With a light and fluffy cornbread cake, sweet summer fruit, and a cornmeal streusel, you’ll want to serve this Strawberry-Peach Buckle for breakfast, brunch, and dessert!
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This Strawberry and Peach Buckle came about because I absolutely could not resist the fresh fruit at the market this week and I wanted an easy peach recipe on the blog. As a Southern girl, I couldn't wait for peach season to hit, and the fact that fresh local strawberries were still in season was a huge happy coincidence. This is a recipe that was destined to happen!
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What is a buckle?
Cobbler vs Coffeecake vs Buckle: what's the difference? Technically, a cobbler is fruit, baked with a cake or biscuit topping. A coffeecake is also a cake, usually flavored with cinnamon sugar, and normally topped with a streusel.
A buckle is a blend of the two, a cake, with fruit folded or placed into the batter, topped with a streusel topping. Legend has it that it's called a buckle because the addition of the fruit causes the cake to "buckle" on top. Whatever you want to call it, this recipe for Strawberry Peach Cornbread Buckle is delicious!
The addition of a small amount cornmeal to cake batter brings a fantastic texture to this buckle. Not as crumbly as my skillet cornbread, it is soft and fluffy and it caramelizes a bit on the edges, for a "best of both worlds" cake. I am 100% a Southern cornbread girl, so the addition of fruit to a lightened up cornbread is ticking all my breakfast boxes!
Ingredients
There are three parts to this buckle, the batter, the fruit, and the streusel. You probably have all of the ingredients in your kitchen right now!
Craving more cake for breakfast? Try my buttery one-bowl strawberry bake—made with brown butter, buttermilk, and jammy fresh strawberries. Perfect warm from the oven with a spoon and a cup of coffee.
Substitutions
- Cornmeal The little bit of texture, and the light cornbread flavor you get from the cornmeal, is amazing with peaches. I even used a bit of cornmeal in the streusel topping, and now I wonder why I haven't done that before. If you don't have cornmeal or just don't want to use it, just use an equal volume (½ cup to ½ cup) of all-purpose flour. You can just leave it out of the streusel completely without adding more flour.
- Strawberries and peaches This recipe was specifically built around the amazing blend of these fruits with the flavor and texture of the light cornbread. If it isn't peach or strawberry season where you are, I've tested this recipe with frozen fruit and it's no less delicious! I just thawed the fruit on paper towels, to draw out the excess moisture, and followed the recipe from there.
- Milk and yogurt I have not tried this with alternative liquids, other than buttermilk. If you try a non-dairy substitute and it works, let me know!
Do you like strawberries? Try my Biscuit Strawberry Shortcake made with juicy strawberries and tangy yogurt whipped cream on top of fluffy cream biscuits!
Instructions
Truly a simple cake with a big payoff. Just follow along. We've got this!
1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Slice your fruit and place in a small bowl with 2 tablespoons of sugar. Toss together and set aside to get juicy.
2. In another small bowl mix your dry ingredients together. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
4. Next beat in eggs, one at a time, and then add vanilla. Mix well. You can't over-mix at this stage.
5. Blend in yogurt and milk.
6. Add in dry ingredients and mix by hand until just combined.
7. In a greased pan, add half of the batter, topped with half of the fruit. Repeat with the rest of the batter, topped with the rest of the fruit.
8. Sprinkle the top with streusel. Bake at 375°F for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a cake skewer or toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Allow to cool for at least 15 minutes and then slice and serve!
Looking for another great peach recipe? Try my Peach Biscuits with Streusel Topping for the perfect marriage of peach cobbler and buttermilk biscuits!
Expert tip
Because this Strawberry Peach Buckle is technically in the cornbread category, it is especially delicious baked in a cast iron pan. I find a 10 inch cast iron skillet to be the perfect size and its fantastic heat retention gives you the classic crispy edges we love in cornbread.
If you don't have a cast iron skillet, or if yours is too big (I have a couple of those too!) you can use a 9 inch cake pan as well. Just make sure it's one you don't mind cutting right in the pan, because this is decidedly not a fancy cake stand cake. This is a "get my morning cup of coffee and cut me off a big slice" kind of cake!
Looking for more breakfast and brunch baked goods?
Recipe FAQ's
Cover the leftover cake with plastic wrap or place in a covered cake stand or other airtight container for the rest of the day it is made. If storing longer than that, you can place it in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
I tried, and although it thawed fine, I felt like the fruit got too mushy and the streusel was as well. This is definitely a cake you want to get down to eating.
Yes! I have successfully doubled this recipe and baked it in a 13 by 9 inch pan.
Looking for another great peach recipe?
Try my Peach Biscuits with Streusel Topping for the perfect marriage of peach cobbler and buttermilk biscuits!
More fruitful breakfast ideas
📖 Recipe
Strawberry Peach Buckle
Ingredients
Fruit
- 2 medium peaches sliced
- ½ pint (250 g) strawberries about 8, quartered
- 2 tablespoons (24 g) sugar
Cornmeal streusel
- ½ cup (60 g) flour
- ¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons (20 g) cornmeal
- Tiny pinch of kosher salt
- 4 tablespoons (56 g) unsalted butter softened
Dry ingredients
- 1 ½ cups (180 g) all-purpose flour
- ½ cup (80 g) cornmeal
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
Wet ingredients
- ½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter softened
- ¾ cup (150 g) sugar
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ½ cup (122 g) yogurt
- ½ cup (120 g) milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375° F Prepare a 10 inch cast iron skillet or 9 inch cake pan by either spraying with either nonstick spray or coating lightly with butter.
- Place sliced peaches and strawberries in a medium bowl. Sprinkle with sugar. Stir together and set aside.
- To make streusel, whisk together flour, sugar, cornmeal, and just a tiny pinch of salt. Toss softened butter in the dry ingredients then, using your fingers or a pastry cutter, combine them together until you have a texture of wet sand. You want some finer parts and some clumps. You’ll know it’s done when you can press down and it all seems to stick together.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Using a hand mixer, or stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Mix in eggs, one at a time, and then the vanilla. You can't over-mix at this point. Add yogurt and milk and mix in.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and, using a spatula, mix together just until all the dry ingredients have been incorporated.
- Pour half of the batter in your pan. Hand place half of the peaches and strawberries on top. Cover with the remaining batter and arrange the last of the fruit on top. Leave the juice behind. Add it to a glass of iced tea.
- Sprinkle the streusel on top of the cornbread and bake at 375°F for 35-40 minutes, or until a skewer poked in the middle comes back clean.
- Allow to cool for 10-15 minutes before serving.
Save This Recipe! 💌
I'll email this recipe to you, so you can come back to it later, plus you'll get great new recipes from me every week!
Angela says
Delicious! I used blueberries instead of strawberries, so good! Can't wait to try it again with strawberries.
Cynthia Christensen says
That sounds amazing!