The two massive paws planted on our glass front door were startling to say the least. Our mountain life is full of wild creatures, more so this summer than ever. A visiting fox, squirrel or chipmunk elicits “oohs” and “aahs” at their sweet cuteness. A seven-foot cinnamon bear with her tiny cub in tow, knocking on our front door, was a whole different level of adorable altogether.
Such is life away from the big city. We consider it a privilege to witness such scenes, and even though these Teddy bears came a little too close for comfort, we believe it literally comes with the territory of living in the mountains, and that we must preserve the wildlife and co-exist in the delicate balance.
The summer months are beautiful in Colorado – with green mountains and snow-capped peaks in the background, it’s the perfect time for enjoying the outdoors and the bounty of the land.
It seems, many states have a signature peach of their own. Colorado’s finest peaches come from Palisades, which is located on the Western Slope of the state. These delectable stone fruits inspire me every year to come up with a new way to enjoy them. This year it is the form of a not-too-sweet tea cake.
When baking, especially a large cake like this one with many steps, I highly recommend measuring everything out before getting started. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in the middle of baking a cake and forgotten a critical ingredient because I was distracted by something. This cake also has a long baking time of about 1-1/2 hours, so be sure you have the time – it is well worth the effort!
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1½ cups sugar
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour, plus 2 tablespoons to dust the peaches
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup sour cream
- 2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
- 3 peaches, skin removed, diced and tossed with some lemon juice to stop any browning
- 1 peach, sliced with skin on to decorate
- Streusel mix - recipe below
- Optional: 2 tablespoons apricot or peach jam
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Butter and flour a 10-inch Angel cake or Bundt pan (I love using paper molds for this cake. They are smaller than the metal pan, so I make one cake in the mold and then use a small loaf pan to make and additional small rectangular cake).
- In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- With a mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy - about 3-5 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time, then add the sour cream and vanilla. Mix until combined.
- Add the flour mixture, a little at a time, to the butter and sugar mixture until the dry ingredients are fully incorporated into mixture.
- Lightly dry the peaches off on a paper towel to reduce some of the moisture. Then toss them with 2 tablespoons of flour and fold into the cake batter.
- Spoon about half of the batter into the prepared pan. Then scatter a heavy layer of the streusel crumble on top of the batter. Spoon the remaining batter on top of the streusel and smooth with the back of the spoon.
- Place the cake in the oven and lower the heat to 350 degrees and bake for 45 minutes.
- Slice the remaining peach into 8-10 slices and sprinkle with the juice of ½ lemon and set aside.
- After baking 45 minutes, the cake should be just beginning to brown. Carefully open the oven and gently pull the oven rack out a bit so you can arrange the peach slices around the top of the cake. You want to careful not to move the cake too much as this may cause the cake to fall.
- After you’ve arranged the peach slices, slide the cake back into the oven, reduce the temperature to 325 degrees and bake for another 45 minutes.
- Cover the top of the cake with foil if it begins to brown too fast.
- Remove cake from oven and allow to cool completely on a rack before removing it from the pan.
- To remove the cake from the pan, place a plate or rack over the pan, flip over the pan while holding the plate/rack in place. The cake should pop out easily. Then flip the cake back over onto another plate so that it is right side up.
- Microwave the jam for a few seconds, and brush the peaches with it to give them a sheen.
Once they are cool, the skin should pull off easily. Also, this cake freezes very well if you have left overs.
- ⅓ cup brown sugar
- ⅓ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup (1 stick) butter, melted
- 1 cups flour
- ¼ cup almond flour
- Place the sugars, cinnamon and salt in a medium bowl.
- Pour the melted butter over the sugar mixture and stir until the sugars begin to dissolve.
- Stir in the flours all at once with the butter/sugar mixture until all of the ingredients are combined.
- Let the streusel sit for 10 minutes and then, using your fingers, break it up so that it is a pea size crumble.
- Note: This recipe makes enough streusel to sprinkle another layer on the top of the cake before baking. I like just the one layer so I either make a half recipe or I freeze what is left over).
Enjoy!
