After making Jerelle Guy's scrummy Peach Poundcake, I decided that I needed more peach desserts in my life. So while peaches were still in season and overflowing at the farmers market, I decided to try Joanne Chang's recipe for Ginger-Peach Crumb Cake from Pastry Love.
This cake has peaches, ground ginger, and crystallized ginger in the batter, and a spiced crumb topping with nuts. To make the batter, you stir together the dry ingredients (flour, crystallized ginger, baking powder, ground ginger, baking soda, and kosher salt; make a well in the middle and pour in the liquid ingredients (a mixture of melted butter, sugar, eggs, crème fraîche, milk, and vanilla); stir to combine; and fold in chopped peaches. I poured the batter into a 10-inch cake pan that was buttered and lined with a circle of parchment. Before baking I sprinkled on the crumb topping, which is a mixture of brown sugar, cool butter, cinnamon, ground ginger, salt, cloves, and toasted pecans.
The finished cake was enormous. It rose right to the top of the 2-inch tall pan, and I think it would have risen even higher if I had used a taller pan. (I do have a 10-inch round cake pan that is three inches tall, but I generally don't use it unless I'm making a recipe that specifies the need for an extra-tall pan.) However, having a lot of this cake was a good thing, because it was delicious. The combination of ginger and peach was so good, and I really liked the chunks of crystallized ginger in the moist and rich cake (I used crystallized ginger from Penzey's and didn't bother chopping it just because I was feeling lazy). But the crumb topping was my favorite part. It was sweet and spiced and buttery and crunchy and hit on all cylinders. Even though fresh peaches evoke the height of summer, the ginger and other spices in the crumb topping felt so cozy and comforting.
In fact, the crumb topping was so good that I wished there was more of it. If I made this cake again, I think I would bake the cake in a 10-inch square pan (I do have a pan that size) instead of a 10-inch round one, because the square pan has roughly 25% more volume and the resulting cake would be a little shorter, so I wouldn't have to worry about the cake rising right to the rim. I would also multiply the crumb recipe by 1.5 (or even 2.0?), to create a higher ratio of crumb topping to cake. But I would love to eat more of this cake, with extra crumbs or not!
Comments