Peach Batter Cake – An Old Fashioned Peach Cobbler Recipe
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This Peach Batter Cake recipe is super easy summer peach cake to make with either fresh or canned peaches and has a decadent crust that will have everyone asking for seconds.
Peach Batter Cake
Folks, this Old Fashioned Peach Cake is one of those recipes that is hard to explain but totally worth trying. Our mom picked up the original recipe at a local farm stand one year when she was getting fresh peaches. Barbara modified the recipe slightly but I’ve tried both versions and they are top notch. This recipe is so amazing that we created several versions that are just as yummy, including a Cherry Batter Cake, a Blackberry version and a Rhubarb version.
What is great about this recipe is you can use fresh peaches when they are in season and canned peaches in the winter when they are not readily available. Just be sure to drain the canned peaches before using.
Summer Peach Cake
Our parents have a couple of peach trees and this is my dad’s favorite dessert when the peaches are ripe in July (if the trees produce – it’s never a guarantee). Since the peaches are usually all ripe at the same time, my mom usually freezes four or five packets each with the four cups of peaches and lemon juice so she can pull a packet from the freezer and easily make this Summer Peach Cake any time of the year!
What makes this cake so unique is the boiling water that is poured over the cake batter at the very end. It combines with the sugar topping for a decadent, sweet, addicting crust.
Scoop up a big serving of this Peach Batter Cake while it’s still warm from the oven and enjoy! Add a scoop or two of vanilla ice cream (like our Grandma’s Homemade Ice Cream) or a scoop of whipped cream. You won’t regret it.
Old Fashioned Peach Cake Ingredients
Fresh or Canned Peaches, drained
Lemon Juice
Sugar
Butter, softened
Milk
Flour
Baking Powder
Salt
Cornstarch
Boiling Water
HOW TO MAKE OLD FASHIONED PEACH COBBLER RECIPE:
For the full easy peach cake recipe and ingredient amounts, scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Instructions:
- Grease an 8×8 inch baking dish, and line bottom with drained or fresh peaches.
- Sprinkle peaches with lemon juice.
- In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar; add milk and dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, and salt) alternately.
- Spread batter over peaches.
- To make the decadent, sugar crust, combine sugar, cornstarch and salt, and sprinkle it over the batter.
- Pour boiling water over the cake, and bake at 375 degrees F for 1 hour.
Notes About Summer Peach Cake with Fresh Peaches:
- Make this old fashioned peach cake all year long using frozen fresh peaches or canned peaches. Just be sure to drain them before making the cake.
- Pour the boiling water directly over the sugar, cornstarch mixture to form a magic crust. Be sure all the sugar is moistened.
- Sometimes the liquid boils over the side of this cake, so put a sheet pan underneath it in the oven to catch the drippings.
- Bake it the full hour so that the batter in the center of the cake underneath the sugar topping gets cooked all the way through.
Old Fashioned Fruit Recipes
Looking for some other delicious desserts to use garden fresh fruits? Try our favorites!
Peach Batter Cake
Ingredients
- 4 cups sliced peaches fresh (peeled) or canned (drained)
- 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3 Tablespoons butter softened
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- Topping:
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 Tablespoon cornstarch
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup boiling water
Instructions
- Grease a deep 8 x 8-inch baking dish and line bottom with peaches.
- Sprinkle peaches with lemon juice.
- Cream sugar and butter; add milk and dry ingredients alternately.
- Spread batter over peaches.
- For topping, combine sugar, cornstarch and salt; sprinkle over batter.
- Pour boiling water over cake.
- Bake at 375 degrees F for 1 hour.
- Let sit for approximately 15 minutes to let the filling thicken before serving.
Notes
- This recipe is so amazing that we created a Blackberry version that is just as yummy.
- What is great about this recipe is you can use fresh peaches when they are in season and canned peaches in the winter when they are not readily available. Just be sure to drain the canned peaches before using.
- What makes this cake so unique is the boiling water that is poured over the cake batter at the very end. It combines with the sugar topping for a decadent, sweet, addicting crust.
- Scoop up a big serving of this Peach Batter Cake while it's still warm from the oven and enjoy! Add a scoop or two of vanilla ice cream (like our Grandma's Homemade Ice Cream) or a scoop of whipped cream. You won't regret it.
- Sometimes the liquid boils over the side of this cake, so put a sheet pan underneath it in the oven to catch the drippings.Â
- Bake it the full hour so that the batter in the center of the cake underneath the sugar topping gets cooked all the way through.Â
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My recipe calls for 2 cups of sliced peaches. I usually like to have about 2 layers of peach slices covering the bottom of the dish.
That sounds good too, Debbie.
Does your recipe call for boiling water pour over batter? This is a new recipe for me.
We got this recipe from Debbie so hers calls for the boiling water over the batter too!
Will frozen peaches work?
Isn’t this basically the same thing as peach cobbler!
It really has a different consistency than cobbler but probably all in the same family!
Basically but it’s really thick and cake like
Seems like this could benefit from a little cinnamon.
Go for it. That’s the great thing about recipes, they can be modified to suit your taste!
Will make this, love peaches
It’s a great one! Good luck.
This sounds so good. I plan to make it. How many cans of peaches would it take if I can’t get fresh?
We’ve only made it with fresh peaches but are sure that if you check the label on the can it should tell you how many cups are in it and you can determine from there! Good luck.
I wonder how this would be with cherries instead od peaches
Linda, we aren’t sure about cherries it might work but we can’t guarantee it.
I made this today and my husband did not like it.
Sorry to hear that, LeAnn!
Approximately how many cans of peaches will I need to make 4 cups. Recipe looks delicious and I would love to go buy the ingredients to make it!
You should be able to look on the can for the serving size and determine how many cans you need.
Can this be doubled and baked in a 9×13 pan?Linda
Definitely! That’s what the folks we got the recipe from do!
is this like a peach cobbler?
Not really! It’s kind of hard to explain but delicious!
I made this last night and ate half of it before I went to bed! It is so good and a very forgiving recipe – I had to tweak it a bit because I didn’t have lemon juice (left it out) and used flour instead of corn starch. I will definitely be making this again – in fact, I plan on buying some additional peaches so I will have them on hand in the freezer to make this all winter.
Linda – So glad you enjoyed it. Definitely a forgiving recipe.
Hi, this is a great, I made 2 today. One for my parents and one for us! My only issue is mine came out soupy? What did I do wrong? I followed the recipe exactly…..or I thought I did. 😉
Hmmm…it can be a bit soupy and some of the soupy versions have been some of our best! But a couple of things from Barbara: Was your water boiling? That’s important. Were your peaches drained? Just a couple of thoughts!
This recipe has some flaws. I tried to follow it and found the result to be unsatisfactory. I found these issues:
1- If you use canned peaches, the amount of sugar in the recipe is excessive, and the result will be too sweet for a normal taste. I do like sweets, but this dessert was excessively sweet!
2- The crispy top prevents the dough underneath from getting baked correctly. The result is a crispy top with a partially cooked dough underneath. Additional baking time will not solve the problem, because the top hardens and heat from above will not penetrate unless you want to have a burnt top! The amount of peaches underneath also act as an “insulation” for the heat coming below.
3- You do need to add some spices. As written, the result is too bland. Even if the issues above could be solved, this is not a very tasty recipe.
So sorry that you didn’t like the cake. It’s always been a favorite in our family.
I make this desert regularly. My family LOVES it. Today I used frozen peaches I bag was 4 cups. Last time I used fresh blueberries. Very yummy.
It’s such a great recipe and I love the fresh blueberries idea! Thanks for sharing.
I have a variation of this for you. 1c. sugar, 1c. flour, 1c milk 1 stck melted butter 3T. baking powder. Mix and put in a 9×13 pan. Pour 1 can of peaches, juice and all over the top. Bake at 350 for about 35 min or until top is golden brown. You can also use fresh peaches but you have to slice the peaches and add sugar to make some juice first.
We’ll have to give it a try. Thanks for sharing!
Do you think this recipe could be doubled in a 9″ by 13″ pan! Can’t wait to try this!
Beverly – We have never doubled the recipe but it should work but you’ll need to watch the baking time. Good luck!
This is soooo good! I doubled the recipe (except for the sugar mixture on the top) and it was perfect. The cake was not as sweet as some peach cobblers tend to be. Pouring the boiling water on top was new to me but somehow it worked! Hands down the best cake I ever made.
Yay! We don’t know what magic that boiling water makes but it is SO good. So glad you enjoyed it!!
I made this awesome dish and it is so goid. Will definitely make again.
So glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for sharing!
Have made this recipe using rhubarb and strawberries and it is absolutely delish. I assume if you used frozen blueberries it would work as well. I have alot of blueberries in my freezer and will be giving them a try.
Rhubarb and strawberries sound amazing. We’ve done this recipe with blackberries/black raspberries and it’s delicious so blueberries should work too!
You have so many great sounding recipes!! One question….do you think you’ll ever have thr recipes categorized? I’m flipping through the pages on your site and writing down ones that really appeal to me, but it would be very time consuming to try and find something if I wasn’t doing that.
Thanks for the feedback. We do have a Recipe Box link at the top of the site that has several categories that you can look in. As we add recipes, we’ll look to update the categories but that’s a great place to start!
Just another note….I see you do have a place to search for a recipe, which helps, but there are so many I’d like to look at again and I don’t have the time to write everything down. Not trying to be critical…..I’d just like to use your site a lot; so many of your recipes remind me of the wonderful meals we had when we visited my mom’s sisters in Nebraska, all three whom were married to farmers.
We appreciate that you like our website and want to see our recipes! Thanks for giving us some constructive feedback, we will always talk those comments!
Halved the butter and added cherries with the peaches. Lovely and moist with the crunchy topping.
Adding cherries sounds great!
I tried the ” 1 c flour, 1 c sugar, 1 cup milk, 3 T baking powder, 1 stick melted butter. I cut up 4 juicy peaches . Boy does it smell good!
This is an old fashioned recipe. My grandmother made this back in the late sixties. It was always delicious.