Ga Peach Cake & Making Summer More Fun than Frantic!

Hi Peeps! I’m starting a little add-on this summer at the end of some of my posts. It’s going to be  ideas for  Keeping Summer Fun not Frantic!  Easy  but fun things you can do with your bambinos while they’re out of school this summer! All my little ones are grown and gone now but I had my share of summers with four kids, so I’m going to throw out some of my old ideas and maybe you guys could share some new ideas and we can help keep summer more fun than frantic! Stay tuned to the end of the post for my 1st idea!

Most of you know I live in the deep south…way down in Atlanta GA…Did you know that the peach is the state fruit in Ga?  Well, it’s true!  We grow some super sweet peaches in Ga and every year I love to stop at a roadside stand walk up and breathe in the amazing aroma of ripe peaches…of course I also buy a bushel for eating and for cooking something yumalicious…like peach cobbler.  This year I’ve gotten the urge a little early! Ga peaches will abound in a few weeks but I felt overwhelmed with the urge for something peachy …today!

I decided to do something a little different. A Peach Cake…I kinda made up the recipe…I do that sometimes.  It’s really my Strawberry Cake recipe with a few tiny changes and adding peaches as opposed to…you know!

I got the idea when I saw a recipe for Peach Butter Cream Frosting in my Southern Living Magazine…But when I made my early Saturday morning trip to the fabulous Publix and the peaches were not nearly ripe, I had to resort to this…

No worries, next time I’ll use fresh ones…and there will be a next time. This recipe turned out scrumptious!

First I caramalized the peaches for the cake in a tablespoon of butter and two pinchs of brown sugar…(I also caramalized the peaches for the frosting in butter but NO brown sugar!)

Doesn’t this look fresh and summer-like…never mind that the peaches were canned this time…

I needed to know for sure if it was good.  So I called my favorite most hunky taste-tester! The Husband loved it!

(DO NOT use fresh peaches to decorate the cake…they have too much juice, which is a good thing for eating but a bad thing for pimping out your cake!)

Ga Peach Cake

*1 White cake mix

*1 Pkg. peach flavored gelatin powder

*1 cup vegetable oil

*4 eggs, lightly beaten

*1/4 cup water or syrup from canned peaches

*1 cup chopped very fine peaches…(caramalized – optional- don’t add any liquid if there is any left in pan)

Combine cake mix and gelatin powder in bowl.

You can Caramelize peaches by cooking in 1 tablespoon of melted butter and 2 pinches of brown sugar for 5-7 minutes.

Beat in oil, eggs, water, and peaches. Beat on hi for 30 seconds and on med. for 2 minutes.

Pour into 2…9 inch round cake pans that have been greased and floured.  Bake at 350* for app. 27-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool and frost with peach butter-cream frosting!

Georgia Peach Butter-cream Frosting

* 3/4 cup Butter

* 1 large Peach cut up and mashed (or puree in food processor)~  or 3/4  cup cut up mashed canned peaches…drained. (Optional to caramelize the peaches in 1 tablespoon of the butter called for in recipe)

*32 ounces of powdered sugar

Mix butter until creamy; gradually add powdered sugar alternately with pureed peach, beating until well blended . (If need be add tiny bit more powdered sugar!)

Frost the peach cake OR this would be divine for cupcakes!!!

This is a keeper for us Sweet Peeps! TTFN!

*******I’m linking to Balancing Beauty and Bedlam for Tasty Tuesday. Lots of great recipes over there!*******

Keeping Summer More Fun the Frantic…

Keeping with the Ga state fruit…this might be fun…once a week head to this website and have the kiddos look at different states and their “state fruit”.  (Yes, lots of states have official state “fruits”…wow, that is so open for jokes.!)..anyhoo,

*have them pick a favorite fruit or maybe even one they’ve never tried and find an easy recipe that uses that state fruit.

*They might enjoy making a list and doing the grocery shopping and helping make the recipe.

*They could even do a bit of research on the state (according to their age)beyond the fruit and tell something about that state while you share the fruit dish over the dinner table!!!

Have you got any ideas that go along with learning a bit more about other states??? Do share!  TTFN Peeps…let’s make summer more  fun than frantic!