Perfectly peachy: The Bundt cake was a disaster but coffee cake hit the spot (2024)

I love peaches. When it’s peach season, I eat peaches for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I can’t get the taste out of my mind, and I don’t want to. I want to feed the craving. I mean, that’s how you handle a craving, right? Or do I misunderstand the fundamental nature of the universe?

It’s nearly impossible for me to overbuy peaches, since I consume them at such an alarming rate. But occasionally it does happen. Peaches, left to ripen at room temperature, can reach the squishy stage remarkably fast. When that happens, it’s time to break out the baked goods. If peaches are sublime by themselves, just imagine how much more transporting peaches with carbs and sugar can be!

When I have slightly overripe peaches, I usually make peach crisp, but I was feeling adventurous. I decided to make a peach cake using a beautiful Bundt cake pan given to me as a gift a couple Christmases ago. I found a recipe online and got down to whisking, mixing, blending and chopping. The recipe called for 21/2 cups of fresh peaches layered between a lot of thick, sticky dough.

It smelled heavenly while it was baking and the cake was nicely browned when I removed it from the oven. I let it cool for about an hour, then prepared to invert the cake onto a cake stand. It wouldn’t budge. That’s when I discovered it was entirely raw inside. It had not cooked at all. I figured it was a lost cause but gamely put it back in the oven for another half-hour on the slight chance that I could salvage this whole operation. I ended up with a cake that was mostly cooked on the inside and completely charred on the outside. What could be more appetizing?

I have to say, my husband was such a dear. He scraped the cake out of the Bundt pan, then helped himself to a piece — or rather, a collection of crumbly bits on his plate. “This is delicious!” he said. (There are very good reasons why we’ve been married almost 30 years.) My daughter, however, wasn’t having it, in all senses. She’s strangely particular about E. coli and salmonella, that one.

I felt awful about wasting so much flour, so many eggs and so many peaches. Out of gratitude for the people, cows and chickens who labored to bring me these foodstuffs, I couldn’t throw it away. I put it in our vegetable garden, where little creatures will devour it and mold and fungus can consume the rest. It will become fertilizer for next year’s tomatoes.

Instead, I made peach coffee cake with brown sugar and pecan streusel. Here’s how:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9-by-13-inch pan. (An 8-by-8-inch pan will also work, although you might need to add five minutes to the bake time.) Whisk 2 cups flour, 21/2 teaspoons baking powder, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg and 1/4 teaspoon salt together and set it aside. Whisk 1/2 cup of packed brown sugar, 1/2 cup peach yogurt, 4 tablespoons butter, 1/4 cup milk, two eggs and 1 teaspoon vanilla in a large bowl until combined. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients along with 2 cups of diced fresh peaches. Mix until just combined; overmixing might make your cake dense instead of fluffy. Spoon the batter into the pan. Combine 1/2 cup packed brown sugar, 1/2 cup of chopped pecans, 1/4 cup flour and 4 tablespoons butter in a small bowl.

Use a pastry cutter or your fingers to mix the topping until butter is evenly distributed. Sprinkle the streusel onto the batter. Bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let it cool for 20 or 30 minutes, if you can even wait that long. Maybe the best part about coffee cake is that it can be eaten warm.

The peach coffee cake was as delicious as the Bundt cake was disastrous. I heaved a sigh of relief. I’d begun to believe that I was laboring under the Cooking Curse of 2024. So many dishes I have attempted this year have turned out to be all kinds of wrong, whether I’ve followed directions or spun off into the stratosphere with recipe adjustments and shortcuts and substitutions. However, cooking is not serious and experimentation yields knowledge. See? I’m secretly a genius. Very, very secretly.

Peach Coffee Cake

2 cups flour

2½ teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons cinnamon

½ teaspoon nutmeg

¼ teaspoon salt

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

½ cup peach yogurt, plain Greek yogurt or sour cream

¼ cup (half a stick) softened butter

¼ cup milk

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups fresh peaches, diced

Streusel Topping:

½ cup packed brown sugar

½ cup chopped pecans

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup (half a stick) butter

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9-by-13-inch pan. Whisk the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt together. Whisk the brown sugar, yogurt, butter, milk, eggs and vanilla in a large bowl until combined. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients along with 2 cups of diced fresh peaches. Mix until just combined. (Overmixing might result in a dense cake.) Spoon it into the pan. Combine the brown sugar, chopped pecans, flour and butter in a small bowl. Use a pastry cutter or your fingers to mix the topping until butter is evenly distributed. Sprinkle the streusel onto the batter. Bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool for 20-30 minutes. Serve warm with a cup of coffee or tea.