If you like the crisp edges of lasagne, the soaked croutons, the whipped cream that gets icy around the chocolate scoop - you’re in the right place.
Hello!
The cake I’m sharing this week was one I improvised with the leftover flour from my mother-in-law's bread baking. She handed off half a bag of whole wheat before heading home to England, and the soft, dark cake I made with it seemed unseasonal, but turned out to be just what we needed: a foil to our high-acid, high-shine summer.
I wondered if I’d better share a version of this recipe with AP flour or more sugar, maybe white sugar...if I should roast the fruit first for a more refined offering, but I was too attached to the quiet homeliness of this one. You’ve got plenty of sweet, gleaming peach desserts in your recipe box. This one is the yin to those highly-exposed yangs. It’s the summer cake to eat inside at the peripheries of the day - early morning or later afternoon. It says: you’re home, have a good day, return to us soon.
Nutty peach pockets
TORN PEACH CAKE
This cake is pocked with squidgy peaches and topped with a crunch of rosemary needles and almonds that candy while the cake bakes. Tearing rather than slicing the peaches means they grip the batter and give themself to it. Whole wheat flour is not a health choice but a personality one: it makes this cake an introvert, ideal for restful moments in the shade.
Bake with what you have. Almond meal takes on fat and juices well, making any variation of fruit/flour seem quite intentional. You can use the peaches that are too exhausted for more glamorous bakes, and you can lengthen peaches with berries if you only have one peach left in your fruit bowl (leave out the rosemary if you’re doing this). I tried the cake with plums too, which reminded me of Marian Burros’ classic, but with a nutty crown - another reason to come back for more.
For the cake:
10 tablespoons (5oz, 148g) unsalted butter plus extra for the tin
2/3 cup (115g) light brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup (65g) whole wheat flour
1 cup (125g) almond flour
1½ tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp Kosher salt
2 ripe yellow peaches (~14oz, ~400g)
For the topping:
4 tbsp (~60g) unsalted butter
4 tbsp (~60g) light brown sugar
1/4 tsp Kosher salt
1/2 cup (~60g) flaked almonds
2 tbsp rosemary needles
Take your butter out of the fridge and heat your oven to 350F. Butter a 10” cake tin and line it with parchment paper.
Cream the butter with the sugar until it’s fluffy and the color of a latte. Add the eggs one at a time, beating and scraping down after each addition. Ignore splitting. Measure the almond flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder and salt directly into the sugar/butter/egg mixture and stir to combine. Spoon the batter into the lined tin (it doesn’t look like enough but it will be).
Choose the two ripest peaches in your fruit bowl and, holding each one over the batter, tear it into pieces roughly the size of a pit. You might squash the fruit a little but the juices are dripping over the batter so nothing is lost. Drop the peach bits onto the batter as you go. They will slump as the cake bakes leaving sweet stains in their paths. Bake for 25 minutes.
While the cake is baking, make the almond topping. Melt the butter and stir in 3 tablespoons of the sugar, the salt, flaked almonds and rosemary. After 25 minutes, open the oven and spoon this over the cake and sprinkle the remaining tablespoon of sugar over everything. Continue to bake for another 20-25 minutes until the center is firm and the crust golden. Let the cake cool slightly in the tin before lifting it by the sides of the parchment paper and moving to a plate. Slice and eat warm.
Eat with sour cream, Greek yogurt, creme fraiche or heavy cream to pour.
You could also continue with Kerrygold and up the flour by a tablespoon and cut the butter in the topping by a tablespoon. Let me know how it goes!
Couldn’t wait to make this peach cake! The peach, almond and rosemary is a wonderful combination.
However for some reason my cake came out kind of greasy. Maybe it was the type of butter I used (Kerrygold)? It was also super delicate but as long as I kept it in the parchment it held it’s shape OK. I will plan to try again because the flavors are fantastic.
Thank you Clare for sharing this recipe!