Birthdays and Cake

It's that time of year - the celebrating and remembering of a birthday, which always merits some reflection, some ridiculousness, and a good dash of hopeful planning for the future. As I took a day off from work to celebrate by myself, I was reminded how good it is to spend quality alone time with oneself, to recall exactly what it is one likes to do on one's own, reading a book, strolling through markets and galleries, enjoying the sights and sounds and smell of life (an in particular a fresh coconut donut and americano), and cycling in the summer sunshine by the ocean. All good things to be thankful for.

Turning 31 in many ways is so much better than turning 30; there's a lot of hype and hoopla around 30 to live up to, an expectation of extravagant celebration, whereas 31- there are no preconceived notions of what a celebration might look like. Celebrating alone is not out of the question (though who is truly alone these days with Facebook...)  I think 31 will be a very good year. And really, this is the year I take that sword fighting class I've been thinking about for so long.

Cake! What's a birthday without a dessert? To keep going with the changing it up theme for 31 I actually baked myself a birthday dessert WITHOUT chocolate. Shocking, I know. I had peaches on my mind though (could be my impending trip to Georgia)  - something not too heavy, sweet, delicate, and requiring fairly minimal effort (it was my birthday after all). Bill Granger's peach, almond, and yogurt cake was the perfect match (found on a defunct but excellent blog called Almost Bourdain) and I would happily bake it again. Maybe next time I will try to ensure there are more people around so I don't end up eating 60% of my own cake? Maybe... :)  Warning: this cake takes an hour and a half to bake once it's assembled and then you have to let it cool, so make sure you don't start baking it at 9pm unless you're a night owl!

Peach, Almond, Yogurt Cake

220 g (7 3/4 oz) salted butter, softened  (almost 2 sticks)
250 g (9 oz) sugar
1 tsp natural vanilla extract (I would try replacing this with almond extract or use 1/2 tsp almond & 1/2 tsp vanilla)
3 eggs
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
5 tsp baking powder
50 ml (1 3/4 fl oz) milk
1 cup yoghurt

450 g (1 lb) small peaches, chopped [USE FRESH OR FROZEN, NOT CANNED]
50 g (1 3/4 oz) flaked almonds
Alternate topping: handful of whole almonds (1/2 cup?) and citrus zest (1/2- 1 tsp) pulsed in the food processor to a fine crumb. Sprinkle over cake and bake. I loved this version, though it is messier.

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease a 9" spring form pan all over and then line the bottom with parchment paper.
2. Cream the butter and sugar in a mixer on  high speed for ~5 minutes until light and fluffy. While the mixer is going, sift the flour and baking powder together and set aside. Add vanilla (or almond extract) and eggs one at a time to the butter-sugar mixture, beating well after each.
3. Add half of the flour, half of the yogurt, and all the milk to the batter. Mix at low speed 30 sec - 1 min, scraping the sides. Then add remaining flour and yogurt and mix at low speed until combined (30 sec - 1 min).
4. Gently fold through the chopped peaches and pour the batter into the the springform pan. Sprinkle with almonds (or almond crumb). Bake for 1.5 hours.
5. Let cool for 15-20 minutes before removing the ring of the springform pan.

*photo to come.