Before long it will be peach time and -- my, oh, my -- what a treat to make this peach cake with fresh peaches.
Mrs. Nevin O. Wheat of Baltimore requested a recipe for peach sheet cake as did Dorothy M. Bobrowicz of Livonia, Mich., who writes that "a lifetime ago, at the Woodlea Bakery on Belair Road one could purchase what they called sheet cakes with to-die-for toppings. In season, peaches, plum and apple cakes were available."
V.S. Grant of Baltimore wants a peach cake "like Silbers made. The bakeries today make what I call lazy peach cake because they are too lazy to remove the skin and it is awful."
Hoping to please all, this answer, the chef's choice, arrived from Lynne Berger of Pikesville, who wrote that her recipe "was from 'Treasured Recipes Honoring Maryland's 350th Anniversary,' which was given to me some years ago by the BG&E when I purchased a major appliance from them."
Peach cake
1 3/4 cups unsifted all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 package ( 1/4 -ounce) active dry yeast
2 tablespoons softened butter or margarine
1/2 cup very hot tap water
1 egg
1 1/2 to 2 cups peeled, sliced peaches
3 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup apricot jam
1 drop of red food coloring
In large mixing bowl, thoroughly mix 1/2 cup flour, sugar, salt and undissolved yeast. Beat in butter or margarine. Gradually add water to dry ingredients and beat two minutes at medium speed of the electric mixer, scraping bowl occasionally. Add egg and 1/2 cup flour, or enough flour to make a thick batter. Beat at high speed for two minutes, scraping bowl occasionally.
Stir in remaining flour and spread batter evenly into two greased, 9-inch round pans or one 9-inch square pan.
Arrange peaches on the cake batter. Sprinkle with combined sugar and cinnamon. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about one hour. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes. Allow to cool 10 minutes.
Heat apricot jam in a one-quart saucepan over low heat and add food coloring. Brush on warm peach cake.
Mrs. Vincent J. Colimore of Cockeysville makes a similar peach cake but she uses one loaf of frozen bread thawed, cut in half and shaped to fit into two (9-inch) round pans. After putting on the peeled and sliced peaches, she sprinkles with cinnamon and sugar and spreads peach preserves on top. She bakes at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, then 325 degrees for another 10 minutes.
