Tuesday 28 August 2012

Fresh Peach and Vanilla Cake



I love baking with fresh summer fruit and finding myself with a few peaches to spare I decided to bake them into a cake. One of the nice things about baking with fruit is that it doesn't have to be perfectly ripe to make an excellent cake. I think these peaches were fairly ripe, but I have used fairly hard fruit in the past and it has still worked very well.

Fresh Peach and Vanilla Cake
Ingredients
115g butter, softened
60g light muscovado sugar
60g caster sugar
2 eggs
125g self raising flour
1tsp vanilla extract
2 peaches, chopped into decent size pieces

Method
- Preheat the oven to Gas 4/180C and line a 7"/18cm round tin with baking parchment. I would suggest not a loose based tin because otherwise your fruit is likely to leak a little juice into the oven. I actually used my Lakeland Pushpan, which although loose based is perfectly sealed (I am not on commission, just impressed by the product!)
- Cream the butter and two sugars together until light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs, flour and vanilla and continue beating until well combined.
- Scatter the peach pieces over the base of the tin and then add the cake batter on top, being careful not to dislodge the peaches too much.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes until risen and golden and a cake tester comes out clean.

Allow to cool for a while in the tin before inverting onto your serving plate.


This would be perfect served with some cream or a blob of creme fraiche for a light summer dessert, perhaps with some more chopped peaches alongside. However, it also makes a perfect teatime cake too. The freshness of the peaches is delicious and the addition of some light muscovado sugar gives the cake a caramelly depth of flavour and a gorgeous pale brown hue.

I am submitting this to Calendar Cakes run by Rachel of Dolly Bakes and Laura of Laura Loves Cakes. The theme this month is summertime, and nothing is more summery than fresh peaches!


I am also submitting it to Nazima at Working London Mummy for her 'One Ingredient' challenge this month, the theme of which is peaches or nectarines. Her co-host is Laura of How to Cook Good Food.


Lastly I am submitting it to Simply Food's 'Let's Cook with Fruit' event - because that's exactly what I've done, cook with fruit!




13 comments:

Gloria Baker said...

I love peaches and this look delicious!

Suelle said...

Lovely looking cake - it's so difficult to get peaches that are just right for eating, so cooking with them is often the best option.

I've looked at those Lakeland cake tins a couple of times but the base is so hard to move in the tins on the shelf - is it any easier with a warm, just-used tin?

Laura loves cakes said...

This is most definitely summery ...it looks delicious and I love cooked peaches!! The muscovado in the recipe must give it a great flavour too!!! Thanks for entering Calendar Cakes!! :-)

Katie said...

Perfect way to use up some fresh fruit. I love how baking it alwasy makes it so sweet and sticky :)

celia said...

Beautiful Caroline! That first shot is absolutely mouthwatering!

Caroline said...

Gloria - thank you.

Suelle - thanks. I think the PushPans are a little easier when warm, but still stiff. I think that the couple of times I've used it I've lined the base and so the cake has just dropped out without actually having to use the function of the loose base - I'm just impressed that they don't leak for these upside down type cakes.

Laura - I do like using muscovado, it's such a fudgy sweet flavour.

Katie - sweet and sticky is always good in a cake!

Celia - thank you! I must keep practising photography but that's possibly one of my better ones.

Choclette said...

That cake looks so very tempting C. I don't think I've ever used peaches in a cake. So many years of baking and still so much to try.

Caroline said...

Choclette - peaches in a cake are good, but fresh apricots are probably even better. So much still to try indeed :-)

Chele said...

I too love to bake with fresh summer fruits, its such a decadent treat to have such an over abundance of the fresh fruit that it can be baked with too. This cake looks an utter joy. Yum.

cityhippyfarmgirl said...

Mmmm, lovely C. A wonderful slice of summer on your plate there.

The Caked Crusader said...

Peaches are lovely to bake with and I love when they ooze their juice into the sponge and make it squidgy
Your cake looks fab!

cocoa and coconut said...

If there's one thing I cannot resist, it's cake with fruit in it! Just adore the texture you see. The colours here are particularly pretty too. Nice recipe :)

Unknown said...

Caroline this is a perfect afternoon pickmeup kind of cake. Delicious idea and looks a lovely texture too.

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