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Brown Butter Peach Cupcakes are perfect for summertime celebrations. Made with browned butter, these peachy cupcakes have a moist, tender crumb that will keep you coming back for more.
Brown Butter Peach Cupcakes
Nothing says summertime quite like a fresh ripe peach, complete with juice dribbling down your chin. However, it is a challenge to get that bright peach flavor into my baked goods, but I have figured it out with this easy cupcake recipe.
Peaches have to be my absolute favorite fruit to eat fresh in season and they work beautifully with browned butter. If you have never worked with browned butter, you’re in for a treat.
Browned butter is super easy to make and adds a rich, nutty flavor to your baked goods. All you have to do is cook melted butter over medium heat until it barely starts to brown and then remove it from the heat before it burns. It doesn’t take long at all.
It is tempting to brown the butter in every recipe calling for plain old butter. The flavor is enchanting and it is perfect paired with sweet, juicy peaches.
Peach Cupcakes
Once I decided to use the browned butter in the batter, the next trick was to get that fresh peach flavor into the cupcakes. Peach puree provides a mild flavor that easily gets lost in the sugar and butter.
My first attempt at making these cupcakes with peach puree ended in utter, dismal failure. The batter overflowed the tins and the cupcakes didn’t taste anything like peaches!
I went back to the drawing board. And after further experimenting, I added chunks of peach into the batter along with the peach puree.
It was magical. I was thrilled to discover that the peach chunks provided a burst of fresh peach in each bite and actually enhanced the peach puree flavor in the batter.
There is also bit of peach puree in the frosting, but it is not overpowering. The tangy cream cheese is a perfect compliment to the tender cupcakes.
These understated cupcakes are excellent for picnics or showers. Or you can box them up to give as a thoughtful gift. When frosted in a rose pattern, these cupcakes make a wonderful dessert for summertime brunches. The soft, natural color of the cream cheese frosting and peach puree is lovely.
I have some exciting recipes in the works that I can hardly wait to share with you, starting with this one. These Brown Butter Peach Cupcakes rank up there as one of my favorite cupcakes ever.
If you can’t get enough peachy keen flavor this summer, try some of my other delicious peach recipes. Peaches and Cream Bars are a peach custard meets cookie bar that my family loves.
If you liked these Brown Butter Peach Cupcakes and want to keep rolling with browned butter and peaches, try my Brown Butter Peach Sweet Rolls. Yes, you should. You won’t regret it.
And summer just isn’t summer without peach pie, but instead of a traditional peach pie, I love making these Fresh Peach Pie Bars.
Whatever you decide to make this summer, Enjoy!
COOK’S NOTE: PLEASE note that you do not use the full amount of peach puree that is made in the blender. If you do this, they may fall apart. Measure out the amounts indicated in the recipe for both the cake and the frosting.
Also, after browning the butter, you should be left with just over 1/2 cup of butter. You will not be adding 3/4 cup of browned butter to the cake batter.
Peach Cupcake Recipe
- Brown the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Remove the butter from the heat and pour into a separate heat proof bowl to stop the browning. Cool completely.
- Preheat oven to 325 F. Whisk together the brown butter, peach puree, brown sugar, white sugar and vanilla. Beat in eggs. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Gently stir into the large bowl along with diced peaches, mixing until just combined.
- Fill lined cupcake tins 3/4 full. Bake for 20 minutes or until the spring back when lightly touched. Cool completely on wire racks.
- To make the frosting, beat together butter and cream cheese until fluffy. Beat in peach puree and vanilla. Add enough of the powdered sugar until a piping or spreading consistency is reached. Spread or pipe the frosting onto cooled cupcakes.
Brown Butter Peach Cupcakes
Ingredients
Peach Puree Ingredients
- 3 cups diced fresh peaches
- 1 tablespoon white sugar
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon water
Cake Ingredients
- 3/4 cup butter
- 1 cup peach puree, prepared as directed
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 2 cups finely diced peaches
Frosting Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter softened
- 4 oz cream cheese softened
- 1/2 cup peach puree, prepared as directed
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 5-6 cups powdered sugar
Instructions
Peach Puree Instructions
- Heat peaches, lemon juice, water, and white sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and let it simmer for 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
- Remove from heat and let cool to a warm temperature. Blend in a blender until smooth. Cool completely before use.
Cake Instructions
- Brown the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Remove the butter from the heat and pour into a separate heat proof bowl to stop the browning. Cool completely.
- Preheat oven to 325 F. Whisk together the brown butter, peach puree, brown sugar, white sugar and vanilla. Beat in eggs. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Gently stir into the large bowl along with diced peaches, mixing until just combined.
- Fill lined cupcake tins 3/4 full. Bake for 20 minutes or until the spring back when lightly touched. Cool completely on wire racks.
Frosting Instructions
- Beat together butter and cream cheese until fluffy. Beat in peach puree and vanilla. Add enough of the powdered sugar until a piping or spreading consistency is reached. Spread or pipe onto cooled cupcakes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
{originally published 8/4/14 – recipe notes and photos updated 5/11/21}
Recipe adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod.
These recieved great reviews when I served them at my daughter’s baby shower. I did need to bake them an additional 5 minutes. The frosting was delish , but I couldn’t get it to a “piping” consistency without an overload of sugar. They were moist and peachy and I would definitely make them again.
Thank you for commenting Debbie. Sometimes fruit can have a bit more moisture to it so it makes sense you might have needed a few more minutes. I am glad your group enjoyed them.
Can you use frozen peaches?
If you let them thaw and drain, you should be fine. I have not tried it though.
These cupcakes are super yummy!!!!! Moist and the peach purée is delish. However, mine didn’t rise. I do live in Colorado and didn’t make any adjustments for the altitude because i don’t know how. They didn’t fall apart and the taste was awesome. The texture was a little dense but I liked it. The frosting however was too sweet for my taste. I ended up adding more cream cheese to thicken it up and cut the sugar. I generally don’t like any kind of frosting though. Hubby liked it?.
I’m glad you like the cupcakes!
I will make these this weekend. Do I need any adjustments for high altitude? I live in Denver. Thanks!
I’ve never made these are high altitude. I’m glad it worked out for you!
I’m wanting to make a princess cupcake cake. How many does this batch make?
This recipe makes 18 cupcakes, Wanda.
Made these for a Fourth of July party and they were an absolute hit. Multiple people sought me out and told me they were amazing. One thing I will say is that the frosting turned out like a glaze. I kept adding powdered sugar but could not get a piping consistency. I will definitely be making this again but will probably look up a different recipe for the frosting so that the cupcakes can look as good as they tasted.
I’m glad you enjoyed the cupcakes, Rosalynn!
Made these last night and was so excited for the brown butter! Overall, they’re a good cupcake, but pretty time consuming with slicing all the peaches and processes that have to cool completely before baking. You could really taste the brown butter goodness in the batter, but for some reason, it seemed to disappear once baked. We still loved getting a chunk of peach when we ate them, but they are so dense that they really didn’t taste of much other than the frosting and the occasional diced peach. Thanks for the recipe, though!
I will be the third person here that will say that my cupcakes were also undercooked and didn’t rise. I cooked the first batch for 35 minutes and they were still gooey inside. The second batch at 375F also didn’t rise. Cooked these for 30 minutes. This recipe should be removed.
Hi Jill, I’ve reviewed the recipe in an attempt to figure out why it is working so well for some people and bombing for others. My best guess is that too much puree or butter is winding up in the cupcakes. I’ve added a baking tip to the post to hopefully prevent it in the future. I’ve also retested this recipe and it’s working as written.
So you use saltes butter or unsalted?
These were SO GOOD. I doubled the cake recipe, but only made a single batch of frosting and it ended up working out perfectly. 9/10 times I end up with more frosting than I need, so I figured I could always make more but I didn’t want to end up with an abundance. I was so happy to end up with even a small amount left over when I finished frosting double the number of cupcakes. I did end up using the full 6 cups of powdered sugar and then put it all into a piping bag, popped it into the fridge to settle up a bit before frosting since it seemed a little lose. I wasn’t sure whether I should peel the peaches that were being diced to fold into the batter, but ultimately decided not to because I thought a little extra color/texture wouldn’t hurt. Turned out great! I made these for a peach themed baby shower and they were such a hit, so many people asked for the recipe.