Peach Ladycakes

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Peach Ladycakes

La-dy-cake [La'dy-keyk]:  Cupcakes that have yet to mature to full height. Caused by non-use of cupcake liners or shallow cupcake tins. Perfect for a mess free dessert, little kids, and tea time.

I’m going beserk. I received my Canon Rebel XT in the mail yesterday even though it was estimated to come between June 22 to August 6. Possibly the fastest shipping on an online placed item ever.
So what have I been doing? I’ve been digging through mounds of boxes in the basement to recover my baking supplies (aka measuring cups). I didn’t even exert this much effort when I was completing my Daring Bakers challenge a few days ago. But about Peach Ladycakes…

What to do with a bagful of peaches that are threateningly close to going bad, and you only have a day to consume them because you’re going away to the city for a few days? Well, I Google “peach recipes” online and find whichever one tickles my fancy (and whichever accommodate the scant ingredients I have in my fridge). Julie Hasson comes to the rescue this time.
This recipe is a combination of Julie’s nectarine cupcake recipe from 125 Cupcakes. Like 52 cupcakes, I didn’t have nectarines so I substituted them for peaches. And if that’s not enough peaches, I took a peach frosting recipe from here. The result is a guaranteed satisfying burst of peachiness with every bite. If you’ve missed the peaches in the cake, then you’ve got them in the frosting.

I modified the ingredient amounts and didn’t use nutmeg, so here is my adapted recipe for these Peach Ladycakes. Depending on your cupcake tin size, it’ll yield anywhere from a dozen to a few extra cupcakes. I ended up with 15 “ladycakes”.

Ingredients for cake:

• 1 cup all purpose four
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 stick butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 tsp grated orange zest
• 3/4 cup milk
• 2 peaches, pitted and diced into 1/2 inch cubes

Recipe:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees
2. In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking powder,  and salt.
3. In a large bowl, beat together sugar and butter until well combined (you might want to use an electric mixer, although it’s totally possible without one since I did it by hand).
4. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and orange zest, beating well.
5. Alternately beat in flour mixture and milk, making three additions of flour mixture and two of milk, beating until smooth. Fold in peaches or nectarines.

Ingredients for peach frosting:

• 1/2 ripe peach
• 1.5 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1- 1.5 cups confectioner’s sugar

Recipe:

1. Peel and mash 1/4 of the peach. I actually mashed it in a sifter, so that it turned into a puree.
2. Beat butter and 1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar into a large bowl (once again, use an electric mixer if you have one) until smooth.
3. Add 1.5 tbsp of peach puree and beat for 2 minutes until smooth and creamy.
4. Gradually, add the remaining sugar until the desired consistency. Using all of the sugar is not necessary.
5. Use the remaining peaches as toppings for the cupcake.

Side Notes:

• This frosting comes out pretty sweet, which is why I only had to spread a thin layer on the cakes. So add confectioner’s sugar at your own discretion.
• Make sure you SIFT the confectioner’s sugar. Lumpy sugar will cause unwanted specs in your frosting.
• The butter NEEDS to be at room temperature when you start creaming it. If it’s not, it’s going to separate and curdle. This happened to me. To rectify, plunge the bowl that you’re mixing the frosting in into an ice water bath and beat the living daylights out of it. The frosting should then thicken a bit.
• Scoop batter into prepared pan. Bake in preheated over for 15-25 minutes or until golden brown and tops of cupcakes spring back when lightly touched.
• If your frosting is too sweet, you can try to tame it by heating milk with flour, allowing the mixture to cool, and then adding it to the frosting.