Good as Gold: Peach Poundcake

When peaches were at their peak at the height of summer, I couldn't resist buying a few each time I was at the farmer's market. I prefer nectarines to peaches for eating out of hand, but I think that the more assertive flavor of peaches works better in baked desserts. So I was delighted to see Jerrelle Guy's recipe for Peach Poundcake in The New York Times.

The recipe is simple but it does require a blender to make peach puree. To make the batter, you put all of the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt) into a bowl; stir in the wet ingredients (unpeeled peaches pureed with lemon juice, cooled melted butter, eggs, egg yolk, and vanilla); and fold in diced peaches. While the cake is still warm from the oven, you drizzle on a glaze made from the same peach puree that's in the batter, with powdered sugar added. Even though the skin of my peaches was almost entirely yellow, the glaze was a lovely shade of light orange -- actually, pretty close to the "peach" shade of a Crayola crayon. While the glaze developed a skin as it sat at room temperature, it did not set firm. As you can see in the photo below, the glaze ran a bit as I sliced the loaf, and it remained tacky to the touch.

I loved this poundcake so much. It is intensely peachy, with what is really a triple dose of peaches -- puree and diced fruit in the batter, and more pureed peaches in the glaze. The cake had a beautiful golden interior, and was richly flavored like a very good yellow cake. This cake was just so bright and fruity that eating a slice made me feel like I was consuming sunshine and the very essence of summer. Desserts like this are why I love summer baking.

Recipe: "Peach Poundcake" by Jerrelle Guy, from The New York Times.