Ginger Peach Cake

As much as I anticipate blueberry season each summer, there is actually something I look forward to even more - the brief time when I have both blueberries from my backyard and early local peaches. And when the birds have gotten the better of my blueberry bush, I have a long season of sweet peaches to console me.

I love peaches, but I seldom bake with them since my favorite way to eat them is out of hand. On those rare occasions when I find myself in possession of more peaches than I can eat, I've been known to make a peach pie or Maida Heatter's Blueberry and Peach Buckle (awesome!). But last summer after having sampled a bit of ginger peach poundcake in the grocery store, I was taken with this flavor pairing and moved to concoct something of my own.

My first concept was doomed to failure - it was sort of a peach pie filling with a gingery cake on top. The cake melted into the filling, creating an incredibly delicious, but impossibly ugly dessert. In my next attempt, I decided to bake the cake alone, but somehow managed to leave out the sugar - there was no way to salvage that one. Though I was eager to give it one more try, the peach season ended before I had a chance.

Last weekend I bought a 4-quart basket of peaches (the best I've had so far this season) which provided plenty of peaches to top my cereal with, snack on, and finally make this cake with. I'm very happy with how the cake turned out - it's spicy, moist, sweet, and very good. If you've got a couple of peaches that are less than perfect or are beyond ripe, this would be a good way to use them. If you're not in the mood to bake, you can puree the peaches and freeze them until you are.

Please don't be tempted to leave out the candied ginger - in addition to adding wonderful flavor, texturally, the little bits of ginger are almost nut-like after baking.

I turned to my trusted Wooden Spoon Dessert Book by Marilyn Moore for a cake recipe to use as a starting point. Her Mystery Cake, which calls for tomato soup, seemed just the thing.

Ginger Peach Cake

1 cup flour
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
3/4 cup peach puree (1 to 2 peaches, depending on size)
2 tablespoons finely diced candied ginger

For topping: more peaches, sugar and lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 F. Butter an 8-inch round cake pan. Cut a parchment circle to fit and put in bottom of pan. Dust sides of pan with flour (if you don't have parchment, dust the bottom and sides with flour).

Whisk the flour and next five ingredients together in a small bowl and set aside. Cream the butter and lemon zest, then add the sugar and beat well. Add the egg and then the egg yolk, beating well after each addition. On low speed, add about half a cup of the flour mixture, then the peach puree, and then the rest of the flour mixture. Use a spatula to scrape the beaters and sides of the bowl and mix just until well combined. Add the candied ginger then turn into the prepared pan and bake for about 35 minutes.

While the cake is baking, cut up some peaches and stir in a squirt of lemon juice and a little sugar. When the cake is done let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then turn it out onto a rack to finish cooling. When cool or just barely warm, cut into wedges and serve topped with the macerated peaches. Serves 5.

I like this little snack cake just as it is - it's a good size for me and the flavor is wonderful - but I was thinking it might be nice as a layer cake. Double the recipe, top with sweetened whipped cream and peaches, mmm...

Pink is for Patty

When I was little, my Mom color-coded my brothers, sister, and me. It wasn't for everything, mostly those things that we all used and needed to keep straight like bathroom cups, camping towels, etc. I think my sister and I were most closely associated with our colors, which also showed up in our bedroom decor, our clothing, and even gifts from our grandparents. I don't know when or how our colors were chosen, but since my color was blue, I do wonder about it.

My sister Patty was pink. So when I was choosing a recipe for her birthday cake last weekend, the promise of pink icing was too much to resist. Against my better judgement, I chose the "Illinois Jam Cake" from my go-to cake cookbook, The Wooden Spoon Dessert Book. Though I love fresh strawberries and good strawberry jam, I've never been one to choose strawberry flavored anything. In fact, I expect that if I'd come across this recipe in any other cookbook, I would have flipped right by it. But as I've said before, I've come to trust this book... and the idea of presenting Patty with a pink cake was irresistible.

The cake itself has a whole cup of strawberry jam in it, but it is merely a background for the spices. The cream cheese icing has a more modest 3 tablespoons of jam, but the tanginess of lemon juice and cream cheese bring out the strawberry flavor nicely. The cake was very good - I'd describe it as "strawberry and spice" - a very moist spice cake complented by a tangy strawberry icing. Oh yeah... and it's pink.


Happy belated birthday Patty!!!

Happy Birthday Cassidy!!!

My niece Cassidy is one year old today. She is the daughter of my youngest brother David and his wife Stephanie. Cassidy is a beautiful little girl and this past year has truly been a joy.



The big birthday celebration was this past Saturday and the theme was Hello Kitty! I made the cake and cupcakes using a yellow cake recipe from from Cooking Light (via Tanvi) and an icing recipe from Gail Gand which I found on the Food Network website. I baked the cupcakes for 20 minutes and each batch made 17 cupcakes. The cake was cut from a 13 by 9 inch sheet.



All 34 cupcakes were decorated by Chuck, Bob, me, and one of Cassidy's cousins. We had a regular production line going! I was ready to call it quits after just half were decorated, since guests were starting to arrive, but we pushed on (especially Chuck). We used Wilton's gum paste, which is sort of like a sugar clay. I have never used fondant before, but judging from the recipe for uncooked fondant that I saw, I think it is very similar to this gum paste.

David and Stephanie purchased a cake for purposes of the picture above. We all watched and waited for her to make a mess of it, but Cassidy didn't quite get it. David finally pushed her hand into the cake to get things going. The icing wound up all over her face, but I think she did manage to get a little taste.

Happy birthday dear Cassidy!

Cathy’s Secrets to Modestly Successful Cake Baking

I have a bad history with layer cakes. I can’t count how many times they’ve fallen or broken up on me. Then, of course, there were the ones that were just plain bad. I’m also not so good at achieving a polished look to my cakes – they look homemade. But I can’t complain about that ... I have bigger problems.

The really bad thing about this weakness of mine is that generally the only time I make a layer cake is for someone’s birthday. And seeing as how I’m always doing things at the last minute, there is seldom time to go out and buy a replacement, let alone bake a replacement.

I have not yet completely conquered my cake-baking ineptitude, but I do seem to have zeroed in on a few rules that have blessedly reduced the number of disasters. I know there are at least five or six more rules I haven’t figured out yet, but the three I have worked out have served me well.

1. Start with a good recipe. How do you know if you have a good recipe? Based on past experience – preferably your own. If you don’t want to make the same cake over and over (like me), then turn to a book or an author that you’ve come to trust. I have a book that has provided several recipes that have been successful, including the recipe for my most recent cake. It is The Wooden Spoon Dessert Book by Marilyn M. Moore. With this last cake, I think this book will now be where I turn first when I’m looking for a cake recipe (although I’m sure there is at least one disaster laying in wait between its covers).

2. Line the bottom of your pans with parchment. There’s just no excuse not to – it takes a few minutes, but it virtually guarantees that your cake layers will come cleanly out of the pans. Trace around the pans onto the parchment with a pencil and cut the pieces out, cutting just within the trace line. Grease the bottom of the pan, fit the piece of parchment into the pan and smooth it out, then grease and flour the parchment and the sides of the pan.

3. After you put your cake in the oven, grab the timer and evacuate the area. I go upstairs, but you could go for a walk or whatever. I used to start right in on the dishes as soon as I put the cake in the oven. I don’t know for a fact that this is what caused my cakes to fall, but it won’t be the thing that causes them to fall anymore.

Happily, the cake I made this weekend for my sister’s birthday didn’t fall or break and was really delicious. It was even reasonably attractive. It was a Toasted-Butter-Pecan Cake from the Wooden Spoon Dessert Book. The kids at the party were afraid of it because of the nuts, but the adults seemed to enjoy it very much. It’s a fairly small cake since it is made in 8-inch pans, but it is very rich and we had more than enough for 10. This was my first time making an 8-inch layer cake. I think I like this size – it looks nice and there are fewer leftovers!