We’re in the midst of peach season so I obviously got carried away and made these peach cobbler inspired cupcakes when a friend requested something peachy for a birthday dessert.

I took rich vanilla cupcakes, filled them with cinnamon and cardamom spiced peach compote and topped them with a fluffy, buttery vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream, a buttery cinnamon crumble, and fresh peach slices. Just like a good peach crumble, there’s a good amount of fruit and an even better amount of butter.

This recipe is perfect because the cake recipes calls for six egg yolks and the frosting recipe calls for six egg whites. I absolutely love Swiss meringue buttercream and it’s my go-to frosting, but that means I almost always have extra egg yolks. I know I should branch out and make pasta or creme brulee with the yolks but I always have lemons in the house so I always end up making lemon curd… don’t get me wrong, I love lemon curd, but a girl can only eat so much of the stuff. So the fact that this recipe uses six entire eggs with no leftover yolks or whites makes me irrationally happy.

This recipe also makes more than enough peach compote, probably about twice as much as you need. If you don’t want that much, you can easily just half the recipe, but it’ll keep for a week or so in the fridge and it’s delicious warmed up and poured on top of vanilla ice cream or mixed into your morning oatmeal, so my recommendation is to make the whole batch and have a tasty week.

If peaches aren’t your thing, you could make these cupcakes with a different fruit compote filling. Pretty much any fruit that you would use in a crumble or cobbler would be good – blueberries, mixed berries, plums, apples. A mix of fruit would work, too. Blueberry-peach compote would be delicious.

Or just make the compote and eat it with a spoon, that would work too.

Ingredients

Vanilla Cupcakes

• 3 cups AP flour
• 3 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 6 egg yolks
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tsp vanilla

Peach Compote Filling

• 4 peaches, peeled, pitted and diced
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp cinamon
• 1/2 tsp cardamom
• Splash vanilla
• 2 Tbsp water

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

• 6 egg whites
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 sticks butter, softened
• 2 tsp vanilla

Cinnamon Crumble Topping

• 6 Tbsp butter, melted
• 1 1/2 cups AP flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• Pinch salt

Fresh peach slices for garnish

Directions

Start by making the peach compote. Mix all compote ingredients together in a saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Stir occasionally until cooked down and juices are thickened and syrupy, about 10-15 minutes. If your peach chunks are large, use a fork or potato masher to break down further.

Make the cupcakes. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line two cupcake pans with liners. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks one a time, beating until just incorporated after each. Add the vanilla to the milk. Alternately add the flour (in three additions) and the milk-vanilla mixture (in two additions), starting and ending with the flour.

Divide the batter into lined cupcake pans and bake 22 to 25 minutes, or until done. Leave the oven on 350 F and while the cupcakes are cooling, make the crumble topping. 

Mix all ingredients together until clumps form. Spread out on baking sheet and bake at 350 F for 15 minutes. Let cool completely.

Finally, make the frosting. Add the egg whites and sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer and heat over a pot of simmering water, whisking constantly, for about 10 to 12 minutes or until sugar is completely melted.

With the stand mixer, beat the egg whites with the whisk attachment until stiff and glossy. Switch to the paddle attachment and add the softened butter a couple tbsp at a time. Add the vanilla and beat until smooth.

When the cupcakes are completely cool, use a paring knife or teaspoon to scoop out the center. Fill each cupcake with some of the peach compote. Frost the cupcakes and then top with the cinnamon crumble and fresh peach slices. Enjoy!