- Hey, I'm John Kannell.
And today on "Preppy Kitchen"
we're making an easy and amazing peach cake.
So let's get started.
First off I'm slicing about two cups
of fresh, amazing peaches.
This is a peach cake
so you should make it at the height of peach season
when these guys are at the ready.
If you wanna make this cake but it's not peach season,
go ahead, use frozen peach slices.
Just make sure you thaw them
and drain them first because they have
a lot of extra liquid.
And have your oven set to 350.
This cake comes together so quickly,
you'll want your oven nice and hot.
When I make this cake, I love having kind of
thin peach slices like this, as opposed to chopped pieces.
It just looks really pretty when you cut the cake open.
This cake is so simple, cause it just like a one layer cake.
You're gonna sprinkle it with powdered sugar.
But it is one of the most delicious things you can have.
I'm tossing these into a liquid measuring cup
just so I can keep track of how much I need.
You could have some tiny peaches.
You could have some giant peaches.
It's really about having two cups of finished peach,
not how many peaches you're starting out with.
Ooh, these are gorgeous.
I'm gonna save some of these slices
for the very top of the cake.
There I go, just a little bit more than two cups
but I'm gonna have some beautiful peach slices
sprinkled on top.
This gets set aside,
and now we're gonna make our easy but amazing batter.
This batter is so good.
Into a medium bowl I'm adding 1.5 cups
or 180 grams of all-purpose flour.
1/2 a teaspoon of salt.
If you're using a super fine table salt, try not to,
but you'll use half the salt in that case.
And rounding out the dry ingredients
are 1.5 teaspoons of baking powder.
Give this a whisk, there we go.
And set that aside because now it's time
for our butter and sugar.
Now into a large bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer
fit with a paddle attachment.
I'm adding 3/4 of a cup
or 170 grams of room temperature, unsalted butter.
And once again, you should be able to press
with a little bit of effort and indent the butter.
Like you even bend it and it's not gonna break.
If it's too hard, it won't mix up well.
And if it's too soft, it won't mix up well.
So we want to get a nice fluffy mixture
to trap air to give us a nice fluffy cake.
We're gonna cream this butter up first.
It should only take about 30 seconds or so.
You'll see that it just gets creamier.
Then we'll add the sugar.
There, nice and creamy.
Now it's time to add one cup or 200 grams
of granulated sugar.
Just add that in while you mix on like, medium high.
This will mix up for about three minutes or until
it is nice and fluffy.
You'll see it gets to be a lighter color
and it looks cloudy.
Your butter's gonna start off kind of crumbly,
like big pieces.
And then as you mix, those pieces will become smaller
and eventually it'll get beaten into a fluffy mixture
that is so important for the cake.
If you're using your stand mixer, you can walk away
but you'll have to scrape the bowl down once or twice.
If you're using a hand mixer
you can just scrape the bottom as you mix.
Just about three minutes later, you can see
that I have a nice fluffy, cloudy butter mixture.
So now it's time to add in our eggs one at a time,
cracking them into a bowl
so I can be sure that there are no stray shells.
And as usual, we'll add them in one at a time
just so it forms a nice mixture.
If you don't mix your eggs in enough,
you get kind of a broken cottage cheesy mixture,
which is fine, it can work.
But in a recipe like this
where there's only two eggs, you really wanna mix mix mix
so it's perfectly combined.
All right, look at this, come take a look.
That's a beautiful mixture.
It's super fluffy.
Now for a little bit of tang and to add some balance
I'm adding in 1/4 cup of sour cream.
This will also make the cake really moist
and it'll do that without making it at all greasy.
And if you don't have sour cream on hand
you could use a cup of like plain Greek yogurt.
Mix that in to combine.
And don't forget a tablespoon of vanilla.
Vanilla and peaches go hand in hand.
And here even if you're using a hand mixer,
you should scrape the bowl down
just so you can get it all mixed nicely.
Now we're gonna mix up one last time.
(mixer whirs)
I would go on high for like 30 seconds or so.
I have once again a nice smooth mixture.
It looked pretty broken
after you added in all of that liquid.
While the mixer is on low
we're gonna add in our flour, just on low though.
You don't wanna overmix.
And if I were you, I wouldn't mix this until it's combined.
I would mix it until it's almost combined.
That means you'll see some bits of flour here and there.
It's not totally done, but it's almost there.
There we go.
(mixer whirs) (cheerful music)
That's how I clean my beaters off.
Okay, now I'm gonna fold this together with my spatula.
This is a delicious vanilla cake
but now it's time for the peaches.
So I want to add in 3/4 of a cup of peaches,
saving the last quarter for the very top.
And if you had some peaches that were like,
a little bit bruised or just not as pretty a color,
I would save those pretty peaches for the top.
Gently fold your peaches in.
If you have super tender peaches
they will just like, start falling apart.
So we're gonna be nice and gentle.
That looks nice.
Evenly distributed and it's time to go into a nine inch pan.
I gave this a little bit of butter.
If you want, you can add a round of parchment paper
to the bottom to to make completely sure
it'll come out perfectly.
But this cake should come out really easily.
Get every drop of batter into that pan.
Now we're gonna smooth this out into a nice even layer.
Look at those peaches shining through.
This is a masterpiece and it's so easy.
I would never eat cake batter, but if I did
this would be the most delicious thing ever.
All right, now those remaining peaches
just get placed right on top.
You could put them in a pattern, but I think they look nice
just plopped here and there.
And by the by, if you wanted to make this, wait a second.
This is too thick.
Is this too thick?
And by the by,
if you wanted to make this as a layer cake
you definitely could.
Just double the recipe
and then for the filling, you could do like a peach puree
that's cooked down with like,
a little bit of orange starch to be kind of
a wonderful gel-like deliciousness thing.
Or you could have like a whipped cream
with some pieces of peach infused in there.
So many different options.
You could even do a Swiss meringue buttercream, mm!
A little food styling trick.
If you see the top of your cake and you're like, oh,
I wish I had a couple more slices of peach, just half them.
On the cutting board, not like I'm doing.
And now you've doubled your peach slices.
They don't have to be thick at all.
And that looks so pretty.
If you want, and I do,
you can sprinkle the top with some additional sugar,
granulated or sanding, either, even Turbinado.
Just a nice little sprinkle like that.
Just a tablespoon or so.
This deliciousness is ready to go
into the oven, 350 for about 45 minutes
or until a skewer inserted in the middle
comes out clean.
In you go.
Cake cooled in the pan.
I'm giving it a tap on the sides to dislodge it.
And I wanted to show you how to present it
cause it's so beautiful on top.
I just don't want you to feel like it's kind of ruined.
Turn it upside down onto a flat surface.
Lift it up.
If a little bit sticks it's totally not a problem.
Just stick it right back on and nobody is going to know.
If you're concerned about this,
you could use the parchment paper round
like we talked about.
Now, get your cake plate
then turn that upside down again carefully.
There we go.
This is just about ready to present,
but grab a tablespoon or less of powdered sugar.
It just gives you a final flourish
that really finishes the cake, but it's optional.
Grab a knife and it's time to enjoy this peachy masterpiece.
You're really gonna love this.
This cake is basically a peach fantasy.
I say this a lot, but it might be my favorite,
at least for the summertime.
It is so delicious, full of peachy flavor,
and it melted in your mouth like a beautiful peach cloud.
I hope you get a chance to make this recipe.
And if you like this video,
check out my summer cake playlist.