On Thursday of last week, residents along the East Coast were urged to start preparing for Hurricane Irene. So I made cake. If you think about it, this makes total sense. If we lost power, at least my roommate and I would have delicious cake to comfort us in our time of need (no internet, what do we do?!?!). So I made this cake and then went out and bought canned goods and bottled water.
I don’t regret the order of this preparation in the slightest.
Of course, we didn't end up losing power or internet, but we still enjoyed eating this cake while watching television on the couch. My youngest sister Christina joined us (her college campus was evacuated so she spent a long weekend with us) along with another friend (also Christina, and yes, the night did get confusing) and so between the four of us we somehow managed to finish off the cake. It was a chore, but we were only doing our best to ensure all perishable items were eaten first in case the power went out.
From SmittenKitchen
Smitten browns the butter in her original recipe, but I’ve left that step off here. I didn’t notice its absence in this version and she claimed its taste was “woefully subtle” when she originally posted the recipe. If you’d like to include it, just melt the butter over medium-low heat in a small saucepan making sure to stir constantly. The butter will melt, foam, turn a golden color, and then finally brown. It should smell a bit nutty at this point. As soon as you see this color, take it off the heat – it burns very quickly! Set it aside to cool before adding.
A quick note on baking time – I baked it for about 40 minutes, but based on your oven it might go up to 50. The cake is super moist so it can be tricky trying to figure out if the cake is done and really moist or still raw in the center. Good luck!
Ingredients:
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
Pinch of allspice*
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2/3 cup whole milk or buttermilk
1 1/2 pounds nectarines, halved, pitted and cut into 1/2-inch thick wedges (about 4 cups)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Streusel topping
Leftover butter from cake
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch of salt
* I used nutmeg because I didn’t have allspice on hand and it tasted great!
Equipment:
10-inch round cake pan (I used a springform pan because I don’t own a round cake pan. I know, it’s weird, but them’s the breaks. The springform worked just fine for anyone else who might have odd equipment shortages.)
Pre-heat oven to 350. Line your pan with parchment paper (or wax paper, which I had on hand. I can report after 2 days of eating this cake and feeding it to other people none of us have dropped dead) and coat generously with butter or cooking spray.
Melt the butter in a microwave safe bowl and set aside to cool.
In a medium bowl mix flour, baking powder, salt, and allspice. In a large bowl, whisk 1/2 cup cooled butter (mine was closer to lukewarm and the cake still worked fine), sugar, and each egg separately. Stir in milk/buttermilk.
Stir dry ingredients into the wet and mix until just combined. Spread batter into pan and set aside.
Cover nectarine wedges with lemon juice and arrange them on top of the batter. I arranged mine face down, but next time I’d arrange them skin down so I could fit more nectarines onto the cake. I’d recommend that strategy.
Combine the streusel ingredients until large crumbs form. Top the batter and nectarines with the streusel and bake, about 40 to 50 minutes. You’ll want to the top to be a very light brown. Let cool in pan for about 5 minutes before
Serves 6 to 8
I approve of this method of preparing for a hurricane.
ReplyDeleteI also approve of how much larger your dessert section is than all the other sections.
:)
It's a bit ridiculous how much larger the dessert section is than anything else... but it's so tasty!
ReplyDeleteYeah, it was definitely the right way to prepare for a hurricane!