cake

Peach almond buttermilk cake with salted caramel gelato

Peach almond buttermilk cake

It’s peach season. Does anything else need to be said? This is the time of year to grab a juicy peach and eat it while standing over the sink while it drips all over you, or to slice one into your breakfast cereal (or try it combined with cucumber and lemon for a summery new twist), or to make into a cake that is as pretty as it is delicious.

Now, we don’t make desserts very often, because, really, nobody needs to take a simple and perfect ingredient like a peach and add sugar and butter and unbleached wheat flour to it to make it better. A ripe peach is already perfect. But every once in awhile, say once every three months or so, we veer away from simplicity and make a cake and enjoy every last crumb of it.

Ingredients:

  • 3 large peaches
  • 4 egg yolks, at room temperature
  • 2⁄3 cup buttermilk (the magic ingredient that adds tang and moisture)
  • 1½ teaspoons vanilla
  • 1 1/2 cups cake flour
  • ½ cup almond flour, plus extra for dusting the cake pan
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • ½ cup sliced almonds, lightly toasted

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Grease and flour (with almond flour) a 9-inch cake pan.

Peel the peaches, cut in half and remove the pits, and chop coarsely. You want pieces that hold their integrity. If you chop the peaches too small, you’ll end up with mush.

Remove about 1/3 of the chopped peaches to serve with the finished cake and refrigerate until ready to serve. Set the others aside.

Measure out all the buttermilk, and then use a ¼ cup measure to remove the amount you’ll need first. (Otherwise, you’ll get stuck figuring out the math for what 2/3 cup of buttermilk minus ¼ cup buttermilk means, and that will take some time for most of us, and will probably also yield an incorrect result and a headache.)

Whisk together the egg yolks, ¼ cup buttermilk, and vanilla, and set aside.

Mix the dry ingredients, preferably in a standing mixer, but you can also do this by hand.

Add the butter and remaining buttermilk and beat until light in color and fluffy looking.  This will only take a couple of minutes in a stand mixer.  Prepare for some arm work if you’re beating by hand, but it won’t require a helper, as long as the butter is at room temperature.

Scrape down the sides of the mixer or bowl then add the vanilla–egg–buttermilk mixture in a few batches, mixing well after each addition.

Fold in the reserved chopped peaches by hand and pour into the prepared cake pan. (Don’t forget to lick the spoon and the bowl, one of the quiet yet deeply intense pleasures of being the cook. Share if there’s anyone around, otherwise, rejoice in your solitude.)

The prepared cake, ready for the oven.  You can see that the sides of the pan are dusted with almond flour.

Peach cake ready for cooking

Bake for 30–40 minutes or until a cake tester inserted near the center comes out clean. Be careful that the edges don’t burn, though—this is a very moist cake and the cake tester may pick up a couple of crumbs from the center. If you’re not sure, set your timer at 1-minute intervals while checking.

Place the pan on a rack to cool completely, then invert onto a plate. Lightly press the toasted almond slices onto the top of the cake.

Peach cake with almonds on top

Serve with the reserved peaches, and, if you’re feeling especially self-indulgent, ice cream. Vanilla would be fine, but we like the excuse to have a little bit of salted caramel gelato. If you serve gelato, buy the best. The cake (and you) deserve it.

P.S.  This cake is a candidate for a flourless treatment, using just almond flour in place of the cake flour.  It might be a little less light and more dense, but it would be easier on the conscience to eliminate unbleached white flour from, well, everything.

 

And here’s what a peach/cucumber breakfast looks like.  Drizzle it with a little lemon and peach balsamic vinegar if you have some.

Peach cucumber breakfast

Cauliflower cake

2015-03-08 19.50.13I bought the Plenty More cookbook, by genius chef Yotam Ottolenghi, on the basis of his recipe for cauliflower cake.  One look at the photo that accompanied the recipe, and I knew I had to make that cake.  It’s a bit weird, because not that long ago, I wouldn’t eat cauliflower in any form…something about it just, yuk.  And then, overnight, when I was in my fifties, my fifties, I fell in love with it.  I have no idea what happened. Maybe my taste buds finally grew up—my antipathy towards okra went away around then, too.

I’ve now made this cake several times, and while I like the original version, which is delicate and sublime, I need something a bit wilder, crunchier, more aggressive.  This is what’s so much fun about cooking—playing around, making mistakes, making something your own, having the confidence to trust your own palate, sometimes failing, sometimes improving.

What follows is the original recipe, with my changes (so far) in italics.  I’m not done with this recipe yet.

Ingredients

1 small cauliflower, outer leaves removed, broken into 1 1/4-inch/3-cm florets
1 medium red onion, peeled
5 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon finely chopped rosemary
7 eggs
1/2 cup basic leaves chopped
1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted (or not–I don’t have a sifter)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 teaspoon ground turmeric (or more, up to 1 tablespoon)
5 ounces coarsely grated Parmesan or another mature cheese
Salt and black pepper
Melted unsalted butter, for brushing
1 tablespoon white sesame seeds (make that 4 tablespoons, lightly toasted)
1 teaspoon nigella seeds  (4 tablespoons, lightly toasted)

1 very generous pinch peperoncino

 

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 400°F

Place the cauliflower florets in a saucepan and add 1 teaspoon salt. Cover with water and simmer for 15 minutes, until the florets are quite soft. They should break when pressed with a spoon. Drain and set aside in a colander to dry.  Or, roast the cauliflower florets at 350°F until they are beginning to brown around the edges.  They will have softened somewhat but will still retain a bit of crunch.

Cut 4 round slices off one end of the onion (each 1/4 inch thick) and set aside. Coarsely chop the rest of the onion and place in a small pan with the oil and rosemary. Cook for 10 minutes over medium heat, stirring from time to time, until soft. (I like to reserve some of the onion and add them in at the last minute, so the onion mixture retains some texture.) Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

Transfer the onion to a large bowl, add the eggs and basil, whisk well, and then add the flour, baking powder, turmeric, Parmesan, 1 teaspoon salt, and plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Add the peperoncino.  Whisk until smooth before adding the cauliflower and stirring gently, trying not to break up the florets.

Line the base and sides of a 9 1/2-inch/24-cm spring-form cake pan with parchment paper. (I’m not very good at parchment paper, so I just line the bottom.) Brush the sides with melted butter, then mix together the sesame and nigella seeds and toss half of them around the inside of the pan so that they stick to the sides. Pour the cauliflower mixture into the pan, spreading it evenly, and arrange the reserved onion rings on top. Sprinkle the rest of the sesame and nigella seeds over everything.

Place in the center of the oven and bake for 45 minutes, until golden brown and set; a knife inserted into the center of the cake should come out clean. Remove from the oven and leave for at least 20 minutes before serving. It needs to be served just warm, rather than hot, or at room temperature.  (Or cold from the fridge, for breakfast the next morning, held in your hand while you run out the door.)

Thoughts

This recipe seems infinitely adaptable.  My next go at it will involve experimenting with egg whites instead of whole eggs, adding even more crunch and spice, and trying to take it out of the somewhat “brunchy” place it holds in my head to something substantial enough to serve for dinner–in other words, I guess, making it less “ladylike” and more edgy.  Maybe a peppery red sauce?  Maybe some leeks along with those onions?  No matter what, though, it will always be beautiful to look at, just like the photo that grabbed me in the first place.

2015-04-06 20.58.23