Summer Strawberry-Peach Cake
It has been a while since my last post, but I have not forgotten to continue making tasty treats. The end of the semester and the beginning of summer classes has been quite an adjustment, and it has left me with a lot less time than I had anticipated. But Alas!
It's Friday and I have a little breather before next week so I'm hoping to excite you all with a sweet, summer cake. I found the recipe for this cake on Smitten Kitchen, a lovely little blog that I have been following for months now. It just so happened that a few days prior I purchased some gorgeous strawberries and peaches from the market and they were getting to that point where you have to do something with them.
This cake is sweet and moist. I cut back on the sugar like the recipe suggested, and I still thought that it was sweet enough.
A preview of the cake before I put it in the oven...
In a bowl, mix 1-1/2 cups of flour, 1-1/2 teaspoons of baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. In another bowl, 6 tablespoons of room-temperaure butter and 1 cup of sugar until light and fluffy. To that mixture, add 1 egg, 1/2 cup of milk and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Mix until just combined. Add the dry mixture, combining until just smooth. Add the batter to a buttered 9-inch deep dish pie plate or 10-inch pie plate, smoothing it with a spatula
These are the stars of this summer cake. I live in an area where I am fortunate enough to get South Carolina peaches. They are glorious. The original recipe only called for strawberries, but I was feeling dangerous...
I think that this recipe is very versatile and gives you the opportunity to add all kinds of fruit. If you have blueberries or apples or blackberries or Ugli Fruit (Okay, maybe I went a little far with the Ugli Fruit), I would totally recommend trying them. I think the batter really lends itself to lots of options.
To the flattened batter, arrange a mixture of 1 pound of strawberries (that have been halved and hulled) and peaches. I used 3/4 lb of strawberries and 1 peach. I tried to make it pretty, thinking my nifty design would look really cool after. Turns out, when you bake it, though, the batter grows up through any exposed batter cracks.
I won't lie that I was slightly disappointed upon opening the oven (since I didn't realize the batter would bake up over the fruit), but the cake is very tasty so it wasn't that bad. To ensure that this doesn't happen in the future, though, I would really encourage covering every bit of the cake batter with fruit.
The cake was so, so moist and the cooked fruit was like a warm jelly. Yum...
Summer Strawberry-Peach Cake (lightly adapted from Smitten Kitchen)
Serves 6-8
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for pie plate
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon table salt
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar [See Note]
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 pound strawberries, hulled and halved
- 1-2 peaches, sliced into thin wedges
Method
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 10-inch standard or 9-inch deep dish pie plate (A nine inch standard pie plate is too shallow and the cake may overflow).
- In a small bowl, whisk the cup all purpose flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside
- In a larger bowl, cream together the butter and 1 cup of the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg, milk, and vanilla extract and mix until just combined.
- Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, mixing until just combined
- Pour cake batter into buttered baking dish. Flatten the batter with a spatula (or some other type of spreading do-hickey)
- Arrange the strawberries and peaches over the batter (try to cover the batter as well as you can with the fruit). Sprinkle the fruit with the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar
- Place cake in the oven and bake for 10 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees and bake for 50 to 60 minutes until a cake tester (or toothpick) comes out clean. The top will be golden brown.
- Let cake cool (or eat it slightly warm... It's wonderful this way) and serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. This is not optional ;)
[Note]
Deb, from Smitten Kitchen, recommended cutting some of the sugar (2 tablespoons) out of the recipe, if desired. When I made it, I took out the 2 tablespoons of sugar and I thought that it was still sweet enough. If you decide to do this, it will be 7/8 cup of sugar for the batter and 2 tablespoons for the top.