shimmering in caramel, I see this cake being a hit no matter what.

Serves: 6
Time: 1.5 hours: 45 minutes to prep, 30 to bake, 15 to cool

Gluten-Free Peach Upside-down Cake

1/2 cup gluten-free rolled oats
1 cup soy milk
1 tsp lemon juice
3 cups peeled and sliced peaches (about 5-7 peaches. I used a mix of white and yellow peaches)

Dry Ingredients
1 cup gluten-free flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp salt

Liquid ingredients
1/4 cup agave nectar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon zest (or 1/4 teaspoon lemon extract)

For Caramelizing
spray or vegetable oil
1/4 cup natural granulated sugar
2 Tbsp water

Preheat oven to 350.

Soak oats in the soy milk with lemon juice while you slice and skin the peaches. See an excellent tutorial, also inspired also by SusanV’s cake, on slicing and skinning peaches at VeganYumYum.

Mix together the dry ingredients in a large bowl. In another bowl, mix together the wet ingredients and set the two bowls aside.

Spray or wipe a 10″ cast iron skillet with oil. Heat the sugar and water over medium-low heat until it turns brown and reduces, but can still fully coat the bottom of the skillet - about 5 minutes.

Lay the peaches in a single layer in the caramel. You can make a pretty design by getting them to face all one way on the outside loop and the other way on the inside loop. I alternated white and yellow peaches and that ups the aesthetic ante too.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir together briefly, until just combined. Pour the batter slowly over the peaches and put the skillet in the oven. Cook for 25 - 35 minutes or until the toothpick test comes out clean.

Cool the cake for 15 minutes or more and cut carefully along the edges of the cake between the pan to help loosen the cake. Place a plate over the skillet and clamping the long handle part of the skillet to the plate with one hand, and the short handle part of the skillet to the plate with the other hand, invert the skillet over the plate. Carefully remove the skillet from the cake.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 26th, 2007 at 8:16 pm and is filed under Desserts, Harvest, Autumn. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.