Pretty Pink Peach Raspberry Cake

This weekend is my roommate Suzie's birthday, which means a few things: (1) a fabulous night on the town, (2) a life-size cutout of Edward Cullen*, and (3) a BIG PINK CAKE.

Suzie LOVES pink. If someone walked into our house and into her room, they would probably believe that a 12 year old girl lived there. The entire room is bright pink (well, the walls are purple, but that still fits the bill) - pink sheets, pink comforter, pink chairs, pink rugs, a big pink mirror, etc. So when I asked her what kind of cake she wanted for her 13th (*ahem 24th) birthday, the only requirement was that it be pink. And pink it shall be!

In the best cake book in the entire world, there are so many amazing cakes. So good, in fact, that I used a hybrid of recipes and fillings from this book when I made my friends' wedding cake in July. This is some serious stuff, people. So it is my go-to when I need a big cake to celebrate in a big way, and birthdays are no exception!

Though the cake sounded amazing at first glance, I was hesitant to make it because it's not peach season anymore (I missed that delicious boat). But quite perfectly, you can substitute frozen peaches and frozen raspberries, so this yummy fruity cake can be made all year round! Fresh peaches would be worth trying in the future, but we have to take what we can get in mid-October.

Plus, reading the recipe, the cake uses a staggering 3 cups of heavy cream! Keep in mind item #1 folks, this cake was meant to be served before a fabulous night on the town (read: we girls needed to fit into small dresses). But quite surprisingly, this cake actually contains less fat than many desserts because it doesn't use butter. This cake wins!

Oh boy, does it win. The cake itself is so light, and the chilled mousse-like filling and frosting made each bite even better than the last. All of our party guests were in total bliss while eating their piece(s). It made me really regret waiting so long to make this cake. It is so good, you really should not wait for a big girly** birthday celebration, but rather, call up your neighbors and ivite them over to celebrate the fact that, hey it's Tuesday and you just happen to have made a big beautiful pink cake.

Peach Melba Cake with Raspberry Cream

Adapted from Sky High

Cream Cake

(it can be made a day ahead and wrapped in plastic wrap and stored in the fridge - I did it, and it worked perfectly)

• 1 3/4 c. cake flour (honestly, I used cake flour because I had it on hand from the wedding cake, but if I didn't, I'd probably just use all-purpose...I don't think it makes that much difference)
• 3 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 c. heavy cream
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 c. sugar
• 2 whole eggs
• 2 egg yolks (and do you know what that means? you have egg whites for an omlette or merengues!)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 deg F.
2. Oil and line with parchment paper three 8" or 9" round pans (do people actually own BOTH 8" AND 9" pans? I use my 9" pans for every cake. This recipe calls for 8" but I think it is just silly to own so many sets of pans!)
3. Mix together flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.
4. With a mixer (hand or stand) whisk the cream and vanilla until the mixture forms soft peaks. Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly add the sugar. Then add the whole eggs and egg yolks and continue mixing until the batter again forms soft peaks.
5. By hand, fold into the wet mixture about 1/3 of the dry ingredients. Repeat until all of the dry ingredients are added.
6. Divide the batter among the 3 pans and bake for 18-20 minutes.
7. Allow to cool in pans for 10 minutes, then invert them onto wire racks and allow to cool completely.

Peach Mousse Filling

• 1/4 c. plus 2/3 c. sugar
• 3/4 c. water
• 1/4 c. plus 2 tbsp peach liqueur or schnapps
• 1 pound peaches, peeled and pitted fresh or thawed frozen with juices
• 1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 tbsp unflavored gelatin powder (like Knox - also, if you live within driving distance, and want some gelatin, I now have SO many packets...please take some!)
• 1 c. heavy cream

1. Put 1/2 c. water and 1/4 c. sugar into a small saucepan over medium heat
2. Bring to a simmer, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Continue to cook until the syrup is reduced to about 1/2 cup.
3. Remove from heat and stir in 1/4 c. of the peach liqueur and set aside
4. For the peach mousse, put the (thawed) peaches, 3/4 c. sugar, the lemon juice and the rest (1/4 c.) of the water into a medium saucepan.
5. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer until the peaches are soft
6. Put peach mixture (careful, it's hot!) into a blender and puree until smooth
7. Measure out 1 cup of the peach puree and set aside. Put the remaining puree into a large mixing bowl and allow to cool (the original recipe omitted this tiny step...and when I went to fold in the whipped cream, the mixture melted and was not firm enough to stay between the cake layers, oozing out, as shown in the beautifully ugly photo below)
8. Soak the gelatin in 2 tbsp of peach liqueur for about 5 minutes, then heat in the microwave for 10 seconds, stir to combine and then whisk into the peach puree in the bowl
9. Whip the cream until it holds soft peaks, then fold into the COOLED peach puree mixture.

Assemble the Cake

1. Put the first layer flat side up on a serving plate.
2. Pour 1/4 c. of the peach simple syrup over the layer
3. Spread 1/2 of the peach mousse on top of the layer
4. Place the next cake layer on top of the mousse (hopefully it's firm, otherwise you can scrape off the overspill to salvage the cake, and have a tasty treat)
5. Pour another 1/4 c. of the peach simple syrup over the 2nd layer, and spread the rest of the peach mousse on top
6. Place the final layer on top of the mousse, and pour the remaining simple syrup on top.
7. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about an hour

Raspberry Frosting

• 12 oz. unsweetened frozen raspberries, thawed, with the juices, or if in season, fresh raspberries
• 1 c. heavy cream
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1 tsp water

1. Put the raspberries and their juices in a medium saucepan and cook over medium-low heat, mashing the berries with a large spoon, until they give up all their juices, about 15 minutes
2. Let cool, then puree in a blender
3. Strain through a sieve to remove the seeds. There should be about 1 c. of the raspberry puree.
4. In another bowl, whip the cream until stiff.
5. Measure 1/3 c. of the raspberry puree into another bowl and to it, add the sugar and water and stir until the sugar dissolves.
6. Fold in the whipped cream. (Yay it's now pink!)
7. Sweeten the remaining raspberry puree with additional sugar to taste and use for garnish
8. Frost the cake with the pink raspberry whipped cream and then refrigerate for another hour (or as long as you can stand)
9. When serving, put a small amount of the excess peach puree and raspberry puree on each plate for a striking (and delicious) presentation

*Edward Cullen is the main vampire in the Twilight Series. Though she won't publicly admit it, Suzie LOVES him...so when we saw a life-size cutout of him at Nordstroms, I knew that she had to have it. I may have snuck into her room while she was sleeping on the night before her birthday and put it next to her bed for her to wake up to in the morning :)

**All of the men in attendance also loved this cake. Deliciousness does NOT discriminate based on sex.

oh, baby.... (peach hand pies)

Two things happened last weekend. One, I dug out my food processor. Two, I was unceremoniously called a 'baby.' For being scared. In a scary movie. (The Descent) This seemed a little uncalled for. You don't call someone hysterical for laughing in a comedy.

I don't think I've been called a 'baby' since elementary school, when my cousin Sam and I would taunt each other back and forth with the hated moniker. We were 15 days apart, so the name carried much consequence. I remember back then, nothing seemed worse than being called a 'baby.' Surprisingly, 15 years later, it still carries a hefty punch.

I've been thinking about fear a lot lately anyway. Most fears I hold onto are irrational...and I've found it helps to ask 'of what consequence are the actual consequences I'm afraid of?' Like...the monster from the Descent is not actually going to come get me. So, it's really of no consequence. It probably didn't warrant screaming at the top of my lungs while other people slept.


Another example, I have a huge mental blockage around making pie crust. But, why? Yes, it's difficult, but the worst that could happen is I could fail, and the consequence is that I've wasted some flour and butter. Not a big deal. This makes the fear fizzle away some.

Deciding to do this blog with Erin has been great for this too. That girl is fearless! My baking is meticulous...reading and re-reading recipes, comparing, measuring. She just goes for it! And she's been an amazing encouragement to me in trying new exciting things, and old scary things. It goes like:

Linda: Oh, I really want to try XYZ! But I'm scared! It looks hard!
Erin: Why? It's awesome! Just do it! It's not that hard!
Linda: Oh...ok!

This is a dramatization because we don't always speak in exclamations points. But I guess sometimes that's all it takes. (See, cooking is like this big, overstated metaphor for life.)

This is all to say, this week Erin and I are making peach hand pies. QFC had a great deal on organic peaches, so I trekked to Capitol Hill on my lunch break and bought a whole bagful. Erin found the idea for hand pies on smittenkitchen, and they looked delectable. So I had to calm my pate brisee fearing heart.


I started baking about a year ago from a copy of Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. She taught me layer cakes, cupcakes and pie crust in a food processor. At the time, I didn't have a fancy pants food processor, so I went through the painful process of cutting the butter into the flour by hand. With a knife. Oh, what trials I have endured for fresh pie.

Then after I did get my food processor, fancypants included, I never made pie crust with it. I was excited to finally try it this week, but then I read smittenkitchen's post on Pie Crust 102. She recommended a hand held dough cutter instead of the food processor, and promised it made a flakier crust.

Now, I am against one-wonder gadgets. I grew up in a household where you made do with the basics. I'm still amazed at the silly things American people sell (and buy!). An apple corer!!?!? I have one too! It's called a knife. (Or more efficiently, my teeth.) An egg holder?? Why not set your egg down on the plate, sir? Anyway, back when I was making my ghetto piecrusts a year ago, I didn't even have a rolling pin! I used a cold can of Pepsi. Yup. Pretty. Awe. Some.


(Now I have this super gangsta' rolling pin. Thanks to a special someone! See, how fancy my pants do grow.)

All this ranting aside, I really really wanted to make some flaky, melt in your mouth crust. And since this was my big 'conquer your fears' moment, I needed some extra cards stacked in my favor. So on a quest for basil through Pike Place Market, I found myself at Sur la Table, the proud new owner of a dough blender. And let me tell you, it was worth every penny of the eight dollars and Washington state sales tax I forked over for it.
I blended my butter as minimally as possible. Smittenkitchen recommended stopping around pea sized butter pieces.....I stopped at fat, happy nickels. I was on a mission! It took some work to make the dough come together, but the puffy, flaky, incredibly buttery end result was amazing.


When I pulled those babies (ahem) out of the oven, I gave myself a secret handshake of joy. You could see each individual layer of awesomeness around the edge of the pies. And you know what this made me want to do? Make my own puff pastry. Because I'm like Jet. Li. Fearless. But alas...another weekend.

I chalk these pies up under the whopping big success category. I'm sure I'll do greater things with pie crust, but firsts always have their place in a heart. I was afraid of many things...that the crust would be hard, that the whole thing would crack open and burst, but these little pies were docile as peachy, endearing sheep.

I only used half the dough so far, which I baked in two batches of four pies. For the second batch I added mango to the filling, which made an interesting tropical taste. I still have half the dough in my freezer, people! What adventures will I dream up next!? Salmon pie? (Ahem, Derek.)


Peach (Mango) Hand Pies
adapted from smitten kitchen

This recipe may seem a little daunting, but coming out the other side it's really not so bad. You make the dough, chill, roll and cut, chill, fill, chill, bake. The filling is so easy it's negligible. There's downtime for chilling so bring a friend or a book. Plus, for my second batch, I had the dough and filling ready, I woke up one morning, filled four pies, chilled it, baked it and voila! Fresh peach pie!

Basic Martha Stewart Pate Brisee (pie crust dough)
(I used half this to make eight pies. Mathematics tells us that you could use this to make 16 pies or halve it and make eight like me.)
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
2 sticks butter
ice water

Filling
(This filled eight pies. Normal laws of math apply.)
1 large peach, chopped (about 3/4 cup, chopped)
1/8 cup chopped mango
1/8 cup flour
1/8 sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla

1 egg plus 2 tablespoons water for egg wash
sanding sugar


1. Cut butter into pieces, return to fridge to cool.
2. Sift flour, salt and sugar into bowl. If you are OCD, you can chill this bowl too.
3. Add cold butter to flour bowl (which should be a big, big bowl.) Use your dough blender (!) to cut butter into flour until pea (or nickel) sized pieces of butter are still visible.
4. Slowly add ice water (by tablespoons) to flour and continue until clumps of dough form. Begin working with hands to bring dough together.
(If you feel like the dough is not coming together, add more water. If you try a few times and it starts getting warm, take a breather and return the bowl to the fridge. Do not warm up that butter.)
5. After dough forms into a ball, split into two pieces and wrap in plastic wrap, form into discs and return to fridge to cool for at least 30 minutes.
6. Remove one disc, and on a heavily floured counter, roll out to 1/8 inch thickness. If you want to be successful here, just add tons of dry flour to the top and bottom of your disc. It doesn't hurt your dough.
7. Use something with a four inch diameter to cut rounds out of your dough. I used a little cereal bowl. Or, you can cut squares and fold along the diagonal like turnovers. Transfer your rounds to prepared parchment lined cookie sheet and quickly return to fridge to chill 30 minutes.
8. Meanwhile, make filling by mixing fruit, flour, sugar and spices.
9. Fill rounds with peach filling, wet half of the edge with water and fold to seal. Indent edges with fork if you're into cute stuff like that. Chill.
10. Brush pies with egg wash. Cut a slit in each so they can breathe when baking. Dust with sanding sugar, if you have it.
11. Bake 20 minutes at 375 degrees.
12. Bask in awesomeness. (Actually, remove to wire rack and cool.)