Summer Peach Cake

We had friends over for lunch on Sunday. It was meant to be a wet day, but it rained in the morning (first day we have had rain just about all year!!) and then the sun came out brightly and we were able to eat outside. I made a very simple roast vegetable tart using the organic zucchini and red onions I got from the Takapuna market and also some potatoes. I used pre-rolled flaky pastry to line the tin, tipped in the vegetables, poured over a mixture of beaten eggs and some anchovy mayonnaise I had made last week and then topped the tart with sliced tomatoes (from my mother-in-law’s garden) and chopped parsley. We had it with a simple salad of cos lettuce, avocado and radish. Nice and simple.

For dessert I used some fabulous peaches that I bought at the market to make the peach cake pictured above. I used a recipe from Dish magazine which was actually for a nectarine cake, but of course, the peaches were equally as delicious. I don’t really like peaches, nectarines or apricots – I would never eat a whole fruit, but I do quite like them with cake. I served the cake slightly warm with lightly whipped cream. As I usually do, I added a spoon of icing sugar and a teaspoon or so of vanilla to the cream. It just tastes a bit nicer!

Summer Peach Cake (from Dish magazine)

4 tbsp muscavado sugar
zest and juice of one orange
1 tsp vanilla
4 medium sized peaches
200g butter
220g castor sugar
3 eggs
250g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2/3 c buttermilk
2 tbsp extra muscavado sugar

· Slice peaches into 8ths and marinate in the first measure of muscavado sugar, orange juice and vanilla
· Cream butter and sugar, then add eggs one at a time
· Combine the flour and baking powder and add alternately to the butter mix with the buttermilk
· Spoon half the cake batter into a lined 22cm round tin
· Drain the peaches and spoon half of them over the batter, top with the remaining cake batter and then top with the rest of the peaches. Sprinkle with the remaining muscavado sugar
· Bake at 180c for 50-60 minutes. I had to cover mine with tin foil towards the end as it was starting to go a bit dark
Serve slightly warm with whipped cream