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Friday, July 24, 2009

Peach Cake


Goodness gracious, what a week! Between an 800 mile drive on Tuesday and two tow truck calls, I've not had much time left over to drool over some good recipes. Fortunately, that has all changed now. My truck is fixed and the peaches are ripe. I bought a bag of them at a farmers' market in the middle of Alabama before I broke down.

I spent some time pondering how I wanted to use those peaches. After much debating, I decided on a cake. This dessert involves a simple cake with peach slices dropped on top. Lastly, it involves sanding sugar sprinkled over the top which bakes into a lovely browned, sweet crust. Look at that!

Here's what it looks like before you bake it. You could place the peaches in a design if you want, but I kind of like the random placement.


Peach Cake
Yield: One 9" cake

1 1/2 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
dash salt
3/4 cups whole milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1/3 cup plain yogurt (or sour cream)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 tsp lemon zest
2 peaches peeled and sliced
2 TBS sanding sugar (or granulated if it's all you've got)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl. In a separate bowl, mix the milk, vanilla, egg, yogurt, oil, and lemon zest together. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir completely. Spray a 9" round pan with oil. Pour the batter into the pan. Place the sliced peaches on the top of the batter. You don't need to press them in; the batter will rise up around them. Sprinkle with sanding sugar. Bake at 350 for 60 minutes or until the cake is nice and golden and a tester comes out clean. Let cool slightly before serving.
Since originally posting, I have adjusted the baking temperature and time. I was finding that the higher temperature was browning the outside faster than it could finish baking in the center! I hate it when that happens! I also adjusted the amount of leavening... using less actually produces a cake with a better texture! Sometimes, less is more! Oh, and adding raspberries on top too? Yowza!

13 comments:

  1. this looks AWESOME!!! I cannot wait to make this for an ITALIAN!!!!

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  2. My mom used to make this. I forgot all about it!

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  3. As promised, I tried your peach cake. I put in a 3rd peach just for good measure. Very nice.
    Thanks

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  4. Glad it worked well for you, Old Geezer. I have been wanting to make this lately, but as my hubby and I are both trying to lose weight, I have restrained myself. :( Enjoy a slice for me, will you?

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  5. hi there, im so annoyed!!!! i actualley started to make your cake recipe but in the middle of it all i found out that you say pour in the batter into the pan...What batter??


    Mix the flour, sugar, and baking powder together in a bowl. In a separate bowl, mix the milk, vanilla, egg, yogurt, oil, and lemon zest together. Spray a 9" round pan with oil. Pour the batter into the pan.<<<<what batter??? the ingredients are in 2 seperate bowls??


    arghhh!!

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    1. Lol, that was the best laugh I've had all day. How presumptuos of them to think everyone should know to mix dry ingredients w/wet :)

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  6. So sorry, anonymous, that I hadn't caught that omission earlier. I have corrected the post to include the instructions regarding mixing the two bowls of ingredients together. While it will work either way, I think you will get best results by mixing the wet ingredients into the dry. Hope it ended up working out for you despite my poor instructions. Sorry for the confusion!

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  7. I just made this and it was very good! My only question is where is the "dash of salt" supposed to be added or is it supposed to be added at all? Thanks!

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  8. Sorry for the tardy reply, Jenn. Sometimes I lose track of these comments that need attending to! I've made it more clear in the post where the salt goes. In general, when making cakes, the salt will always be mixed in with the dry ingredients. The good news is that you could probably mix it anywhere in here and it would still turn out fine! Glad you liked it!

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  9. hey can i use canned peaches?

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    1. I think you could, but go for the best quality you can find. Most companies can their peaches when they are so under ripe that they are lacking in flavor. Obviously, the texture will be slightly different from using fresh, but I think it should work okay. I'd be sure to drain the peaches really, really well before using them... maybe even blot them dry with a paper towel so that you don't end up with the cake around the peaches being too gooey.

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  10. I made this today and it didn't bake all the way through..I had to take it out after 30 minutes because the top burned. I put my tester in and it came out clean.
    Inside the cake is soggy. What did I do wrong??

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  11. oK...Less leavening leads to no burning and it not being soggy. I should have read the whole write up before baking. thnx

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