Peach Butter Frosting and Cake

I remember seeing this cake a lot when I was growing up.  I don't remember eating it much because, believe it or not, I didn't like cake all that much when I was younger.

Peach Butter Cake

     1 yellow cake, baked and cooled in a 9 x 13" pan

     1 block butter, softened

     3/4 c sugar

     1 egg

     1 can (15.25 oz) sliced peaches

Pour peach slices into a mesh colander and drain 20 minutes.  Using a spoon, mash peach slices against surface of colander until slices are broken up and smashed.  Drain for 45 minutes, stirring and pressing peaches against colander periodically.  Cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer for 5 minutes or until light and fluffy.  Add in egg and beat until thoroughly incorporated.  Stir in drained, mashed peaches.  Frost top surface of prepared yellow cake.  Cover and chill until ready to serve.

Cleaning out the Fridge: Fruit Crisp

This summer, The Ds seemed to be addicted to white nectarines.  The Help went to the market weekly (sometimes multiple times) to replenish our supply.

The obsession with white nectarines began with a weekend trip to Costco.  We happened to run into Wi and her family.  Wi's hubby was jonesing over the fresh fruit tart but opted to leave with a flat of white nectarines instead.  Since Wi is known for having good taste, we decided to copy and picked up a flat for ourselves.

Wi did not disappoint.  The white nectarines were delicious.  We went to Costco the following week and bought another flat!

For D2, the white nectarines were a substitute for the dismal Rainier cherry harvest this year.  The Help saw a sorry looking bag at one of the local supermarkets, and the two occasions where we bought the 2 lb pack from Costco, the cherries were highly disappointing.

The Help tried buying a whole bunch of fruit this summer.  He bought some sweet apricots and some blueberries.  He even bought me a mango from the farmers market.  At some point, we had about 5 different fruits in the fruit drawer.  There was no way we could eat it all, so I decided to make a fruit crisp.




I'm totally good with nuts, but one place I don't like nuts is in the crisp topping.  The nuts distract me from the buttery goodness of the topping...I wanna taste butter, not nuts.

Oh, and unless you are a glutton for punishment, place a silicone mat or a piece of foil between the ramekins and the baking sheet.  When the filling overflows, which is likely to occur, especially if you are using ramekins, you will thank me because following that little tip will significantly reduce clean-up effort/time.

click on recipe title for printable recipe

Fruit Crisp

Topping:  1 1/2 c flour

                1 c sugar

                1/4 tsp salt

                1/2 c butter

Place ingredients into food processor bowl and process until small crumbs form.  Place in refrigerator while preparing filling.

Filling:  6 c assorted fruits, peeled and cut in large dice

             1 c sugar

             1/4 c minute tapioca or 2 1/2 tbsp cornstarch

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Grease a 2-quart baking dish or 7-8 ramekins (about 1 cup each).  Combine fruits, sugar and tapioca or cornstarch.  Place fruit in prepared dish(es).  Top with chilled topping.  Place on a baking sheet.  Bake for 45 minutes.  Eat while warm.

Flexible Fruity Nutty Bars

I'm feeling a little melancholy today.  D1 left for Japan this morning with the Key Club, and D2 is still under the weather with a lingering virus (low fever, listless, grouchy).  I'm still stuck at an assessment workshop.  With 45 minutes for lunch, we pretty much have no choice but to eat lunch at Sky Garden.  I like the Chinese food at Sky Garden, but lunch gets a little tiresome day after day.  Sky Garden offers a buffet lunch also, but the price is steep, and 45 minutes would not allow me nearly enough time to consume my share.  With the vacation looming, I'm going to make a pan of these bars to help lift my spirits.

This is one of those recipes which began as an innocent date bar recipe but has morphed into many other things.  Lets start at the beginning.  When I was pregnant with D2, my ob-gyn visits entailed a detour to Jilly's, a snack shop on the ground floor of the medical building.  Without fail, I'd buy a 2-pack of date bars.  The bars had a buttery shortbread crust and a heavy, cakey, nutty, sweet topping.  I know I didn't taste dates, but it didn't matter because it was good, satisfied my sweet tooth, and sent me down the path towards gestational diabetes.  Imua!

Mom would often buy fresh dates from Costco and tell me to make date bars.  I was happy to oblige, but eventually the dates disappeared.  Left only with a partial tin of glaceed apricots from Williams-Sonoma, I decided to take a risk and experiment with them by replacing the dates with glaceed apricots.  The result was fabulous.  This led me to try other fruits:  dried mango, dried apricots (not the expensive glaceed type), dried peaches.  All were good.  Then I tried substituting macadamia nuts for pecans (I don't eat walnuts).  All good again.

But now I had an even bigger problem on my hands.  The 7"x11" pan I was using provided hardly enough bars to take anywhere.  It barely fed me!  I knew I had to somehow develop a recipe that could be made in a 9"x13" pan, which would definitely be enough for me to eat my fill AND take some to an event.  The crust was easy, but I had to do some tinkering with the brown sugar amount before I got the filling right.  The first few results were sickingly sweet, but I think its perfect now.

Some great fruit-nut combinations are:  apricot-pecan, mango-macadamia, dates-pecan, peach/pineapple-pecan.  The pics on this blog happen to be peach/pineapple-pecan.  Those are tried and true, but feel free to experiment with your own combos.  As a caution to anyone who makes this . . . be prepared to give out the recipe.  Everytime I've taken this somewhere (work potluck) or served it at home (Colleen & Flo), someone ALWAYS asks for the recipe.

click on recipe title for printable recipe
Flexible Fruity Nutty Bars

Crust:  1 c butter

           1/2 c sugar

           2 c flour

Mix butter, sugar and flour until crumbly.  Press evenly into a 9 x 13" pan.  Bake at 400 degrees for 12 minutes.  While crust is baking, make filling.

Filling:  2/3 c flour

            1 tsp baking powder

            1/2 tsp salt

            4 eggs

            1 1/2 c brown sugar

            1 c chopped dried fruit

            2 tsp vanilla

            1 c chopped nuts

Mix together flour, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.  Beat eggs and add brown sugar and dried fruit.  Add flour mixture, vanilla, and nuts.  Spread evenly over hot crust.  Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees.  Bake for 30 minutes.  Let cool for 10 minutes before cutting into squares or bars.  When completely cool, dust generously with powdered sugar and remove cut pieces from pan.

Raspberry Buttermilk Cake from Gourmet

In early July, Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy posted a recipe for Peachy Keen Buttermilk Cake, which she adapted from a recipe in the June 2009 issue of Gourmet magazine.  Her pictures made the cake look so ono, and I was surprised that the only "odd" ingredient in the cake was buttermilk.  I also liked the idea that the cake was rather small (round, single-layer).  The original recipe, Raspberry Buttermilk Cake,  called for raspberries, rather than peaches.  I guess the title gives it away.

When I went to Costco last weekend, the cold room was full of berries.  I had a hard time deciding between blackberries and raspberries but eventually went the sentimental route with raspberries (flashback to Seattle:  my Italian gramma often made raspberry jam).

Aren't these gorgeous?

 I think you can figure out the rest of this post.  Needless to say, this cake is super simple to make, provided you have buttermilk or know how to fake it with milk and vinegar.  The sweetness of the cake complements the tangy fruit.

The fruit will sink beneath the surface of the cake during baking.

The finished cake will be a warm, golden brown with delicate cracks on the surface.

Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy didn't seem to have a problem with the cake sticking to the bottom of the pan, but I sure did.  Next time, I will use a round of parchment in addition to greasing and flouring the pan.  That should do the trick.