Tuesday 5 January 2010

peach & cinnamon cake

My mum commented the other day that we seem to have 'a lot of' baking ingredients at home; that I seem to be able to pull out a recipe and do some baking without having to go to the shops. I just smiled politely; I do have a habit of stocking up. At one point, I was buying the 5kg bags of flour until we found bugs in one bag and decided to go back to getting the 1kg bags which were a bit more manageable. As for everything else (choc chips, dark chocolate, caster sugar, vanilla extract, almond meal, eggs, butter), I do try to stock up when they're on special at the supermarket. So yes, generally I have everything at home and I can bake on whim. I think my mum just shook her head at me when I didn't answer her question.

Despite having everything at home, it's still a challenge at times to find a recipe that I have all the ingredients for. A lot of the newer recipe books have their 'special' ingredients in them but one author that I seem to always be able to refer to is none other than Bill Granger. The following recipe is from Bill's 'Everyday', what was meant to be a fresh apricot and cinnamon cake which I turned into a peach & cinnamon cake.

Ingredients: 140g self-raising flour, 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, 50g caster sugar, 1 egg (lightly beaten), 3 tbsp milk, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 85g unsalted butter (melted), 350g canned peaches. Topping: 40g plain flour, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, 35g caster sugar, 35g unsalted butter (chilled and diced)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Grease the base of a 20cm springform tin. Sift the flour and cinnamon into a large bowl and stir in the sugar. Make a well in the centre and pour in the egg, milk, vanilla and melted butter. Mix until the batter is smooth, then spoon into the tin. Arrange the peaches over the batter and press down lightly (as per below).
For the topping, put the flour, cinnamon and sugar in a bowl. Rub in the butter with your fingertips until crumbs form. Scatter the topping evenly over the peaches.
Bake for 35-40 minutes. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
The finished product.
Recipe serves 8. I say best enjoyed with a cuppa and well, the cake is not quite big enough! I didn't think there was that much cinnamon in the recipe but if you're not a big fan of cinnamon, you may find the cinnamon taste a little overpowering. Suggest you try eating the cake on the day as the juices from the peaches can leave the cake soggy. If serving up the next day, place in the fridge and slowly let the cake resume to room temperature when you serve it (don't reheat in the microwave).

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ooh I love crumble topped cakes! This looks lovely and would be the perfect afternoon cup of tea accompaniment! :D

Rita (mademoiselle délicieuse) said...

Heheh, when I first started baking my mum pretty much said the same thing! She was getting a bit territorial, in my opinion, as I had slowly taken over one kitchen shelf with a view to conquering the whole cupboard!

Two fit and fun gals said...

hehe thats exactly like me jenny i have so many ingreds at home. on my one week break i baked something almost everyday and i still have alot Lols

panda said...

nqn - i actually really like making crumbles, only thing is you need to eat them straight away otherwise they go soggy. and yep, best enjoyed with a cuppa!

mademoiselle delicieuse - yeah, my mum seems to think i take too much room in the kitchen and keeps asking me to tidy things up and make some room :)

betty - that's exactly what i did over the x'mas break! hahaha.

A cupcake or two said...

This cake looks amazing. All those plump pieces of peaches and the crumby top. Delicious.

panda said...

a cupcake or two - i do like this recipe; it's so simple to make and tastes delicious!