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!