The very thought of cooking this peach and blackberry cake has been quite exciting to me. The quality of the fruit is excellent at the moment, and the photo of this cake in the latest monthly Fresh magazine has had me salivating over it for a couple of weeks. My Friends, I'm sure you know what I mean. The stone fruit season is very short here in the North, and with the Townsville floods, fresh fruit has been in short supply. Who would have thought that all of the fresh supermarket produce for Mackay, is flown into Townsville and trucked down here, at least 4 hours away. During the floods, it just didn't arrive. After baking this cake, I have decided that it is best served as a dessert, and not for afternoon tea, however with oodles of whipped cream, it would probably be very acceptable as part of a High Tea. I also needed to make a Sunday cake, comfort food for the soul, as early tomorrow morning I am having gum surgery for two teeth implants. HELP!!
I won't go into the details but I will be in very good hands with an experienced dental surgeon. I know that I will be a little fragile for a few days and soft foods will be on my menu. I've told Mr. HRK that the frig and freezer are at his disposal, they are well stocked, but I will be having soups, eggs, and ice cream.
When I wrote the caption on this photo of the uncooked cake, I wasn't thinking of myself but of the residents of Townsville who are still struggling to restore their homes and lives. This photo is of the cake before it was cooked, and shows the effort I took to arrange the peach and blackberry slices decoratively. However when the cake cooked, the batter rose up over most of the peaches, hence the result in the photo at the top. Whilst the recipe said to slice the peaches thinly, I would suggest if you are making the cake to slice them a little thicker and very loosely on top of the cake. The advantages of having a test kitchen and a team of photographers etc at one's disposal to produce an amazing photo such as in the magazine can't be underestimated. However the cake still tastes delicious, isn't too sweet, is packed with fruit, and honestly in my home situation it's not all about looks is it?
Let's Cook:
Ingredients:
160g butter softened
3/4 cup caster sugar
2 tsp. vanilla bean paste
1 1/2 cups plain flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1 cup Greek yoghurt
2 free range eggs, at room temperature
3 firm yellow peaches, halved, and destoned with skin on
125g punnet blackberries
1/4 cup peach or apricot jam
Thickened cream, to serve
Dice 1 1/2 peaches and set aside.
Preheat oven to 180 deg. C. Grease a 22 cm spring form cake pan and line the base with baking paper.
Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla together with your electric mixer or Kitchen Aid until well mixed, and pale and fluffy.
Add the eggs, individually, beating well after each one.
Sift the flour and baking powder together, and add gradually to the mixing bowl on a slow speed until just combined.
Stir the diced peaches gently into the cake mixture. This is where it is important that the flesh is firm so that it doesn't break down too much in the cake.
Spoon the mixture into the cake pan. Slice the remaining peaches into thick wedges, and arrange over the surface decoratively, overlapping the slices. Scatter the blackberries on top of the peaches.The fruit shouldn't be pressed into the cake batter at all, but placed loosely on top, as the cake will rise and we want the fruit slices to keep their integrity on top of the cake.
Bake for 1 hour 10 minutes. When a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean it is cooked.
While the cake is cooking, heat the peach jam and 1 tablespoon of water in a small saucepan over medium heat until melted. Strain the melted jam and brush the clear jam liquid over the hot cake.
The cake is delicious served with whipped cream as a dessert.
Take care and thanks for coming by, I'll be in touch:)
Have a great week,
Pauline.
