Spiced Peach Cake with Salted Caramel

This week was my mother's birthday and like every year, I make her birthday cake. Every year I make her a chocolate cake covered in fudgy chocolate frosting. But this year I decided to mix it up and this beauty was born.

This babe of a cake was inspired by my favorite gingerbread bear cookies my family always eats when we visit Yosemite Valley, aka the best place on Earth. Spicy Ginger just cries out to be paired with salted caramel and you can never go wrong with summer peaches.

Just look at it. Ugh, gorgeous.

---

Spiced Peach Cake & Salted Caramel

Cake:

2 c brown sugar

1 stick butter, softened

½ c vegetable oil

5 eggs

2 c flour, sifted

1 t baking soda

1 t baking powder

1 t ginger

1 t fresh grated nutmeg

1 t ground cloves

1 t ground allspice

Pinch of salt

1 c buttermilk

Swiss Meringue Buttercream:

125 g egg whites

7 oz sugar

3 sticks medium temperature butter

1 t vanilla bean or vanilla extract

pinch of salt

1 peach, sliced

Salted Caramel:

1 c brown sugar

1 stick butter

pinch fleur de sel salt

1 t vanilla

1/2 c heavy cream

1. heat the oven to 350 degrees, as always. cream the butter and brown sugar together until fluffy. add in the eggs one at a time followed by the oil.

2. sift together all the dry ingredients. alternate adding the dry ingredients to the mixer with the buttermilk one at a time until they are both incorporated.

3. divide the batter between two pans, I used 6in' cake pans because I like tall cakes, but a 9in would work just fine. bake for about 35 minutes or until the cake springs back and a toothpick comes out clean. your house is going to smell AMAZING.

Salted Caramel:

1. while the cake is baking start the caramel, it is going to need time to cool.

2. pour all the ingredients into a sauce pan except the salt and bring to a boil. once it boils reduce to a simmer and stir with a wooden spoon until it thickens and looks dreamy. about 5 minutes

3. once it has thickened, sprinkle with fancy salt, and cool.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream:

1. over a double boiler mix your egg whites and sugar with a whisk until foamy. the sugar should be dissolved and no longer granular, about 3 minutes.

2. whip the mixture on high until glossy and the bowl is no longer warm.

3. add the softened (not room temperature!) butter in pieces slowly, the frosting will look like it has broken but it will whip back up just keep adding butter and give the frosting lots of compliments.

4. after the frosting has whipped back up again and looks lovely add your flavorings and a pinch of salt.

Assembly:

1. layer the spice cake with a frosting damn, top with sliced peaches, and a drizzle of salted caramel.

2. frost the cake with a crumb coat, i like the naked cake look, but if you want to completely cover it, be my guest.

3. warm the caramel until it's the consistency you want to drizzle down the cake, it's important your cake is cool so when the warm caramel hits the frosting it doesn't melt the butter in the frosting!

4. decorate the cake as you like, i covered mine in sliced peach and peach leaves.

5. this part is very very important... enjoy the deliciousness!

#Cake #SpicedCake #SwissMeringue #SaltedCaramel #Peach