Peach Cake and Peach Soft Serve Ice Cream
Last summer, some readers asked if I thought I could make up a peach cake recipe. It’s been banging around in my mind since then and now that we are in the middle of peach season, it seemed like a good idea to try and put one together. First of all, it had to be a solid enough batter to stand up to a peach, and that presents a challenge. Peaches are both heavy and juicy, which can spell disaster for a wimpy cake batter that can’t take the weight or the added moisture. Turns out I didn’t need to look any farther than my own family tree…Grandma Vanderzanden to the rescue! I dug out her old Rhubarb Cake recipe, made a few tweaks here and there, and ended up with a firm, moist cake that has plenty of peaches and a topping that is buttery, sweet, and has just a touch of cinnamon. Whew!!! And since this is peach season, I figured tossing in a quick, no churn, soft serve peach ice cream might be a good match up for the cake. This ice cream is loaded with fruit and has just the right amount of sweetness. It also has no fat, so if you freeze it and unthaw, it tastes more like a granita than an ice cream. I’m not complaining…either way is pretty good if you ask me.
Ingredients
- FOR THE PEACH CAKE
- 2 cups unbleached white flour
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 egg
- ½ cup canola or vegetable oil
- 1 cup Greek Yogurt NOTE: I use Fage 2% Greek Yogurt because it’s super thick and has no artificial ingredients. You will need a very dense yogurt for this recipe because it helps the batter stay firm and stands up really well to the weight of the peaches
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 2-3 ripe peaches
- FOR THE TOPPING
- ½ cup sugar
- ¼ cup softened butter
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- FOR THE PEACH ICE CREAM
- 9 cups semi-frozen peaches
- 1 can sweetened condensed milk
- 2-3 Tablespoons fresh lime juice
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- FOR THE PEACH CAKE
- Preheat over at 350 degrees.
- Prepare 13x9 inch baking by lightly coating with cooking spray.
- In a large mixing bowl, stir together flour, sugar, soda and salt.
- In a separate bowl, combine the egg, oil, Greek yogurt, almond extract and vanilla. Stir into the flour mixture until combined.
- Spoon the batter into the 9x13 baking pan and set aside. NOTE: This might take some doing, because the batter is very thick. You can try using the rounded end of a big spoon to spread it out. It takes a little patience, but you’ll get there if you just keep at it.
- Peel and slice the peaches into about ¼ inch thick slices. Lay the peach slices over the top of the cake, making sure you go clear to the edges of the baking pan with the slices. This is because the batter has a tendency to rise up and push or bury the peaches on the ends if some distance is left between the peach slices and the edges of the pan. I learned this the hard way in case you’re wondering. And if you happen to have some peach slices disappear, don’t fret – they’re in there, they just sank a little bit.
- FOR THE TOPPING
- In a small bowl, stir together the sugar, softened butter, and cinnamon. Sprinkle topping mixture over top of cake and peaches. NOTE: If you happen to have a spray bottle of canola or other neutral oil, I like to give the top of this cake a quick spray with oil, just to keep it looking moist. No big deal either way, just a little trick to try.
- Bake for about 35 minutes or until top springs back when touched.
- FOR THE PEACH ICE CREAM
- Place the semi-frozen peaches in a food processor. (NOTE: if you don’t have a food processor, you can also make this in a blender, but will need to split the recipe in half and make it a couple of batches).
- IMPORTANT NOTE: Please do not attempt this with fruit that is frozen solid. I tried this once before, and neither a food processor nor blender can handle it. In fact, I over worked the food processor so hard on this that it literally overheated and stopped working. It pretty much demanded a half hour time out before it would even think about running again, which means I almost burnt out the motor and that would have been a very bad situation).
- Pulse the peaches until they form chunks, then add the can of sweetened condensed milk, lime juice, and pinch of salt.
- Process until the mixture is well combined and as smooth as you’d like it.
- It should be the texture of soft serve ice cream and can be eaten immediately.
- If you decide to freeze it for future use, just know that this stuff freezes very hard due to the fact there is no fat in the entire recipe. Thaw at room temperature for about 30 minutes before scooping, and you will notice that the texture is a little more granular than soft serve and will seem more like a granita. Still delicious and still refreshing – just different.
