Sacramento Digs Gardening: This poundcake is peachy, three times over

Peach halves — Fresh peaches lend their color and flavor to poundcake. (Photos: Kathy Morrison)

Slice of peach poundcake — This might be the moistest poundcake ever.

I love yellow peaches, especially ones so perfectly ripe and juicy that you have to eat them standing over the sink.

But I'm not averse to baking with them as well, and I'm always on the hunt for a new recipe.

The poundcake recipe here is quite new, a big hit on the New York Times Cooking website apparently. Since it uses peaches three ways -- triple delicious! -- I had to give it a try.

The preparation of the peaches is the only complicated part, and it's all up front. Once they're ready, the ingredients are stirred together and popped into the oven. The cake bakes at just 325 degrees, but during this heat wave it might be better to make it in the later evening or early morning anyway.

This recipe also appears adaptable to other stone fruits, include nectarines, apricots, sweet cherries and mangos.

Choosing the reddest peaches or nectarines will give you a gorgeous color cake and glaze. White peaches or nectarines are almost too sweet for this, I think. I've cut back the original recipe's amount of sugar, but there is still quite a bit of butter and eggs in there, creating a big, rich cake. However, a treat's a treat, especially in peach season.

Triple Peach Poundcake

Adapted from Jerrelle Guy's recipe in the New York Times

Serves 8-10

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and then cooled to room temperature, plus butter for the pan

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the pan

3 or 4 ripe yellow peaches, washed and defuzzed, if necessary, but unpeeled

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

3 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk, lightly beaten

1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup confectioners' sugar, plus more as needed

1 cup granulated sugar

2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon bourbon, 1/2 teaspoon rum extract or 1 tablespoon fresh orange juice, optional

Cake batter in pan — This is a lot of batter, but it'll stay in a 9-by-5-inch pan. For

smaller pans, use two or bake the extra batter in a muffin tin.

Optional garnishes:

Remaining peach glaze (see recipe)

Peach slices

Lightly sweetened whipped cream

Instructions :

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter and flour a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan. (An angel-food cake pan or two smaller loaf pans also can be used -- this makes a lot of batter.)

Pit and dice the one firmest peach into pieces about 1/3 inch in size. (Doesn't have to be exact.) Pat the pieces dry and set aside.

Pit and cut up the 2 or 3 remaining peaches (including skin) and place them in a food processor or blender along with the lemon juice. Puree. Pour out 1 cup of the mixture and put it in a mixing bowl along with the melted butter, eggs, egg yolk and vanilla extract. Stir these together and set aside.

To the remaining puree in the food processor or blender, add the 1 cup of confectioners' sugar and, if using, the bourbon, the rum extract or orange juice. (The flavoring helps mask the powdery-ness of the confectioners' sugar, but it's optional.) Blend it on high until the sugar is dissolved. Check the thickness: The glaze needs to be thick enough to stick to the cake but thin enough to drizzle. Add more confectioners' sugar as needed, and blend again. Cover and set aside until the cake is ready to be glazed.

Whisk together the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl. Pour the peach/egg mixture into the dry ingredients and blend well. Fold in the diced peaches.

cake with glaze — Wax paper under the rack will catch the glaze drips.

Spread the batter evenly in the prepared loaf pan. Bake until golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 70-80 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes before removing the cake from the pan to a wire rack.

To glaze the cake, slide a large piece of wax paper underneath the wire rack. Stir the glaze, and drizzle it over the entire top, letting some drip down the sides. Allow the cake to cool to room temperature. Slice and serve with a pool of extra glaze, fresh sliced peaches or lightly sweetened whipped cream, or just by itself.

RECIPE

A recipe for preparing delicious meals from the bounty of the garden.

Keywords:

baking recipes fresh produce gardening Sacramento peaches backyard produce produce management

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Flowers in My Back Yard Series

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April 21: Celebrate roses, America's favorite flower

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Garden checklist for week of April 19

After this midweek storm, start getting serious about spring gardening. Flowers are blooming about three weeks ahead of schedule. That includes weeds!

* Get ready to swing into action in the vegetable garden – if you haven’t already. As nights warm up over 50 degrees, set out tomato, pepper and eggplant transplants.

* From seed, plant beans, beets, cantaloupes, carrots, corn, cucumbers, melons, radishes and squash; wait on pumpkins until May. Plant onion sets.

* In the flower garden, plant seeds for asters, cosmos, celosia, marigolds, salvia, sunflowers and zinnias. Transplant petunias, zinnias, geraniums and other summer bloomers.

* Plant perennials and dahlia tubers for summer bloom. Late April is about the last chance to plant summer bulbs, such as gladiolus and tuberous begonias.

* Transplant lettuce and cabbage seedlings.

* April is the last chance to plant citrus trees such as dwarf orange, lemon and kumquat. These trees also look good in landscaping and provide fresh fruit in winter.

* Smell orange blossoms? Give citrus trees a low dose of balanced fertilizer (such as 10-10-10) during bloom to help set fruit. Keep an eye out for ants. If leaves look yellow, your tree may need an iron boost -- apply some chelated iron fertilizer.

* Apply slow-release fertilizer to the lawn.

* Thoroughly clean debris from the bottom of outdoor ponds or fountains.

* Spring brings a flush of rapid growth, and that means your garden needs nutrition. Give shrubs and trees a slow-release fertilizer. Mulch with a 1-inch layer of compost, which helps the soil, but keep it a few inches away from trunks and stems.

* Azaleas and camellias looking a little yellow? If leaves are turning yellow between the veins, give them a boost with chelated iron.

* Trim dead flowers but not leaves from spring-flowering bulbs such as daffodils and tulips. Those leaves gather energy to create next year's flowers. Also, give the bulbs a fertilizer boost after bloom.

* Pinch chrysanthemums back to 12 inches for fall flowers. Cut old stems to the ground.

* Mulch around plants to conserve moisture and control weeds.

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