Made with plant-based yogurt and milk, this vegan peach snacking cake has everything you want from a cake. It’s dense, yet airy and soft. Incredibly flavorful because of rum and orange blossom water. Topped with juicy ripe peaches and brushed with sweet jam. And the best part? It takes less than 60 minutes from start to finish!

When I think of summer, I think of stone fruit, my hands sticky from the juices, my stomach filled with delight. I like to turn plums into jam and peaches into dessert, like this vegan peach snacking cake I have here for you. 

I’ve eaten enough vegan desserts to know that they are on a par with anything dairy laden. There’s no shortage of that on this site, but I want to bake vegan more often too. If vegan cooking comes more naturally to me, baking requires more testing and fine-tuning. 

And what I have here now, after many fails, is the perfect snack cake. It’s fragrant and delicious. Dense, but still airy and soft, the kind that melts in your mouth. Sprinkled with Demerara on top for a bit of color and crunch. Along with plenty of peach wedges. And it tastes like a million dollars, so rich and satisfying.

You can try other types of stone fruit, but peaches are my favorite. To finish it off, I like to glaze the whole cake with apricot (or peach) jam to seal in the moisture and the flavor of the fruit. 

Baking with plant-based dairy 

Using vegan “dairy” products is really easy these days. Plenty of choices and the same purpose as with actual dairy. We want yogurt for the richness and moisture it gives a cake. But in this case I’m using both vegan yogurt and milk. I tried making this cake with yogurt only, but found that the extra fat in the yogurt made the cake a little too dense and gummy. 

That’s why I’m using a combination of yogurt and milk. You could probably replace the milk with water, but I’ll always use the extra flavor if I can get it. 

Coconut pairs great with peaches, so a coconut yogurt is usually my preferred choice. However a soy based yogurt is really great too. 

For milk I love either almond or soy, as they’re less fatty than coconut. Because ultimately what you need next to yogurt is more liquid, not more fat (you get that from the oil). You can experiment with other types, I know there are plenty. But flavor-wise I like soy and almond the most in this cake. 

Let’s put dark rum in everything 

In case you forgot that I’m Slovenian, let my addition of rum to the cake remind you of that. I started doing this because my mom and grandmother did it first. No questions asked, just pour that baby right in. But now I do it because the aroma of dark rum in a baked dessert is absolutely classic and delicious. 

You might not even notice it’s actually rum, but you’ll definitely sense a lingering flavor of something… that makes this cake that much better. 

The other thing I’m using is orange blossom water. My love for rosewater is pretty well documented (just look at these shortbreads or my favorite crinkles), but orange blossom water isn’t far behind. It’s the same idea, just different. 

What’s orange blossom water?

Also called orange flower water, it’s basically scented water. It is produced by water distillation of the blossoms of the bitter orange tree (a few more notes in this Martha Stewart article).

Naturally, orange blossom water makes the cake a bit perfumy.  But in a very good way! Paired with ripe baked peaches and jam, it’s an explosion of wonderful smells, all very delicate and not overpowering at all.

If you can’t find orange blossom water locally, there’s always Amazon. The best thing about it is that a little goes a long way, so having a bottle stacked in the pantry is definitely worth it. I’m sure you’ll find yourself pouring a little bit into many future batters and frostings to come.