With its light and fluffy texture, Raspberry Peach Cake is an ideal dessert for any summer brunch party, picnic, or family cookout. This recipe uses pantry staples, you can make it with fresh or frozen raspberries, and it takes only 15 minutes to prepare. It's an effortlessly beautiful summer cake.
Preheat oven to 350°F. If your oven has a convection setting, use a convection bake setting. Line both the bottom AND the sides of the 9x3-inch springform pan with a single, large piece of parchment paper (with parchment paper hanging outside of the pan - see photos above for reference). This way, you don't need to grease the springform pan or parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, mix flour and baking powder.
In a large bowl, combine granulated sugar, melted butter, and egg, and beat using a whisk for about 1 or 2 minutes until the mixture turns light in color, smooth (not grainy), and fluffy. NOTE: Ripe but firm peachesare what I used in this recipe. If your peaches are very soft and juicy, reduce the butter from 4 oz (½ cup) to 2 oz (¼ cup) to prevent excess moisture in the cake.
Mix in Greek yogurt and vanilla extract, and whisk just until combined.
Add the flour mixture gradually to the bowl with wet ingredients, whisking 1 cup of flour mixture at a time, until combined. Do not over-mix.
In the same bowl where you mixed the dry ingredients, toss half of the raspberries with 1 tablespoon of powdered sugar or flour.
Carefully fold in flour-coated (or sugar-coated) raspberries into the batter. It's OK if most of the berries smudge or break.
Add the cake batter to the parchment paper-lined springform pan. The cake batter would be thick (to compensate for sliced peaches releasing moisture during baking). Arrange peach slices on top, with the remaining half of the raspberries in between.
Place the springform baking pan with the cake batter on the middle rack (this is especially important for non-convection ovens).
BAKE: In a regular oven, expect 65–75 minutes. 45–50 minutes is ONLY for convection. More details below:
Regular oven: If you use a regular oven, the cake will take longer (about 1 hour or 1 hour and 10-15 minutes) to bake at 350 F. However, start checking the cake for doneness at 50 minutes, and then every 7 minutes. If the cake starts to brown too much, coverly loosely with foil. When the cake is done, it should be nicely browned, and a toothpick should come out clean when inserted in the center (away from the peaches).
Convection Oven: Bake for about 45 or 50 minutes if using a convection (fan) oven - the tester (or toothpick) inserted in the center of the cake should come out clean right around 50 minutes mark but it could be different for your oven. I baked this cake on a convection bake setting for exactly 45 minutes at 350 F - it was completely done and nicely browned by that time.
COOL THE CAKE: Remove the cake from the oven. Let it cool in a springform pan on a wire rack. After cooling the cake for about 20 minutes, release the cake from the springform pan. You can move it to a cake platter or a large plate by holding the edges of parchment paper. To remove the cake from the parchment paper, I would let it cool longer (about 40 minutes total) so that the cake doesn't fall apart when you move it.
When serving, dust with powdered sugar.
I provide helpful step-by-step photos above the recipe card (scroll up).
Notes
Fresh or frozen raspberries?
When folded into cake batter, fresh raspberries will break. If you prefer to keep them intact, use frozen ones or freeze the fresh ones before adding them to the cake.
Note about peaches
Ripe but firm peaches are what I used in this recipe (as you can see in the photos). However, if your peaches are overly soft or overly ripe and juicy, they might add some extra moisture to the cake. In the case of overly ripe and juicy peaches, reduce the amount of butter from 4 oz to 2 oz.
How to properly measure flour using cups
Using measuring cups, the proper way to measure flour is to sift it or aerate it first. This is done either by sifting flour or aerating it by fluffing it up and whisking it well, then spooning it into the measuring cup (not sticking a whole cup into the bag of flour), and carefully removing any excess flour with a knife. If you just stick that measuring cup in the bag of flour and scoop some out, you will get a lot more flour than the recipe calls for. Do aerate the flour, or you will end up with a dry cake batter!
This aeration tip also applies to these 2 kinds of popular gluten-free flours, such as Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour or King Arthur gluten-free measure-for-measure flour.
Baking tips
Convection (fan) oven: If you have a convection setting in your oven, use that to bake this cake. The cake should be done in about 45 minutes in a convection oven.
Regular oven: If you don't have a convection setting, bake the cake on the middle rack or above the middle one. If baking this cake in a regular oven, it can take up to 1 hour and 10 minutes to bake it but start checking at 50 minutes.
Preheat the oven: Ensure the oven is fully preheated to 350 F before placing the cake.
What baking pans can you use?
I used a 9x3-inch round springform baking pan. I like to line the bottom of the springform pan with parchment paper, which ensures an even cleaner release.
9x13 rectangular baking pan. Pour the cake batter into the greased cake pan and bake for about 40 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean.
10-inch or 12-inch round high-sided cast-iron skillet. It will create crispy, golden-brown edges with a soft and moist center.
Other notes
Make it gluten-free. This recipe has been tested with Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour. You can also use King Arthur gluten-free measure-for-measure flour. If using these flours, the cake batter is too thick, you might have to add extra Greek yogurt (about ¼ cup more).
Greek yogurt can be replaced with plain Kefir, regular yogurt, buttermilk, or sour cream. I highly recommend using plain Kefir or Greek yogurt - they are light and provide a nice tang.