Baltimore Peach Cake

Too long!! It has been way to long since I posted. It's not that I haven't been cooking and baking my fool head off either, cause I have. What happened is this, on August 17, school started and now my life is on military schedule. Minus the bed that you can bounce a quarter off of because I really don't even have time to make my bed. Maybe I should start doing that, you know like to make my life feel more ordered and calm? Well, anyway. I have made lots of stuff and about 80% of it has had peaches in it. That is because, besides the fact that fresh peaches are made out of angel sweat or something and eating them just makes life better, I purchased a hugenormous basket of them at the farmers' market a couple of weeks ago. I wish I'd taken a picture of it because it was completely ridiculous. Probably about 8 pounds for $15, and delicious, mmm mmm. Perfectly ripe. The only problem with a single woman who lives alone buying 8 pounds of perfectly ripe peaches is that they start to edge past perfectly ripe into the realm of rotten fruit faster than she can eat them. Soooo, this resulted in many a dish, sweet and savory alike, being made with them. My peach concoctions included: peach cobbler, peach salsa (yummmm), peach pancakes (only so-so to be honest), and finally used the last of them in a black bean peach soup last night. Since I haven't gotten to taste it yet, I cannot tell you how it turned out.

Also, I made a Baltimore Peach Cake last week and it definitely stole the show in terms of how best to use up a whole big basket of peaches. If I could make that whole basket into a million of these cakes, I would. I'd never even heard of it before but found it when searching for a peach cake recipe to make into cupcakes. Some things I've read recently make me think this cake may fall into the category of baked goods that are referred to as "buckles." That's because the cake batter is covered in fruit and then rises up through it when it bakes, causing the fruit topping to buckle, get it? Anyway, I've been imagining what it would taste like to make this cake with other fruit, especially apples and pears in anticipation of fall. The cinnamon/sugar mixture that you sprinkle on the cake before putting on the fruit gets kind of crunchy and crystalized so you get that crusty outside, moist inside phenomenon that I love so much. I ate quite a bit of it myself and shared it with my co-workers who loved it (though I'm not sure they'd ever tell me if they didn't like it). Recipe is below. I plan to try and post at least once a week and want to focus more on savory dishes than sweets. The hope was that last night's turkey meatloaf would be good enough to post but, honestly, it was only ok. Tasty, but nothing to blog about.



Baltimore Peach Cake

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon Butter, softened
2 1/2 cups Flour
1 1/2 cup Milk
1 cup Sugar
3 teaspoons Baking Powder

2 tablespoons Butter, melted
3/4 cup Sugar, MIXED WITH
2 teaspoons Cinnamon
5 large Peaches, peeled/sliced
Directions:Preheat oven to 350º. With electric mixer, blend first five ingredients. Spread in greased and floured 15x10" jelly roll pan, or 13x9" plus one 8" cake pan (or 2 8'' cakes pans like I did, or whatever pan you want for whatever thickness of cake you want. My cake layer was only about 3/4 in thick).

Sprinkle half of cinnamon/sugar mixture lightly over dough base. Arrange peach slices by rows on top of base. Sprinkle with remainder of cinnamon/sugar mixture and drizzle melted butter over all.

Bake for 25-30 minutes (For thicker dough, omit 8" cake pan -- use 13x9" pan only).