Peach Caramel Cake

I give you this Peach Caramel Cake for a couple of reasons. Mostly because I love and care about you and I want you to eat this cake and then swoon over yourself. And I want other people to eat this cake and then swoon over you too. Make it, and take all the credit when everyone calls you a total goddess. You are. But also, because this is the last peach recipe of the year. I feel like it is kind of a wearing white pants after labor day kind of thing, even though to be honest I would totally wear white pants after labor day if I had the balls to wear white pants at all. Which I don’t. But anyways- I am going to cut off the summer fruit recipes (I think) because it seems like its getting hard for people to get them now and I want my recipes to be easy for you to make and enjoy.

Ok. Back to this cake. I don’t usually write long chatty stories, but since it is a Holiday weekend, maybe you have a couple extra minutes on your plate!

I am presenting you with my favorite cake. Truly and seriously. Not my husbands Favorite cake, or Coco’s or Pia’s. But mine. Eight years ago a couple of weeks ago, one of my very, very dearest friends Danielle was super, super pregnant. Like 2 weeks over due pregnant. I won’t go into the details of how she was feeling- but if you are a woman that has had a child, you can sympathize I’m sure with that unique form of extreme discomfort? We were on our way over to visit one night, when they called and requested Strawberry White Chocolate Cake from our mutual favorite cake bakery (Simply Dessert for you Seattleites) I was the one who ran in to pick up the slices and just before ordering 4 strawberry white chocolates my eyes landed on the Peach Caramel Cake. Now this was interesting not only because it had everything I love in a cake (White cake, fresh peaches and caramel frosting) but it was an anomaly. This bakery does not stray from it’s 10 or so cake varieties it has been making since the beginning of man kind. So obviously I bought it.

While everyone else ate their cake with happy smiles, I devoured mine and licked my plate clean (it was probably kind of weird). By the way, Danielle went into labor that night (Pete and I have the magic touch- or it was the cake) and was blessed with a beautiful little baby girl named Ellie (my goddaughter). And on an obsessive note, I have never stopped thinking about that cake since. I even called the owner a year later and begged her to make the cake. It was a resounding no. She said it only happened that one time after a crate of peaches was accidentally dropped off at the bakery and they were just trying to use them up and that it would never happen again. But thank God for that accident and my obsession with this cake (which drove me to track down a recipe) or I wouldn’t be sharing this cake with you and that would be the saddest thing ever.

To make this Peach Caramel Cake, this is what you do:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray two 9- inch round cake pans with baking spray and put parchment rounds at the bottom of each pan.
In the bowl of a standing mixer cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs and the vanilla and whip until fluffy.

In a large bowl, mix the flour granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until combined. Add the dry ingredients to the bowl and partially combine. Add the buttermilk and whip everything together until you have a uniform smooth batter.

Scrape equal amounts of batter into the prepared pans and bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool the cake in the pans for at least 1 hour before frosting.

For The Frosting:

Heat 8 Tablespoons of the butter, brown sugar, and salt in a large saucepan over medium heat.

Cook until small bubbles appear around the perimeter of the pan, about 5 minutes.

Whisk in the cream and cook until a ring of bubbles reappears, about 1 minute. Off the heat, whisk in the vanilla.

Transfer the hot frosting mixture to the bowl of a standing mixer and slowly mix in the confectioners sugar until incorporated.
Increase the speed to medium and beat until the frosting is pale brown and just warm, about 5 minutes. Add the remaining 4 TB butter, 1 piece at a time, and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

To Assemble:

Place 1 cake round on a platter and spread 1 cup of the frosting over the cake, then top with the peaches.

Top the peaches with the second cake round and spread the remaining frosting evenly over the top and sides of the cake. Slice and serve.

Note: the cooled frosting stays soft and spreadable longer than most recipes, but will stiffen up over time. I also had trouble with the peaches wanting to slip out of the filling, so I would really pile them to the middle of the first layer and then they will naturally spread out. The peaches at the edges of the filling just slipped right out otherwise.

Cake and frosting adapted from “Southern Caramel Cake” from Cook’s Country