This nectarine cake is made with only six ingredients, and it is our favorite nectarine recipe. It can also be made with fresh peaches.
The best nectarine cake: an easy-to-make base, covered with fresh nectarines or peaches and topped with a delicious egg-sugar layer, this is our favorite nectarine recipe.
And such hot summer days are perfect for enjoying today's nectarine cake. Well, if you manage to turn on the oven... ๐
And if you don't manage to turn on the oven, you could make one of these so-called "refrigerator cakes", something like the No-Bake Blueberry Lemon Curd Cake, my favorite Apricot Cake, or the Romanian Biscuit Chocolate Salami.
This summer nectarine dessert is light, it can be eaten from the hand, and although sweet and comforting in a cakey-kind of way, it is still fresh-tasting and summery due to the many nectarines you dump on top of it.
As I have mentioned above, this recipe only needs six ingredients, which makes it a super cheap dessert now when the nectarines and peaches are so abundant.
And if you have lots of nectarines, you could also make these delicious Nectarine Muffins with Streusel Topping.
Jump to recipe
How to make nectarine cake?
Batter
- I made the first layer in the food processor, but you could mix the ingredients with the hand mixer as well. The dough will be rather soft.
- Spreading the batter onto the baking dish is quite simple as well. Place the batter in small heaps in the baking dish and press it down either with a spoon or with your fingers.
- Flour the spoon or your fingers when you do that to reduce the stickiness.
- Bake the base for about 15 to 18 minutes; it should be golden.
Nectarines
- Peaches and nectarines tend to release quite a bit of juice during the baking process, which is why I bake the first layer for about 15-18 minutes; the base should be nicely golden and almost done at this point.
- Sprinkling the first layer with some breadcrumbs before adding the fruit also helps against the soaking of the dough with too much juice.
- Also, I prefer to use slightly unripe fruit, which releases less juice during the baking process and keeps its shape better.
- And the fact that the fruit is baked will stop you from noticing that it was not quite ripe in the first place.
- It should not be difficult to buy slightly unripe peaches or nectarines; I sometimes have the feeling you can only get them in that stadium.
- Once the base is baked, remove it from the oven, sprinkle it evenly with the breadcrumbs, and arrange the fruit slices on top. Place back in the oven and bake for another 10 minutes.
Topping
- In the meantime, separate the eggs. Beat the egg whites until stiff. Beat the egg yolks with the 3 tablespoons sugar. Add the flour to the egg yolk mixture and incorporate. Fold in the beaten egg whites.
- Pour this mixture over the nectarines and continue baking for another 15 minutes or until golden brown and baked through.
This nectarine recipe has its origin in Sanda Marin's Cookbook, which was first issued in 1936, so it is quite a vintage Romanian recipe, I would say.
Updates
Fast forward to July 2018. I made this peach or nectarine cake again and took pictures of the different baking stages. I just wanted to say that it was gone in less than 5 minutes.
It only had the time to cool slightly after coming out of the oven, so it came rather warm on the table. It was a battle... I have never seen any dessert go so fast!
The only change I've made was to bake the base for 3 or 4 minutes longer than last summer. This way, we had an amazingly crispy base topped with juicy nectarines and a soft and sweet batter. The perfect summer cake!
More peach or nectarine recipes
More summer cakes
Recipe
Nectarine Cake
Ingredients
Cake:
- 150 g all-purpose flour 5.3 oz/ 1 ยผ cups
- 100 g unsalted butter 3.5 oz/ โ cup + 1 tablespoon
- 100 g granulated sugar 3.5 oz/ ยฝ cup
- a pinch of salt
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon dry breadcrumbs
- 650 g nectarines or peaches, 23 oz
Topping:
- 3 eggs
- 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- icing sugar
Instructions
Cake:
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit/ 200 degrees Celsius. Line a baking dish of approximately 8x13 inches/21x32 cm with baking paper.
- Dough: Place the flour, butter, sugar, salt, and egg in the food processor. Mix shortly until the dough comes together. The dough is pretty soft, but if you think it is way too sticky add an extra tablespoon flour.
- Bake dough: Place the dough in small heaps into the prepared baking dish. Press the dough evenly in the dish with your fingers (you can flour the fingers a bit first) or a floured spoon. Bake for about 15 minutes until lightly golden but not quite done yet.
- Prepare the fruit in the meantime. Stone the nectarines or peaches and quarter them. If they are very large, cut them into eights.
- Take the cake out of the oven, sprinkle it evenly with the breadcrumbs and arrange the nectarine slices on top. Place back in the oven and bake for another 10 minutes.
Topping:
- Mix topping: In the meantime separate the eggs. Beat the egg whites until stiff. Beat the egg yolks with the 3 tablespoons sugar. Add the flour to the egg yolk mixture and incorporate. Fold in the beaten egg whites.
- Bake topping: Pour this mixture over the cake and continue baking for another 15 minutes or until golden brown and baked through.
- Dust with icing sugar before serving.
Pia says
The cake is awesome however I used a adjustable baking frame to get the same dimensions mentioned in the recipe and I did not have enough batter, not for the base nor the topping. I would advise to make 1/3 more of both. Otherwise the cake is great!
LiZA says
I'm ready to jump into this. I LOVE how you've written the recipe, it should be a standard.. so easy to follow. I have peaches coming out my (ears) but am afraid they might be too ripe and overwhelm the cake with juice. Well, only one way to find out I guess! I can always chop it up, call it strudel, haha. Folks won't know the difference. Thank you for your (obvious) passion and care. It shows.
Adina says
Hi Liza. Thank you so much for your nice words.
Jean says
I tried to substitute Country Crock Almond butter (non-dairy) and the dough was dry so I added a couple tablespoons of LOL butter. That helped. But the dough cooked up a bit hard. Any suggestions?
Adina says
Hi Jean. It might be the butter. I am afraid, I don't know country crock almond butter or lol. Also, the oven temperature might have been too high (ovens are different) or the cooking time too long.
Robyn says
I made this today and was disappointed. The top is very eggy, it was like scrambled eggs on top of a cake. The base was nice. Nectarines don't have that much taste when they're cooked so it wasn't an overly flavourful cake.
I turned the oven down to 160C during cooking the topping as it was browning too quickly. Needed a couple of extra minutes cooking time instead.
Adina Beck says
@Robyn, sorry, something obviously went wrong. You didn't forget to mix the eggs with flour? Otherwise, I cannot imagine why they would scramble. The temperature depends very much on your oven, some get hotter than other. And regarding the taste of the nectarines, can't help there. I love them and I find them very flavorful. Maybe you just got low quality produce.
Jasna says
I'm confused about the eggs. The ingredients say 3 eggs, but how many go in the cake and how many go in the topping?
Adina says
Hi Jasna.There are 4 eggs, 1 goes in the batter and 3 in the topping. The cake and the topping ingredients are listed separately, actually to make things easier when following the recipe.
Ana says
Hi,
I just made this cake and it is amazing. I also made one with figs and topped them both with crushed almonds.
The result is ?
Adina says
Hi Ana. So happy to read this. The same cake with figs? Sounds great!
Lucy says
Iโm always looking for a great way to use up fruit. This cake is perfect. Lovely flavour, not rich or too sweet. Really celebrates the nectarines. Not crumbly so makes for a easy lunchbox treat. 10/10!
Adina says
Thank you for the feedback, Lucy. I am so glad you liked the cake.
Zerrin says
Adina, this cake looks uh-mazing! I love how moist it is. Perfect cake to bake in summer!
mjskitchen says
This cake looks awesome and what a perfect crust! Oh how I wish I had your baking skills.
Nammi says
yummm, looks lovely, I love the smell of grass after rain. have a nice sunday
Angie@Angie's Recipes says
A great recipe to use some juicy sweet stone fruit! The cake looks really delicious, Adina.