Rustic Peach Cake

Recently I decided to make a peach tart, since it is peach season in Georgia.  I had in mind a recipe using a fluted tart pan, but couldn't find the recipe that I was looking for. Instead I made this peach cake that I made once before in August 2010.  It's a very easy recipe and makes a cake that is not too sweet. My hubby liked it but said that it seemed more like a breakfast cake than a dessert cake.

This is a recipe from a 2010 Issue of Cook's Illustrated ("American Classics").  It is an interesting recipe, using dried fruit and fresh.  Every recipe in Cook's Illustrated is an essay on how to avoid common problems in great dishes.  For this cake, the problem was overly juicy peaches making the top of the cake mushy and wet. The solution they found was to add a base of dried fruit to absorb the juice released during cooking. It works perfectly, this cake was not soggy at all.

Below I have pictures from this week's cake, and the cake that I made in August 2010.

Rustic Peach Cake
Peach Topping:
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
2 medium peaches (barely ripe), peeled and cut into ~12 pieces


Cake:
1 cup (5 oz) unbleached all-purp flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
8 Tablespoons (1 stick) butter, softened
2 large eggs
2 Tbsp sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup dried apricots, diced fine

Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-inch springform pan. 

Combine sugar and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Reserve 2 Tbsp of cinnamon-sugar mixture. Add peaches to the bowl with the remaining cinnamon-sugar and toss to coat.


Whisk flour, baking powder, salt in a bowl. With hand-held mixture on med-high, beat 2 sugars and butter until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, sour cream, and vanilla. Reduce speed to medium-low and slowly add flour mixture, beating until just combined (30 sec). Scrape batter into pan.


Scatter dried apricots over batter, then arrange sugared peaches in a circular pattern over the top. Sprinkle remaining cinnamon-sugar over the peaches.


Bake until cake is golden brown, 35-45 minutes (I baked ~40 minutes and edges were dark brown). Cool at least 1 hour.

Peach Cake 2011

 

 Dried apricot layer

 Peaches arranged on top

Peach Cake 2011

Peach Cake 2010