Days go by and summer is slowly coming to Dubai, winter doesn’t want to give up though, giving us some cloudy days sometimes but its days are counted…
One lovely morning I was at home, and looking at the dull skies, I decided to make something special for the afternoon tea, something sunny, sweet-smelling and new, a cake that I’ve not tried before, and it should be fruity.
I have to say that I do not normally know what I’m going to cook this or next day, I’ve never have a master plan for a week ahead, and prefer to be inspired by details around me, whatever I see, read about food or trying something myself, rather than be organized in the proper food-blogger way 🙂
So, I went to a grocery to look for an inspiration. One important and remarkable thing about buying food in Dubai is that large groceries and markets here do always and really inspire me; we have no such variety of fruits in Russia, and every time I go for a shopping, whether it is some oranges for a morning juice or avocados, I never know from which part of the world these fruits or veggies would come from. And that day was not an exception. Without even roaming between fruit rows I remarked some nice peaches shortly after I entered the shop, and once I came closer and took a couple of them in my hand, I already decided that it’s going to be a beautiful peach cake!
Peaches always remind me of summer, they share the same bright and yellowish colour of the pulp with the sun, giving the cozy feeling of warm and sunny days.
At home I cut one fruit and tried it. I was slightly disappointed that the peaches weren’t as juicy as I expected, but that turned into fantastic peach cake in the end… 😉
Ingredients for the cake:
Peaches* – 4 big
Eggs, at room temperature – 3
Yoghurt -150g or 0.6cup
Sugar* -100g or 0.5cup
Butter, cut into small cubes – 130g or 0.6cup
Self-raising flour – 150g or 1cup (or 1 cup plain flour + 1 tsp baking powder)
Cornmeal – 2 Tbsp
Whole walnuts – 130g or ~1cup
A pinch of salt
Lemon zest – 2tsp
Orange zest – 1tsp
Ingredients for the mandarin sauce:
3 big mandarins*
2 Tbsp lemon juice
3 Tbsp water
2-3 Tbsp icing sugar
1 Tbsp cognac (or brandy, or Grand Marnier) – optionally
*Really good substitution for peaches are nectarines!
*I used only 100g of sugar and that means the cake won’t be sweet,
I suggest sweeten it with 150g or 3/4cup of sugar.
*I used mandarins, just because :D; oranges go well here too, as you already guess.
The cake preparation:
- In a bowl beat the butter and sugar together;
- Stir in one by one eggs;
- Add yoghurt and citrus zest, combine;
- Ground the walnuts, add to the batter and mix;
- Sift the flours and salt into the batter mixture;
- Grease the baking dish with butter or oil. Pour the cake batter into it;
- Cut the peaches into wedges and stick into batter;
- Bake in preheated oven 210C/400F for 45-60 minute;.**
- Meanwhile prepare the mandarin sauce for the cake;
- Let the cake cool a bit. Pour the mandarin sauce over it.
Mandarin sauce preparation:
- First of all, squeeze the juice out of mandarins;
- Combine citrus juices, water and sugar in a small saucepan; bring to boil;
- Reduce heat to low, add cognac and simmer for 10-12 minutes;
- Remove from the heat and cool.
**When I’m using a glass dish for the cake, it takes me little bit longer to bake it.
Thus after 40 minutes, pls check the cake is done or not yet.
To check the cake’s readiness – tuck into a toothpick, if it comes out dry – the cake is ready.
The final result overcame all my expectations – the cake tasted fantastically! The peaches became tender and even more sweeter, and because they were not so juicy they kept their integrity. Needless to say about aromatic mandarin sauce.. I’ll definitely be making it again!
I also suggest to sprinkle some icing sugar on the top along with the citrus sauce.
P.S. Several days back I didn’t even know that there is such type of flour as ‘cake’, thanks to dear fellow-blogger Suzanne, now I know about it and adding cornmeal everywhere…Haha
Hey, are you still here? 🙂 Go and bake the cake!
Have a sunny and bright day, guys!
milkandbun 