Old-Fashioned Peach Shortcake Recipe

When it comes to summer fruit desserts—cobblers, crunches, crisps, grunts and shortcakes—less is more.

There’s not much you can do to improve the flavor of a perfectly ripe summer peach.

Keep it simple with Old-Fashioned Peach Shortcake

So don’t “mess up”—as my South Carolinian friend, CL, says— your home-baked summer fruit desserts with fancy additions. One of the best scratch cooks I know, CL, bans spices, liqueurs, nuts and other flavor enhancers from summer fruit desserts, the better to enjoy the fruit’s single-note full flavor.

Old Fashioned Peach Shortcake is the soul of simplicity: slightly sweetened, ripe peaches on top of buttery shortcake topped with a plop of fresh whipped cream.

I use Demerara sugar to sweeten the peaches. I’m mad about this raw sugar and use it whenever regular sugar is called for. If you can’t find Demerara, however, don’t substitute brown sugar—commercial brown sugars’ harsh molasses flavor overpowers the delicate peaches. Use white sugar instead.

Shortcake is a “quick bread.” Its wet and dry ingredients should be mixed together in a few strokes and you should handle the dough as little as possible.

If you like, you can make one large cake, rather than 6 individual shortcakes. Just add an extra splash of milk—around ¼ cup—and spoon the batter into a single, greased 9” cake pan.

I prefer to cut smaller cakes. Their presentation is prettier and individual shortcakes also give you more crispy surface area—the better to soak up peach juices and whipped cream.

Vintage peach shortcake recipe holds its own after 50 years

This recipe is adapted from from my Grandma S.’s marvelous, two-volume, Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking by Meta Givens, 1959 edition.


When not penning cookbooks, Ms. Givens—I don’t think she’d approve the title, but an extensive Google search fails to reveal her marital status— taught Home Ec at the University of Chicago in the post-World War II years.

In addition to vintage hostess-with-the-mostest-photos, and instructions on killing and dressing a chicken, Ms. Givens’ compendium covers shortcake extensively.

She notes that you may also use this recipe to make Strawberry Shortcake.

Old Fashioned Peach or Strawberry Shortcake Recipe

2 cups flour
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons Demerara or white sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup butter plus 3 tablespoons more for greasing pan and topping shortcakes
1 cup milk
2 cups peeled, sliced peaches or hulled sliced strawberries, lightly sweetened
½ pint heavy cream, whipped and sweetened

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Using 1 tablespoon of butter, generously grease a cookie sheet or 9” cake pan.
3. In medium bowl mix flour, ½ cup sugar, baking powder and salt with a whisk or mixer to blend thoroughly.
4. Cut in butter, blending with whisk, pastry cutter or your fingers until butter is incorporated and mixture is mealy.
5. Pour milk into flour mixture and blend quickly.
6. If using cake pan, turn dough into pan.
7. If making individual cakes, turn dough onto a floured surface. Knead quickly and lightly 6-8 times then pat dough into a ½” high rectangle. Using a 2½” biscuit cutter, cut shortcakes. With a spatula, transfer cakes to prepared cookie sheet, placing them 2” apart.
8. Melt remaining 2 tablespoons butter. Brush cake tops with butter and sprinkle with remaining 2 tablespoons sugar.
9. Bake 12-15 minutes until shortcakes are golden brown. Note: A large single shortcake will require longer baking than individual cakes.
10. Remove cakes from oven and let them cool slightly. While cakes are still warm, split them in half horizontally.* Spoon sugared fruit onto bottom layer, add remaining cake layer and top with a generous spoonful of whipped cream. Serve immediately.

*Ms. Givens notes: “A good way to split a big warm shortcake is to cut it apart with a white sewing thread, using a sawing motion.” Read more about Ms. Givens’ now out-of-print Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking.

Makes 6 individual shortcakes or 1 large shortcake that serves 6.