Prep and preheat: lightly grease a 9" x 5" loaf pan, line it with a parchment sling, then again lightly grease the parchment paper as well. Preheat oven to 350°F, and place your baking rack one rung below middle in the oven.
Stir together streusel dries: use a fork to stir together the streusel's sugar, flour, and cinnamon in a small bowl.
Mix in butter: add melted butter to dries and use a fork to blend until crumbs form and there are no more dry patches in the mixture. Set aside.
TO MAKE THE CAKE:
Slice peaches: cut one peach into thin ¼”-½” slices (you’ll need 12+ slices total). Cut the other peach into ½” slices and then dice those slices into small ½” pieces (you’ll need 1 cup total, or about 130g). Set aside.
Mix dries: combine flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl until well-blended and set aside.
Cream butter, sugar and vanilla: add butter, sugar, and vanilla extract to a large mixing bowl and cream with a hand or stand mixer until very smooth and fluffy (about 1 minute on medium-high speed).
Add eggs: add in the eggs one by one, and beat briefly on medium-low after each addition until well combined.
Mix in dries, then milk: add the dry ingredient blend and combine on low speed just until the mixture is about 80% mixed (keep speed nice and low here as over-mixing will toughen your cake!). Scrape the bowl, pour in the milk, then finish mixing on low until batter is smooth and fully combined.
Add in the diced peaches: add 1 cup of the small diced peaches (not the slices) into the batter and mix them in by hand until evenly distributed.
Transfer to pan: transfer batter into prepared pan and smooth to level the top.
Add peach slices: Press in 9-12 peach slices on a diagonal in pairs or trios going down the pan and press them in until they’re just above the batter (see photos in post for an example!).*1
Top with streusel: sprinkle the streusel in small and large clumps over the top of the peach slices to evenly cover the surface of your loaf.*2
Bake loaf: bake for 60-70 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through, until the surface streusel is golden brown, a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, and the batter in the center of the top of the loaf split springs back when gently pressed (a thermometer inserted into the center of the cake should read 190°F+ when the loaf is fully baked).
Cool loaf: allow loaf to cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes in the pan, then loosen the ends if necessary and use the parchment sling to carefully remove the loaf from the pan. Allow it to continue cooling fully to room temperature (the loaf will settle and the dome may drop a bit while cooling which is totally normal).
Slice, share and enjoy! Once cool, dust with powdered sugar if you like, slice using a serrated knife, then share this fruity pound cake mash-up with everyone around to put them all in a peachy keen-mood!*3
Notes
*1The size of your peaches: how many peach slices you can fit on top of your loaf will depend on the size of your peaches. If you have smaller peaches, just add a fourth row. You may have some slices and some diced pieces left that aren’t used, again depending on the size of your fruit, which can just be enjoyed as a snack for the baker!
*2Streuselization: dependingon how much your streusel has cooled, it may be easier or harder to keep it in clumps instead of dust.To make the clumps, squeeze a big chunk of streusel together in your hand, then gently break up that chunk over top of the pan to sprinkle smaller and larger clumps evenly over the surface of the batter.
*3Slicing tips: I won’t lie - this loaf can be a bit tricky to slice up because the streusel on top is hard to cut through and can crush the cake below if you’re not careful. That said, the streusel really takes this loaf to the next level so I promise it’s worth the trouble! For the best results slicing, I recommend:
Allowing the loaf to cool completely so the cake is fully set.
Using a serrated knifeanda sawing motion to break through the streusel.
Not trying to make the slices too skinny as the wider slices will hold together better.
Cream Cheese Peach Pound Cake: if you'd like to make a cream cheese peach pound cake variation of this loaf, you can substitute some cream cheese in place of the butter. To do this use 6 tablespoons soft butter (85g), and 4 tablespoons of softened full-fat cream cheese (57g). Proceed with the recipe exactly as written, just add the cream cheese in with the butter on the first step.
Can I use frozen or canned peaches?This recipe is really best with fresh peaches for 2 reasons. Firstly, they are the best you can get flavor-wise and with the peaches being the star of this recipe, you want to use the best you can get. Secondly, the water content of frozen or canned peaches is less predictable, and could cause your loaf to have too much liquid and struggle to bake. If you have to substitute, I'd use frozen peaches before canned, and add them to the recipe when still fully frozen. If you decide to use canned peaches since I know sometimes that's all you can find, drain and rinse them well, and then dry them out between paper towels before adding them to the batter.
Loaf over-browning? I haven’t found this to be an issue with this recipe if you bake it in the middle of the oven. But, if your loaf is getting too brown during the bake, you can loosely tent it with aluminum foil while it finishes baking, but you don't typically need to do that with this recipe (it's meant to be fully golden brown on top).
Storage and freezing:this cake can be stored well-wrapped in plastic wrap or in an air-tight container in the fridge for about 4-5 days. Because of the high water content of our fruit, it's best to keep this cake in the fridge, but you can definitely give it a quick 10-15 second hit in the microwave to warm it up wen your ready to enjoy it! You can freeze it fully baked for up to a month, but I find it’s best enjoyed fresh.
It’d mean so much to me if you could please give the recipe card a ⭐ rating on the site and leave a comment to help others find this sweet recipe! Xo, Jocelyn @ Mint+Mallow