It could be the weather or it could be because I have a little man at home full of cold but I woke up today and just wanted to bake.
My cook book library is extensive but my favourtie ‘go to’ book for almost all occasions is ‘Marie Claire Kitchen by Michele Cranston‘. It is well organised, beautifully photographed and I have cooked many a recipe from it and am yet to be disappointed.
The nectarine and almond cake is so quick and the perfect cake for last minute visitors as I generally have all the ingredients in the cupboard.
The recipe calls for 8 fresh nectarines but I always use tinned peaches, just make sure you drain off all the juice before adding it to the batter.
You need:
3 eggs
125ml milk
300g of caster sugar
250g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon natural vanilla extract
8 nectarines or tin of sliced peaches (drain juice)
55g ground almonds
Method: preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius and grease and line a 23cm springform tin. Combine eggs, milk, sugar, flour, baking powfer and vanilla to form a thick batter then fold in the peaches. Spoon batter into tin and top with ground almonds and dobs of butter*. Bake for 40 minutes, test with a skewer to ensure cake is cooked through, remove tin from over and allow the cake to cool before serving.
Slice and enjoy with a cuppa.
* I just throw in the ground almonds (and omitt butter) when I am combining the other ingredients. The crunchy almonds are a nice touch but I think the cake is just as nice with some icing sugar sprinkled on top. Either way, it’s a winner all round.
Given that this cake was so speedy and effortless I decided to bake some of Smitten Kitchen’s chocolate brownies. They are equally quick to prepare, very tasty and are cooking away this very minute.
Jason will be pleased. After all…isn’t the way to a man’s heart through his stomach??
I should have his heart by now but no doubt will bag some “brownie” points…sorry, couldn’t resist ;)
Have a great weekend x
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Looks delish!
Enjoy!!
xx
That cake looks awesome, kate … *scurries off round kitchen to see if have all ingredients*…
Hope your little man has a super speedy recovery…with tlc like that, I’m sure he will
xx
Looks divine … you’ll have me thinking about doing the same
perfect! i love it, and i guess you could use tinned any fruit really?? like pears? will be bookmarking and making for sure! thanks for sharing and hope your little one gets better soon xx
This looks AMAZING. I may have to try it out for my works next morning tea!
Mmmmm, that looks so nice. I’m such a disaster in the kitchen that I can pretty much guarentee it wouldn’t turn out like that for me! I may still give it a go tho, -i am a trier! I’ll let you know how it goes if i do. x
I do love that book, we use it all the time, almost to the exclusion of anything else for baking. We bake the foccacia and the pizza dough on a regular basis too!
The pizza dough is fantastic too!
Looks fabulous! Does it use a 400g or 800g tin of peaches? I’m keen to try it out.
I think 800g Suse!
x
You inspired me! I just put a cake in the oven, but I used tinned mangos (It’s all we had) and instead of sprinkling the almonds on top, I mixed them in (I forgot NOT to mix them in). I’m looking forward to desert! Thanks.
That cake looks like a winner. Must try it. Thanks for sharing.
Yummmmm…….made this with tinned apricots coz that’s all I had – an absolute winner, my husband has been warming it up and eating with ice cream as dessert!! But it was great for last minute afternoon tea with friends on Saturday arvo – thanks!! xxxx
So pleased to hear it was a hit!
x
This looks like the perfect cake. I might have to indulge in a little baking myself…..