- Hey, I'm John Kannell. And today on "Preppy Kitchen" we're making an easy
and amazing peach cake. So let's get started. First off I'm slicing about two cups of fresh, amazing peaches. This is a peach cake so you should make it at
the height of peach season when these guys are at the ready. If you wanna make this cake
but it's not peach season, go ahead, use frozen peach slices. Just make sure you thaw them and drain them first because they have a lot of extra liquid. And have your oven set to 350. This cake comes together so quickly, you'll want your oven nice and hot. When I make this cake,
I love having kind of thin peach slices like this,
as opposed to chopped pieces. It just looks really pretty
when you cut the cake open. This cake is so simple, cause
it just like a one layer cake. You're gonna sprinkle
it with powdered sugar. But it is one of the most
delicious things you can have. I'm tossing these into
a liquid measuring cup just so I can keep track
of how much I need. You could have some tiny peaches. You could have some giant peaches. It's really about having
two cups of finished peach, not how many peaches
you're starting out with. Ooh, these are gorgeous. I'm gonna save some of these slices for the very top of the cake. There I go, just a little
bit more than two cups but I'm gonna have some
beautiful peach slices sprinkled on top. This gets set aside, and now we're gonna make
our easy but amazing batter. This batter is so good. Into a medium bowl I'm adding 1.5 cups or 180 grams of all-purpose flour. 1/2 a teaspoon of salt. If you're using a super
fine table salt, try not to, but you'll use half the salt in that case. And rounding out the dry ingredients are 1.5 teaspoons of baking powder. Give this a whisk, there we go. And set that aside because now it's time for our butter and sugar. Now into a large bowl or
the bowl of your stand mixer fit with a paddle attachment. I'm adding 3/4 of a cup or 170 grams of room
temperature, unsalted butter. And once again, you
should be able to press with a little bit of effort
and indent the butter. Like you even bend it
and it's not gonna break. If it's too hard, it won't mix up well. And if it's too soft,
it won't mix up well. So we want to get a nice fluffy mixture to trap air to give us a nice fluffy cake. We're gonna cream this butter up first. It should only take
about 30 seconds or so. You'll see that it just gets creamier. Then we'll add the sugar. There, nice and creamy. Now it's time to add one cup or 200 grams of granulated sugar. Just add that in while you
mix on like, medium high. This will mix up for about
three minutes or until it is nice and fluffy. You'll see it gets to be a lighter color and it looks cloudy. Your butter's gonna start
off kind of crumbly, like big pieces. And then as you mix, those
pieces will become smaller and eventually it'll get
beaten into a fluffy mixture that is so important for the cake. If you're using your stand
mixer, you can walk away but you'll have to scrape
the bowl down once or twice. If you're using a hand mixer you can just scrape the bottom as you mix. Just about three minutes
later, you can see that I have a nice fluffy,
cloudy butter mixture. So now it's time to add
in our eggs one at a time, cracking them into a bowl so I can be sure that
there are no stray shells. And as usual, we'll add
them in one at a time just so it forms a nice mixture. If you don't mix your eggs in enough, you get kind of a broken
cottage cheesy mixture, which is fine, it can work. But in a recipe like this where there's only two eggs,
you really wanna mix mix mix so it's perfectly combined. All right, look at this, come take a look. That's a beautiful mixture. It's super fluffy. Now for a little bit of
tang and to add some balance I'm adding in 1/4 cup of sour cream. This will also make the cake really moist and it'll do that without
making it at all greasy. And if you don't have sour cream on hand you could use a cup of
like plain Greek yogurt. Mix that in to combine. And don't forget a tablespoon of vanilla. Vanilla and peaches go hand in hand. And here even if you're
using a hand mixer, you should scrape the bowl down just so you can get it all mixed nicely. Now we're gonna mix up one last time. (mixer whirs) I would go on high for
like 30 seconds or so. I have once again a nice smooth mixture. It looked pretty broken after you added in all of that liquid. While the mixer is on low we're gonna add in our
flour, just on low though. You don't wanna overmix. And if I were you, I wouldn't
mix this until it's combined. I would mix it until it's almost combined. That means you'll see some
bits of flour here and there. It's not totally done,
but it's almost there. There we go. (mixer whirs)
(cheerful music) That's how I clean my beaters off. Okay, now I'm gonna fold this
together with my spatula. This is a delicious vanilla cake but now it's time for the peaches. So I want to add in 3/4
of a cup of peaches, saving the last quarter for the very top. And if you had some
peaches that were like, a little bit bruised or
just not as pretty a color, I would save those pretty
peaches for the top. Gently fold your peaches in. If you have super tender peaches they will just like, start falling apart. So we're gonna be nice and gentle. That looks nice. Evenly distributed and it's
time to go into a nine inch pan. I gave this a little bit of butter. If you want, you can add
a round of parchment paper to the bottom to to make completely sure it'll come out perfectly. But this cake should
come out really easily. Get every drop of batter into that pan. Now we're gonna smooth this
out into a nice even layer. Look at those peaches shining through. This is a masterpiece and it's so easy. I would never eat cake
batter, but if I did this would be the most
delicious thing ever. All right, now those remaining peaches just get placed right on top. You could put them in a pattern,
but I think they look nice just plopped here and there. And by the by, if you wanted
to make this, wait a second. This is too thick. Is this too thick? And by the by, if you wanted to make this as a layer cake you definitely could. Just double the recipe and then for the filling, you
could do like a peach puree that's cooked down with like, a little bit of orange
starch to be kind of a wonderful gel-like deliciousness thing. Or you could have like a whipped cream with some pieces of
peach infused in there. So many different options. You could even do a Swiss
meringue buttercream, mm! A little food styling trick. If you see the top of your
cake and you're like, oh, I wish I had a couple more
slices of peach, just half them. On the cutting board, not like I'm doing. And now you've doubled your peach slices. They don't have to be thick at all. And that looks so pretty. If you want, and I do, you can sprinkle the top
with some additional sugar, granulated or sanding,
either, even Turbinado. Just a nice little sprinkle like that. Just a tablespoon or so. This deliciousness is ready to go into the oven, 350 for about 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. In you go. Cake cooled in the pan. I'm giving it a tap on
the sides to dislodge it. And I wanted to show you how to present it cause it's so beautiful on top. I just don't want you to feel
like it's kind of ruined. Turn it upside down onto a flat surface. Lift it up. If a little bit sticks
it's totally not a problem. Just stick it right back on
and nobody is going to know. If you're concerned about this, you could use the parchment paper round like we talked about. Now, get your cake plate then turn that upside
down again carefully. There we go. This is just about ready to present, but grab a tablespoon or
less of powdered sugar. It just gives you a final flourish that really finishes the
cake, but it's optional. Grab a knife and it's time to
enjoy this peachy masterpiece. You're really gonna love this. This cake is basically a peach fantasy. I say this a lot, but
it might be my favorite, at least for the summertime. It is so delicious, full of peachy flavor, and it melted in your mouth
like a beautiful peach cloud. I hope you get a chance
to make this recipe. And if you like this video, check out my summer cake playlist.
