Fresh Peach Pound Cake with Bourbon Butter Glaze

Last year, I accidently bought twenty-five pounds of peaches. An orchard that produces particularly delicious fruit had a special pop-up and I just happened to drive by. I couldn’t resist, even though it was the middle of the week and I was busy and had no particular plans for that much fruit. But boy was I glad I did. I ate as many as I could out of hand, made jars and jars of various peach-based preserves and revisited some favorite recipes. But I was a bit stumped on how to use the last few. Plans to have a family dinner reminded me that my sister-in-law loves pound cake, so that seemed like a good place to start. And bourbon is one of my favorite pairings with peaches (in pudding,pork tenderloin, jamand one of my very favorite caramel saucesever). This particular iteration is reminiscent of a classic butter cake – tender cake drenched in buttery, sugary glaze.

When you use perfectly ripe peaches, they sort of melt into the batter, but firmer peaches will hold their shape a bit better Either way produces a delicious result. Use a good European-style butter to maximize the delicious buttery flavor in the simple recipe. It makes the peaches sing. Cake flour makes for a very tender cake and is very worth using.

Fresh Peach Pound Cake with Bourbon Butter Glaze

For the Cake:

4 peaches, peeled and pitted

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, the best you can find

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups granulated sugar

6 large eggs

3 cups cake flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup whole buttermilk

For the Glaze:

½ cup granulated sugar

¼ cup bourbon

3 ½ Tablespoons unsalted butter, the best you can find

For the Cake:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Spray a 10 -cup bundt pan thoroughly with baking spray like Bakers Joy.

Finely dice the peaches and set aside.

Beat the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer to loosen it up, then beat in the sugar with the mixer on low speed, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Raise the speed to medium high and beat for five minutes or so, until the butter is fluffy and almost white, again scraping the sides. Beat in the vanilla. Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the flour, baking soda and salt in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk and scraping down the sides of the bowl, until the batter is thoroughly combined. Raise the speed to high and beat for five seconds. Remove the bowl from the mixer and fold in the peaches, making sure they are evenly distributed. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. 

Place a sheet of foil on the oven rack and place the pan on top, to catch any drips. Bake for 1 hour or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. If the top becomes too brown, loosely shield with foil. Take the cake from the oven and run a skewer or thin knife around the edges to loosen the cake. Leave to cool slightly while you make the butter glaze.

For the Glaze:

Put a piece of waxed or parchment paper under a cooling rack on the counter to catch drips. Cut the butter into small pieces and put in a small pan with the bourbon. Heat over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the butter is melted stir in the sugar until dissolved and no longer granular. Bring the glaze to a boil and cook for one minute. Poke holes all over the surface of the cake with a skewer or toothpick, then spoon about a quarter of the butter glaze evenly over the top. Let the glaze soak in for 5 minutes, then invert the cake out onto the rack.  Poke holes all over the cake again, then spoon over the next quarter of the glaze and leave to soak in for 5 minutes. Spoon over the next bit of glaze, and brush some over the sides of the cake with a pastry brush. Leave to ask for 5 more minutes, then spoon and brush the last of the glaze all over the cake.  Leave to cool completely.

Serves 12