Mid to late summer is peach season here in Pennsylvania. I’m not sure if there is a more delicious fruit than a fresh picked, perfectly ripe peach! I wanted to make a recipe that incorporated locally grown peaches to celebrate the height of summer. Not too sweet and delightfully dense, it’s a great recipe to take to a summer barbecue and the leftovers make a great breakfast.

I used a mixture strawberries, blackberries and raspberries to pair with the sliced peaches on top of this yummy cornmeal cake. But any edible wild growing berries you can forage in your area would also make a great addition! This recipe is also great way to utilize frozen berries you may have harvested earlier in the summer. Next summer, I hope to freeze some mulberries and wineberries to try with this recipe!

Wildberry Peach Cornmeal Sheet Cake

slightly adapted from this Southern Living recipe

Ingredients

¾ cup salted butter, softened

1 ½ cups brown sugar

4 large eggs

1 ½ cups all purpose flour

1 cup fine yellow cornmeal

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

¾ cup sour cream

1 tbsp orange zest + ½ cup of juice (about 2 oranges)

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 ½ cups fresh berries (I used raspberries blackberries and strawberries)

2 fresh peaches, sliced thinly

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350° F. Lightly grease a 13” x 9” baking pan and line with parchment paper. Here’s the tutorial I used to learn: the easy way to line a rectangle pan with parchment paper.
Combine the butter and brown sugar in a large bowl or stand mixer and beat until light and fluffy, scraping the bowl as needed. Add the eggs one at a time, beating mixture until well combined.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, mix the sour cream, orange juice, orange zest and vanilla extract.
Alternate adding the flour mixture and sour cream mixture into the butter & sugar mixture in your large bowl, beating at low speed after each addition until just blended.
Pour the batter into your prepared 13” x 9” baking pan. Scatter berries and thinly sliced peaches across the top as desired.
Bake for 55 -60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool for 20 minutes before serving.