Caramelized Peach Upside Down Cake

When I was at the market today practically every bin was piled high with stone fruits.  They all looked so good that I knew I wanted to make a dessert but I couldn't decide on the fruit.  Did I want to purchase peaches, nectarines, plums or apricots?  It was a tough decision, but as you can see the peaches won out and my "gluten-free" Caramelized Peach Upside Down Cake was absolutely delicious.  A perfect dessert for a summer's evening!

For the cake base, I modified a recipe in Babycake's cookbook for corn bread.  Some changes that I made were...instead of using rice milk, coconut oil and applesauce, I used almond milk, canola oil and I made my own peach puree.  The cake came out incredibly moist and fluffy, but it also had a nice texture from the cornmeal.

Caramelized Peaches/Topping:

1/3 cup agave syrup

4-5 organic peaches sliced

Canola cooking spray

Method: 

• Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees.
• Lightly spray a 9x3" cake pan with canola and line with parchment paper, set aside.
• Slice peaches and set aside.
• In a small sauce pan over medium heat, cook agave until it caramelizes about 4 minutes.  Be careful not to burn--you want it to be a deep amber color.
• Immediately pour hot bubbling syrup on top of parchment-lined cake pan and smooth with an off-set spatula.  The syrup will start to harden as it cools so work quickly to make sure that the entire surface is covered.
• Lay sliced peaches in a pattern on top of syrup and set aside.

Cake Base:

2/3 cup almond milk
1 tbsp unfiltered apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free A/P flour
1/2 cup fine cornmeal
1/2 cup corn flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup canola oil
1/3 cup agave syrup
1/3 cup peach puree (1-2 peaches, peeled, chopped and blended until smooth)
2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Method:

• In a small bowl, mix together almond milk and apple cider vinegar and set aside for about 10-15 minutes.
• In a medium size bowl, whisk together a/p flour, cornmeal, corn flour, baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum and kosher salt and set aside.
• Add canola oil, agave syrup, peach puree and vanilla extract to the almond milk and whisk to combine.
• Pour liquid ingredients into dry ingredients and mix until combined.
• Pour batter on top of peaches and smooth with an off-set spatula.
• Place on a baking sheet in the middle of the oven and bake for about 28-32 minutes (turning pan 180 degrees after 20 minutes).  When done, cake will pull away from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake will come out clean.
• Remove cake from the oven and let rest for five minutes.
• Run a knife along the edge of the pan to loosen cake and place another baking sheet on top of cake pan and flip over onto baking sheet and tap once with your fist.  
• Remove cake pan and let cake cool completely before cutting.