Peaches Peaches Everywhere!

Rustic Peach Cake

 

Last week I was going through the gazillion cooking magazines I own (I like to take a few old ones to the pool, leaf through them and fold down recipe pages that I want to try). The July 2008 edition of Cook's Country had an inspiring and simple recipe for a "Rustic Peach Cake." So since I live in Georgia and peaches are in season...it was time to make this. 

The finished product

For the peaches: 

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 medium peaches, peeled, pitted and each cut into 8 wedges 

For the cake:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 8 TBS (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 large eggs
• 2 TBS sour cream
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup dried peaches or apricots, chopped fine

Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9 inch spring form pan.

 

Prep the peaches:

Combine the sugar and cinnamon (reserve 2 TBS in a separate bowl) and toss the peaches to coat. Set aside.

Prep the cake:

1. Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together and set aside.
2. With an electric mixer cream the butter and eggs until light and fluffy - this take about 2 minutes on medium-high speed.
3. Add the eggs, sour cream and vanilla extract and mix until incorporated (it may look lumpy if your eggs and sour cream are cold. This is just the butter hardening. Ideally you want your ingredients at room temp but this shouldn't hurt the cake. 
4. Reduce the speed to medium-low and gradually add the flour mixture, add a little and let it mix in, a little more and so on. Be sure to stop and scrape the sides of the bowl from time to time.
5. The batter you end up with will be fairly thick. Scrape it out of the bowl and into the spring form pan...spread it evenly into the pan.
6. Sprinkle the dried peaches or apricots evenly on top.
7. Arrange the peach slices in a circle* on top of this using three in the center.
8. Sprinkle more cinnamon sugar over the top and bake for 35 to 45 minutes. It's done when it is golden brown and a cake tester comes out clean. 

 *Quick tip - when decorating a cake or something like this - start in one spot on the edge and place decoration (a peach in this case) then place another peach exactly on the other side of the cake. From there, the next peach goes between those two peaches and so on and so on (imagine a clock: place a peach at 12 and one at 6. Then 9 and 3, etc.) This makes for a symmetrically designed cake or pie or whatever.

I love peaches. And this cake reminds me of one of my favorite things my grandmother used to make me when I was a kid. - She called it 'Mrs. Finn's Apple Cake'. This not-too-sweet cake laced with cinnamony apple slices and chunks was what I used to request this for my birthday cake. Now I have an amazing southern-summer version to make. If she were alive today, Grandma would love this! 

Check out Cook's Country or follow America's Test Kitchen on Pinterest. They produce, in my opinion, the most trustworthy recipes out there. This one is no exception. 

Note: this blog entry was updated on 9/6/2014