Upside-down Peach and Cardamon Cake

It’s been a few months since I last updated the internet with one of my recipes, and I can only apologise for the summer-long silence. We recently welcomed two absolute beauties into our home (Barry and George), and I’ve been devoting my time to pampering these royal kitty cats instead.

This recipe is a peach, cardamom, and pistachio upside-down cake, perfect for the summer months when there is a glut of fruits begging to be eaten. Combining mellow, fruity flavours, with the aromatic scent of cardamom, this cake is great on summer evenings.

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Ingredients

For the peachy base

Slices of peaches (~ 3 peaches worth)

8 cardamon pods

25g pistachios

250g caster sugar

5 tablespoons water

For the cake

240g unsalted butter

200g golden caster sugar

270g plain flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

4 eggs

1 1/2 tablespoons of golden syrup

4 cardamom pods

1. It is best to make the cake batter for this bake before you get all caught up in the caramel base which will eventually form the top of the cake. Soften 240g butter, then cream together with 200g caster sugar until smooth and lighter in colour.
2. In a pestle and mortar, grind 4 cardamom pods until the seeds are released. Discard the crispy shells, then add to the creamed butter and incorporate evenly.
3. Measure out 270g plain flour, then add the raising agent and stir through. You could substitute the plain flour for self-raising if this is what you have in the cupboard, but I always think it’s nice to be able to control how much raising agent goes into a bake.
4. Alternate between adding one egg, then a bit of the flour mix, a further egg and so on, until all the flour and eggs are in the mix.
5. Finally add the golden syrup, stir through and place the mix to one side.
6. At this stage, get all the ingredients prepared for the cake topping. Roughly chop 25g of pistachios and grind 8 cardamon pods as previously described. Slice the peaches into small segments.
7. Line a cake tin with baking parchment ready for the cake, as this will make the whole operation lots easier. I am normally all for skipping lining the tin with baking parchment, as a very lazy baker, but on an upside-down cake or anything involving caramel I would strongly recommend.
8. Preheat the oven to 180•C.
9. To make the caramel, dissolve 250g of caster sugar in 5 tablespoons of water on high heat in a saucepan, stirring continuously. Add the cardamon at this stage. Once all the sugar has dissolved, stop stirring and patiently wait for the liquid to start to bubble. It will turn from clear to a golden brown. At this point remove from the heat and pour into the base of the cake tin. Not to be bossy, but I would suggest you carefully watch your caramel cook, as things can go wrong very quickly, and burnt sugar is awful to clean off a pan.
10. Sprinkle the pistachio over the top of the caramel and then carefully arrange your peach slices in concentric circles from the middle. Once arranged, wait 10-15 minutes for your caramel to set slightly.
11. Gently dollop on the cake mixture, then bake for 40 minutes.
12. Once the cake has cooled, turn upside down and peal of the baking parchment.