Blueberry Peach Upside-down Cakes

Last fall, before we even moved back to the U.S., I was already excited about blueberry picking. I hadn’t been in almost 3 years and I was determined that I would load the kitchen with an abundance of blueberries picked at a nearby orchard.

As the summer went on, I began to lose hope that I’d make it to the orchard. It is about 1 ½ hours away and there never seemed to be a convenient weekend. When there was, it was typically on Sunday when the place was closed.

A couple weeks ago, my nephew came to visit for a few days and I had just found out about another orchard that was a little closer to where we are living, Reed Valley Orchard. It appeared that blueberries were long gone, but they had an overabundance of Freestone peaches. With a day free and lots of time to spend together, we set off to check this place out.

After, about an hour, and 4 miles creeping along a one lane road, part gravel, we finally found it. I immediately knew it was worth the trip. In addition to the rustic, little building full of fruit preserves and crafts, it was fruit-tree city. It turns out that Reed Valley has just about everything in its respective season – cherries, blackberries, raspberries, pears, nectarines, peaches, plums, pumpkins and apples.

I was excited enough about the peaches, but when I rounded the corner and saw a girl sorting through blueberries (yes, blueberries!) I was ecstatic! It turns out they had about one row still bearing. My lucky day!

We started with the peaches and the amount on the trees was incredible. You could have just walked around holding out your hand and one was bound to fall into it. We filled up our baskets with no problem. That is, after I spend about 15 minutes taking pictures.

Next were the blueberries. We had quite the bucket to fill up and I think my nephew and I both got a good idea of just how small blueberries are when you are trying to fill a whole bucket. It took a very long time, but I wasn’t leaving without more than I knew what to do with.

I picked up some of these too which I’d never had before – Donut Peaches. I guess they also go by the name Saturn Peaches. The orchard only has a few of these trees so they were picked that morning and available in the store. They had that distinctive peach flavor, but a firmer flesh.

This was the total damage, along with a box of peaches considered seconds for making jam.

The donut peaches we ate fresh, and I showed you the jam I made with seconds this past week. I almost made it through the entire bucket of blueberries before I separated some out for freezing. Most of the other peaches we’ve eaten fresh as well, but I had a strong urge to bake something. I rarely ignore these types of urges and this time cake was calling my name.

I found a pineapple upside-cake recipe in my trusty Betty Crocker Cookbook Bridal Edition. I reduced and changed the type of sugar, reduced the butter and changed the flour.

Then I decided I wanted mini-cakes. You know, because mini anything is just too darn cute to pass up. I used the large, six-muffin pan my mom got for me recently. The kind that is ideal for mini-meatloaves. A little big for a muffin, but not bad for dinner or dessert.

Voila – Blueberry Peach Upside-down Cakes. I’m really happy with how these turned out. Next time I may add a few more blueberries, but the cake was nice and tender, and the dessert as a whole wasn’t overwhelmingly sweet. I think the raw sugars and whole wheat flour really work to balance this. Now, I’m thinking about which fruit is next. Maybe plums…

Blueberry Peach Upside-down Cakes
Cake modified from Pineapple Upside-Down Cake, Betty Crocker Cookbook

1 peach

Gently remove the muffin tin from the cakes. Serve warm or at room temperature.