Ingredients:
2 cups sliced peaches
1 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature, divided use
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup demerara sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
Directions:
In a large bowl, beat 7 tablespoons of butter and sugar until creamy. Add the egg and vanilla, beat thoroughly. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the milk and dry ingredients alternately, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. The batter should be very fluffy. Use the remaining tablespoon of butter to coat the bottom and sides of a heavy duty 8 inch baking pan. Sprinkle the demerara sugar over the butter, top with peach slices.
Make sure the peaches are evenly distributed in the pan, then top with cake batter. Smooth the cake batter to all of the edges and make sure no peaches are peeking out.
Place a 8×8 square disposable heavy duty baking pan on the bottom of your charcoal grill and arrange the coals on either side. Pour water in the pan to the halfway point.
Place the cake tin on the center of the grate, over the disposable tin. This will allow your cake to cook evenly on indirect heat.
Close the lid but leave the vents open for about 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool, then invert to serve.
My thoughts:
This is my last “My Grill Friday” post for the year! I wanted to make something a little unexpected for the last post and tossed around a lot of ideas before settling on cake. Once I decided on making a cake, an upside-down cake seemed the perfect choice because there would be no need for icing; it could be made entirely on the grill and without heating up the house.
The cake itself is very light and fluffy and the peaches are perfectly soft and caramelized. There isn’t a smoky flavor at all, just the fresh sweetness of the peaches and the tender cake. It reminded me of the Baltimore classic peach cake where a vanilla-based cake is topped with peach wedges, only more caramelized and decadent.
*Note: While it may be tempting, I would not recommend cooking anything else on the grill at the same time as you are making this cake. Meat splatter issues aside, it cooks on a relatively low temperature that would be a mind-numbling slow way to cook raw meat and you would run the risk of cross contamination.
You promised the last “my grill fridays” post would be great and it is! I can’t believe you did that on a grill. Have you thought about how you’re going to top this next summer? 😉
This is such an interesting use of the indirect grilling technique. I’m surprised that the cake had no grill flavor whatsoever. And it looks delicious! Great job!
I’m not quite sure I understand why you’d cook this on the grill, other than for the exercise of cooking something unexpected on the grill. Did the grill impart any kind of a smoky taste to the cake? And did you like it, if it did? I’m not being critical; just wondering. As u know, I love peach cake…mmm…
Wow! I can’t believe you made that on the grill. I don’t even think I know how to turn a grill on. Very impressive!
love this. am grilling this weekend and will give it a try. after the meat comes off.
bmoresweet–I did address that in the post but no, there was no smoky flavor and it was great to cook a cake outside and not heat up our kitchen during the Summer. And it tasted really, really good. The best peach cake I’ve ever had–the peaches caramelized and the cake was soft and perfect.
one food guy–Thanks! I think it didn’t have a “grilled” flavor because the heat was low and it didn’t get too smoky
You mentioned in the post that you kept all the vents open…how did you keep the heat so low? Do you know what the temp inside the grill was?
I cooked some beer can chicken this past weekend using the same indirect cooking method; I used just less than a full chimney of started charcoal and with the vents open and the lid on, the temp under the lid was around 450 degrees. When I closed the bottom three vents to about 1/4 open and the top vent all the way open, I got the temps down to around 350 degrees. Two chickens cooked in an hour and two minutes like this.
One Food Guy–
I am not sure what the actual temperature was but I know it seemed lower than usual and a lot less smoky. If I had to guess, it must have been around 350 or so because it took the same amount of time it would have taken at that temperature to bake in the oven.
Also, the lid to our grill fits really tightly and the vents are small, so not too much air was getting in which I think helped.
You are soo clever!
This makes me think of dutch oven cobbler. Yum!
I couldn’t help but come right home and try this out. First because I love peaches and second because I’m always looking for new things to make on the grill. I used whole grain pastry flour and I’m sure it affected the texture a bit but it is still very tasty! I may be wrong but I don’t think the directions specify number of eggs or how much salt. I went with 1 egg and 1/4 tsp salt and it all worked out. Great idea!
Awesome idea! I love it! It’s unique and it looks so tasty!!
How interesting that this is grilled. Very cool!
Paz
I know this is a bit late, but I was searching the blogs I follow on Google Reader for peach recipes, and this looks wonderful! I don't have a grill, so how would you imagine this would be cooked in the oven?
Margaret-
I don't see why not. I'd try 350 for about 40 minutes or so.