Cake 30: Week 19, August 1st, 2011: Peach Cake

Can anyone tell me how it's possible that it's August already?

first harvest of the year: Japanese eggplant

If you've been keeping track, this is post number 60, and we're just three weeks shy of the year anniversary of the start of our adventures in cake.

We've come along way since the death cake- the flat awful white cake, but we've still got a ways to go.

Non-cooperative bread dough- my kitchen towels are less than pleased with me

I'm at the end of a vacation right now- I've spent a week hanging out with Em, Miss, Ker and Ang and it's been mostly delightful. Ang thought it'd be a nice respite in the whirlwind that's enveloped my life...

Found oak under the heinous old carpeting

And she was right. I'm getting anxious that I haven't gotten all of my reading done and I've had over 3 dozen emails and messages about work/ meetings/ projects, but there is something calming about relinquishing control and saying, "I'm on vacation, I'll deal with it when I get home".

Em is doing superbly. She laughs at everything except for shoes.

She plays and plays and plays and is now fascinated with the idea of walking. Every time I see her it gets harder and harder to say "goodbye".

My sister-in-law has been in the family for a long time (bless her little soul!) and she's always been excellent at coming up with/ researching and executing the most fabulous drinks on earth. We've always gotten along well :) My brother has traditionally been the cook in the family, with mom on speed dial. Now, she's learning how to cook and bake and offered to be my guest baker on the blog this week.

In case you'd forgotten, this is what their kitchen is like- granite and stainless steel.

She'd planned on making a peach cake this week- recipe from: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/fresh-peach-cake-recipe2/index.html

It was simple up until the end, when I realized what I'd screwed up.
The measurements and instructions aren't separated well- 1 cup of the 1 1/2 goes into the butter and then you add the eggs, sour cream and vanilla.

I put together the dry ingredients, and meanwhile,

Missy cut the peaches.

We mixed together the wet and dry ingredients.

Then, layered the cake batter with peaches and cinnamon sugar.

We popped it in the oven at 325 (Convection temp) and celebrated while we waited.

Someone else may have been in on the celebrating too.

The recipe said 55 minutes to bake- it lied. 60 minutes convection, followed by 15 mins baking at regular temp, we needed to cover it with foil to keep the peaches from burning more than they did.