Last hurrah with peaches, made into a lovely cake style tea cake.
This could be made with any variety of stone fruit (apricots, peaches, nectarines, plums), but it was featured in Rustic Fruit Desserts: Crumbles, Buckles, Cobblers, Pandowdies, and More
Tea cake has many meanings, depending on where you live in the world! In England a tea cake is more of a bread, sometimes with fruit and some made with yeast, but often are made into snacks or sandwiches. In Sweden it’s a soda bread to serve warm with butter and jam. In Australia and India it’s more of a sponge cake and IS served with TEA! And here in the U.S. if you’re having a tea cake in the South, it’s more like a cookie – a dense, large cookie. But elsewhere in the U.S. it’s a single-layer spiced cake. Really, I’d say this cake I made doesn’t qualify as any of those, but then I didn’t name it.
My bible study group was coming over, so it was a good occasion to bake something. I surely wouldn’t have wanted this whole cake for just me to eat, because I would have eaten it!
It was easy enough to prepare – butter and sugar are beaten together until light, eggs added in, then the dry ingredients. Only one different technique – the batter was quite sticky at that point (almost like the consistency of a cookie dough) and you stick it in the freezer for 30 minutes. That firmed up the tacky feeling and was enough to allow you to handle the dough without most of it sticking to your fingers. Half is pressed into the bottom of a 10 inch spring form pan. Then the fresh peaches are cut. I threw in a little splash of Amaretto – but actually that made the fruit too wet, I think. I won’t do that next time. Then with the remaining dough/batter, you break off little tablespoon-sized pieces of stick them all over the top. They spread out, as you can see from the picture with just an occasional peach peeking through – it makes for a pretty look. It’s baked for 30-40 minutes (and mine probably should have baked a little bit longer as the dough was a tiny bit gooey in the middle). I think I will increase the baking time of this by about 5 minutes – the top should be just golden brown. Do serve it warm, and do serve it with either pouring cream, whipped cream or ice cream. I think it needs it. It’s not overly sweet, thankfully, but it’s a cake, not a fruit torte.
What’s GOOD: the yummy peaches in a nice, warm cake. I served it with heavy cream to pour over. Very delicious. It is more cake than it is fruit, just so you know. I used 4 fairly smallish peaches (it calls for 2 1/2 cups of sliced peaches) and maybe it could have been more, but that would also increase the baking time.
What’s NOT: it’s only as good as the peaches you use in it – use nice, ripe, juicy ones only. It’s fairly easy, so I had no complaints with the making of it at all.
printer-friendly PDF and File: MasterCook 14
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Stone Fruit Tea Cake
Recipe By: Rustic Fruit Desserts (cookbook)
Serving Size: 10
1 tablespoon unsalted butter — at room temperature, for pan (I used the butter wrappers to grease the pan)
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon sea salt — fine grind
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter — at room temperature
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups peaches — or nectarines, coarsely chopped, fresh or frozen (or use all fresh peaches)
1 tablespoon turbinado sugar
1. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl and set aside. Using a handheld mixer with beater or a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream sugar and butter together on medium-high speed for 3 to 5 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, scraping down sides of bowl after each addition, then stir in vanilla. Add flour mixture and stir just until a smooth dough forms. It makes a sticky dough. Wrap dough in plastic wrap, flatten into a 1-inch-thick disk, and freeze for 30 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter a shallow 10-inch round baking pan, springform or tart pan.
3. Divide the dough into two equal portions and pat one portion evenly into the bottom of the prepared pan. Do push the dough clear to the edges. Spread fruit over the dough. Break remainder of the dough into tablespoon-size pieces and distribute atop the fruit, then sprinkle the turbinado sugar over the cake.
4. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until lightly golden and firm. A toothpick poked in the middle should come out clean and not wet. Cool for 30 minutes before serving. The original recipe said it serves 12, but they’d be mighty small pieces. I’ve changed it to 10.
5. Storage: Wrapped in plastic wrap, this tea cake will keep at room temperature for up to 3 days. (The top will soften a bit.) You can also freeze the unbaked dough; if wrapped well, it will keep for up to 3 months. You can freeze a whole, unbaked cake with fruit (again, wrapped well) for 1 month.
Per Serving: 361 Calories; 17g Fat (41.5% calories from fat); 5g Protein; 48g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 104mg Cholesterol; 261mg Sodium.
Toffeeapple
said on October 18th, 2015:
That looks delicious. I would have to have custard on it though, it seems to be the right thing for it.
I think that would be delish on this dish. Go for it! . . .carolyn t
Mary S
said on October 18th, 2015:
This sounds delightful. I have some plums that need to be used up and I think they would do very well in this tea cake. Thank you for sharing.
You’re very welcome. It’s a good recipe. . . carolyn