A Peach of a Cake for Breakfast on a balcony

When I was a child peaches came out of a tin.
They were a Sunday treat served with evaporated milk also from a tin and sometimes fresh cream.
 I had to wait awhile to taste a fresh peach, to be able to caress the soft downy skin and bite into the sweet yellow flesh and marvel at this wonderful gift from Mother nature.

So much in awe of the beauty of a peach are we that in English we use the word to describe something that is just perfect, lovely and appealing.

A peach of a dress, a peach of a girl, a peach of a doll.

For a long time it felt wrong to do anything other than eat a peach just like it is, fresh and juicy.
It is only living in a country where peaches grow abundantly in your own garden, just like apples do in England that I could bring myself to cook with peaches and  even then it's only the not- so- perfect ones that I can part with in such a way.

Along with many other exciting culinary habits, Italians like to eat cake for breakfast. Not for them bowls of muesli and fried eggs and bacon.
Cake is perfect for anyone in a hurry to get to work.
A slice of cake and a milky coffee and Ciao amore, buona giornata, so often I'll make a cake and try and make it as nutritious as possible.
 Just right for the Summer is a Torta all Pesca, Peach cake, here it is, hope you like it.

Peach Cake, Torta alla Pesca

175g butter, softened
150g golden caster sugar,
juice of half a lemon
3 eggs
175g self raising flour
3 - 4 peaches, washed stoned and cut in chunks

Heat the oven to 180
Line a 23 cms baking tin with greaseproof paper
Put the butter and sugar in a large bowl and whisk until light and fluffy
Gradually beat in the eggs
Add the lemon juice and beat again
Fold in the sifted flour
Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and place the peaches over the top.
Bake for about 45-50 minutes, check that it's cooked by putting a knife in the centre, if it comes out clean then it's ready.
Let the cake cool in the tin for ten minutes and then carefully turn it out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
Dust with extra sugar and serve with cream or yoghurt if liked.

Buona Giornata a tutti

Ready for the oven

Everything at hand