This simple yet impressive fresh peach cake is the perfect quick & easy dessert to make when peaches are in season, whether you picked them straight from a tree… or from a roadside farm stand… or from the grocery store when they were on sale. I love peach pie, but sometimes you need a simple dessert recipe that can be ready to eat in the next couple of hours. This peach cake is just the thing! (Peach crisp and peach cobbler are both wonderful options as well, of course. Especially if you happen to have vanilla ice cream in your freezer.)
Everything You’ll Love About This Fresh Peach Cake
Super moist, tender, soft cake with juicy cinnamon-spiced peaches Great way to showcase fresh peaches during peak peach season Quick & easy—no mixer required, no separate topping to make, and you don’t even have to peel the peaches! All the flavors you love in peach pie (with less time & effort) Not overly sweet, so the fruit’s natural sweetness shines Greek yogurt makes for a creamy-like crumb, just like it does in lemon berry yogurt cake You could use dairy-free yogurt to make this a dairy-free recipe Don’t have to wait hours for it to cool completely before eating Transport and serve right from the baking pan
And as a welcome bonus, there’s no complicated decorating required. Just give it a shimmy-shake of confectioners’ sugar over the top before serving—this peach cake is a natural beauty!
Key Ingredients You Need & Why
Overview: How to Make Fresh Peach Cake
The cake is layered with peaches. Half batter, half peaches, remaining batter, remaining peaches. There’s no mixer required for this recipe. Whisk the batter together, and then toss the peach slices with a little sugar to help them release some juices. Then I like to toss HALF of the sugared peaches in cinnamon, so the fruit slices in the center of the cake mingle with creamy cinnamon swirls (similar to this peach quick bread). The other half of the peaches (without cinnamon) create the top layer of the cake. Again, the cinnamon is optional. You can simply toss ALL of the peaches with the cinnamon, or leave it out entirely. Here’s the creamy batter, and center layer of cinnamon-sugar peaches: As you can see, the cake is brimming with fresh peaches. A 9-inch springform pan (what you use for cheesecake) is ideal for this one-layer cake. Here’s the cake before and after baking: And while this natural beauty needs no extra embellishments, I like to sift a little dusting of confectioners’ sugar over the top just before serving. And, of course, whipped cream is always a welcome adornment. I’m happy to share my testing process with anyone interested in how this cake came to life! Today’s peach cake is an almost-halved version of my lemon berry yogurt cake and a very slightly scaled-up version of this cherry buckle. I wanted to use oil instead of butter to keep the crumb light and moist.
It doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of flour in the recipe, and you’re right—there’s not! I tested the cake with more, but it made the cake a little tough and heavy. Yogurt is a heavy ingredient, and more flour didn’t necessarily help. In terms of flavor, lemon juice and almond extract are key. Taste testers felt the entire cake was lacking the best flavor without these additions.
