Peach Cake

Stop searching for the ultimate summer dessert – this Fresh Peach Cake is it. Greek yogurt gives the cake a bakery-style, ultra-tender crumb that pairs perfectly with jammy, sun-ripened peaches and a crackly sugar crust!

If you like this peach cake recipe, you might also like my Strawberry Bread, this Peach Cobbler or the BEST Cherry Crisp!

Our favorite peach cake from scratch!

The first time I ate this peach cake was about 12 years ago, when my Mama made one for me. I was fascinated by the sugar crust, and then I had three babies and forgot all about it 🤣

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago, when a friend brought over… that very same peach cake, ha! In the end, it took me a lot longer to perfect my recipe than I thought it would. Last week alone I made it 4 times, everyone in our neighborhood got cake, and now I could probably open a peach cake stand in our driveway, ha!

Long story short, here is my (what I believe to be) really, really good peach cake recipe (made in one bowl only!). Let’s make it this summer, next summer, and every summer we are blessed enough to have a reason to bake a humble cake!

I use these ingredients for my recipe

Here is a visual overview of the ingredients in the recipe. Scroll down to the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post for quantities!

• Peaches: Use ripe but not soft/mushy peaches. The quality of your peaches will VERY much influence the outcome of your cake, if you can’t find decently good peaches, I would rather use canned than unripe or sour fresh ones!
  
• Cinnamon: I like to add warm spices to peaches, it’s such a delicious combination. You can add more or less depending on how much you like it. If you’re not a fan and want to leave it out, I suggest to either add a little almond extract and/or grated lemon zest to the cake batter to flavor it!
  
  And honest talk: I add a few shakes of pumpkin spice along with the cinnamon – there’s no pumpkin in it, just a blend of warm spices! They go perfectly with the peaches. I use the same trick in so many things, especially in zucchini bread and banana bread!
  
• Greek yogurt: I prefer plain whole milk Greek yogurt, but low fat or fat free works, too. You can use vanilla flavored if that’s what you have on hand, it will make the cake sweeter though.
  
• Sugar: Note that we don’t enjoy extremely sweet desserts, so the sugar level is just right for us. You can increase the sugar from ¾ cup to 1 cup if you like it sweeter, or if your peaches are on the tart side.
  
• Butter: Feel free to use baking margarine in place of the butter if you prefer. I use margarine whenever I struggle to justify the price of butter, ha.

Let’s make a cake with fresh peaches:

Step 1: Prep peaches

For the peaches, I never peel them. Peeling fresh peaches is NOT it, easily one of my least favorite kitchen tasks. They get chopped up and the skin softens more than enough during baking, so it’s not needed. Feel free to peel yours, though!

I cut 8 thinnish slices for the garnish on top, and then dice the rest to be folded into the batter.

I have tested this cake using all slices, and it works – the peach slices just don’t distribute as evenly as the diced peaches. But if you’re in a hurry and want less work, you can just slice everything.

Step 2: Cream butter and sugar

Sorry friends, but in my test batches, the cake with creamed butter/sugar mixture just worked out the best. I like using oil and a whisk for my breads, but for a cake – creaming butter (or margarine) makes a difference to me.

Anyway, the secret is to take your time for this step. You will need medium-high to high speed on an electric hand mixer, and 3-5 minutes of patience. It will be gritty at first, it’s important to keep beating until it looks creamy and much lighter in color than when you started!

Step 3: Beat in eggs

Next, you will need to beat in the eggs. Do this one egg at a time, and beat each egg for 30-60 seconds.

You will notice the texture of the mixture change a lot with the addition of the eggs, which is exactly what we want to see here! Stick to 30-60 seconds, not less and also not more – overbeating can also create lesser results.

Step 4: Yogurt, vanilla, spices and leavening agents

Now comes an important step: First, beat in the yogurt and vanilla just until fully combined.

Then, we will sprinkle the cinnamon (and maybe the pumpkin spice?! Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it! 🎃) and the baking powder evenly over the mixture and quickly beat it in.

Make sure there are NO lumps in your baking powder before you add it, and do not wait to mix it in. If it sits on top of the wet ingredients, it will turn clumpy and your cake will not rise evenly.

Step 5: Finish the batter

Add the flour to the bowl and beat it in on low speed (I use speed setting 2 on my KitchenAid hand mixer) JUST until combined into a batter – don’t overmix at this point.

Then, fold in your diced peaches! It will take a little effort to get them mostly distributed evenly, just give it enough careful stirs with a spatula and you’ll get there.

Step 6: Assemble cake

Spread your cake batter in an 8- or 9-inch springform pan.

You can use a regular round cake pan if you don’t have a springform pan, but you will need to fully line it with baking parchment with an overhang so you can remove the cake from the pan later. In a springform pan, just line the bottom and lightly grease the lower third of the sides.

Top with the reserved peach slices, and lightly press them into the batter. Sprinkle with sugar and bake!

Step 7: Bake, cool, eat!

Depending on your pan size and oven, AND on the juiciness of your peaches, this cake will bake in 35-50 minutes (9-inch pan) or 50-70 minutes (8-inch pan). In an 8-inch pan, the most consistent result I’ve had was a bake time of 60 minutes.

You want to tent the top with aluminum foil after around 35-40 minutes, to avoid too much browning on top.

Once your cake is done, let it cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes, then remove it from the pan and let it cool completely on a wire rack. Although we have never known this cake fully cooled, it always gets eaten warm 😉

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