Thursday, July 5, 2012

Peach Bundt Cake

Yesterday I ran the Peachtree Road Race (along with 58,000 other people).  It was hot, and my training has been fairly slow lately.  I was JUST fast enough (by one second) to qualify for the "B" wave again, if I run it again.



Why is this relevant?  At the end of the Peachtree Road Race are peaches.  Tons (literally) of peaches.  They told me I could take as many as I wanted.  They told me I could fill my bag.  I filled my bag.  I ended up with 20 peaches.  Now people who know me know that I would rather eat a peach raw than cook it into a dessert.  However, when you have 20 peaches, there are desserts to be made.

Yesterday I made peach chocolate chip pancakes.  They were as tasty as they sound and as easy as they sound.  I won't elaborate.

But the next treat was an obvious one.  I was preparing lesson plans and realized that tomorrow is Volume by Washers day.  (By this we mean it is possible to find the volume of a solid formed by rotating a region around an axis... you don't care so I'm not sure why I'm mentioning it).  So obviously I need a bundt cake to be a solid of revolution in my demonstration (this happens every time I teach Calc 1 or 3).  And obviously it needed peaches.  Here is a recipe like many I found.  I added Greek yogurt for a little moisture, though some of the recipes I found also did this.

Georgia Peach Pound Cake

1 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups fresh peaches, pitted and chopped

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Butter a 10 inch tube pan and coat with white sugar.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition, then stir in the vanilla and yogurt. Reserve 1/4 cup of flour for later, and sift together the remaining flour, baking powder and salt. Gradually stir into the creamed mixture. Use the reserved flour to coat the chopped peaches, then fold the floured peaches into the batter. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.

Bake for 60 to 70 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Allow cake to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely.