Don't Judge a Book by its Cover

Or by the beautiful photos it has displaying all the tasty recipes inside because that's all they do...look pretty. A few weeks back I was so excited to get two books I had very high hopes for. But lets just say the aforementioned one really fell flat. I do, however, really want to stress how awesome the other one is! Patty Pinner's Sweets is such a fantastic book full not only of interesting and endearing stories about her and her family (the source of her recipes) but the recipes themselves come through like crazy!
Feeling a little burned by the other book, I was a little reluctant to try anything from Sweets but dear Lord am I glad I did. Although at one point after making her Walnut Wonder Cake I thought my husband might be plotting to pull the old "I must have been sleep walking when I ate the whole thing" bit.

SWEET!

So I'm totally excited, I just received via Amazon.com these two books!

If you look closely you can see my traditional torn post-it note marking system. One of the first things I do when I get a cookbook is mark the recipes I have to try first. At first glance I was a little leery of Cake Keeper Cakes just because it seemed a little more like a coffee table book than an actual baking book; beautiful images and somewhat strange and unconventional layout for the recipes themselves threw me off but really was a nominal issue. Patty Pinner's Sweets: Soul Food Deserts and Memories reads more like a novel than a cook book and is completely fun and truly fascinating to read the origins of the recipes she's laid out for you.

That said there are more recipes in these two little books that I can't wait to try than in any other books in my cooking library. Don't get me wrong I cherish the copy my husband gifted me of Dori Greenspan's Baking: From My Home To Yours, and it is in my opinion a must in a full baking armory of books. However, the types of recipes in that style of book can be time consuming and require ingredients that I may not have on the fly. Which is other huge reason I am loving these books, not only are the recipes themselves simple to achieve (yet creative and in a lot of cases elegant) most do not require much other than basic baking staple items.

I generally do A LOT of baking in the fall/winter months. So I've decided that for the coming weeks and months I'll be making (hopefully) at least one recipe from one of these books per week.This week I chose Apple-Walnut Upside Down Cake from Cake Keepers, next week I'm thinking Applesauce Sheet Cake with Walnut Cream Cheese Icing from Sweets. I guess I'm in a bit of an autumn theme...I'm soooo looking forward to fall.
P.S. Sorry about the not so great photo, my kitchen doesn't have the best lighting and it was like 9:30 pm when I took this out of the oven so I had no natural light. Still its not too bad I think :)

Just Peachy

When life gives you lemons, you make lemon-aid...when a little old man gives you fresh picked peaches you darn well better find a good way to use them and not let them go to waste (finger wag, finger wag, finger wag). Lol...but seriously...a very sweet older gentleman gave me a generous armload of peaches a short time ago and I immediately thought of a recipe for peach pound cake I'd been wanting to try...but we ate them first. So with our appetite for fresh peaches growling we visited one of our local farms we are blessed to have in our area to gather more. Here's what I did with them...

Peach Pound Cake (Revised view the original recipe here)
1 c. butter (see note about substitutes)*
1-3/4 c. sugar
6 eggs
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1-1/2 tsp. vanilla
3 c. all purpose flour
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 c. low fat peach yogurt
2 1/2 c. fresh or frozen peaches
(1/2 cup of the peaches can be replaced with any other fruit you wish blueberries and raspberries are sure winners but apricots or strawberries would be excellent too)

Directions:

[Note: If you're using fresh peaches you will want to peel them first. To do this drop them gently into a pot of boiling water for 30-60 seconds then put them directly into a bowl of ice water. The skins will slide right off.]

1. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in extracts. combine the flour, baking soda and salt; add to the batter alternately with yogurt. Fold in the peaches.
2. Pour into a greased and floured 10-in. fluted tube pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. cool for 15 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

As originally written the cake probably tastes pretty much like a standard pound cake but maybe just a touch heavy on the almond flavor. Although, almond extract is a traditional flavoring for pound cake, 1 tsp. is just too overpowering for my taste especially since peach should be prominent here. Adding fresh or frozen peaches is a great way to add some flavor and texture (and of course it looks very pretty) but if you really want peach flavor you're going to have to add something extra. That's were the peach yogurt came in. I've recently gone on a yogurt kick using it in the place of sour cream and mayo; if you haven't tried it please do you'll probably love it and it's so much better for you. I first thought I might just use plain low fat yogurt to replace the sour cream but decided I would need extra peachy-ness so I opted for peach yogurt instead. I cut back on the sugar because of the sweetness in the yogurt and because I love the combo of cinnamon and peaches in peach cobbler I added a tad here.

If you try it, I hope you enjoy and as always feel free to play with the recipe like I did, make it your own and have fun! :)

*Substitutes can be made but please be aware that the butter flavor is a prominent note in pound cake. If you do choose to substitute Margarine for butter always substitute STICK butter with STICK margarine 1 for 1, but the taste will not be the same. My preference if I use one is a blended Margarine like Land O Lakes Country Morning blend.