Monday, June 27, 2011

brown sugared peach cake

The first of my friends' celebrated her twenty-fifth birthday last week and to celebrate, we threw a dinner party in her honor.  I was in charge of both dessert and the main course, so i was looking for a simple dessert that i could put together while the main course was cooking...after work and allowing us to eat at a decent hour.

When i was looking through the latest martha stewart living magazine, i found a recipe for a simple peach layered cake.  Using just 3 ingredients - peaches, pound cake, and whipped cream, it seemed like the perfect dish to end the night.

I decided to put a spin on it and made a brown sugar peach layered cake...with no baking involved, this is the perfect summer dessert to throw together for a last minute bbq or dinner party.  Additionally, the maple syrup and brown sugar perfectly complement the peaches to give the cake extra dimension.



Ingredients:
3 ripe peaches
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 pound cake (store bought or home made)

Directions:

First slice or cube the peaches and combine in a bowl with the maple syrup.  Set the peaches aside for 5-10 minutes while you make the whipped cream.  (note - slice the peaches if you would like a flatter cake or cube the peaches if you would like a higher cake, i personally prefer the cubed look, which is slightly more homemade at the end)

Whip the heavy whipping cream and brown sugar on high for 2-3 minutes, until there are peaks when you lift the cream with your spatula. 

Cut the pound cake horizontally into three separate layers.

On a plate or in a loaf pan, layer the pound cake, whipped cream and peach mixtures.  First, lay down the bottom of the pound cake, cover with whipped cream, and then layer with peaches.  Repeat this for the next layer.  For the final layer, you can choose to add peaches or leave it plain with just whipped cream.  

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Summer salad


It's a gorgeous day here in Brooklyn.  After a long walk outside, I came in and put together this salad for lunch.  

Ingredients:
2 cups mache (or any kind of salad greens)
2 small radishes thinly sliced
1 cup cooked yellow wax beans
1/2 avocado diced
1/4 mango diced
1/8 red onion thinly sliced (scallions would also be good)
a little bit of cilantro chopped up
pinch of salt

The only real cooking here is the wax beans.  I cooked them for a few minutes in boiling water so they were still firm but tasty.  Then just throw all the ingredients together and drizzle a bit of olive oil and red wine vinegar on top.  It was a quick and refreshing salad for a hot day like today.