Earl Grey Peach Cake

Going back to school has really brought some more inspiration into my life. Being around tons of great recipes and products like pepper jelly and cayenne chocolates, chocolate stout cakes, and strawberry yogurt mousse tortes, has given me tons of great recipe ideas. But sadly, school has also sapped all of the baking time out of my life.

Oh peaches.

So I've decided to bottle it all up until the weekends, when I can bake and write recipes and blog posts for the week ahead. I settled on this plan Tuesday and have been looking forward to baking this cake all week.

The results were rather messy, but the taste was all there.

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces flour (cake or AP)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 12 ounces eggs
• 11 ounces sugar
• 8 ounces Earl Grey tea
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 8 ounces butter, softened
• 2 tablespoon Earl Grey reduction (To make, brew a cup of Earl Grey, add about 1/4 cup of sugar, and simmer until most of the water is gone.)
• 1 egg (or 2 tablespoons pasteurized egg)
• ~7 cups powdered sugar
• pinch salt
• 2 medium peaches, chopped and dried

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare two 8 inch round pans with flour and parchment.
2. Whisk together the flour and salt.
3. In a mixer, beat the eggs and sugar for about 5 minutes on medium speed, until thick and pale.
4. Mix the 8 oz of Earl Grey with the vanilla. Alternately mix in the flour mixture and the liquids.
5. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool to room temperature.
6. Beat together the butter, reduction, egg, and salt, adding powdered sugar to desired consistency.
7. Frost the cake, filling and topping it with peaches.

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Cinna-muffins with Earl Grey Glaze

In case you haven't seen, I just finished researching, testing, and writing a small guide to recipe development as pertaining to cakes. It was fun and exhausting (not to mention boring to pore over some very dry writing) but I'm glad to be moving on from cakes now. The plan (soon enough) is to look at recipe development and how ingredients work together in cookies, but we'll make a few brief stopovers first. Today I tried the formula for muffins from Ratio by Michael Ruhlman. Overall: I'm fairly impressed. They were a bit more moist than I like my muffins, but it wasn't a bad change of pace.

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces AP flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 4 ounces brown sugar
• 4 ounces butter
• 2 eggs
• 8 ounces milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teabag of Earl Grey tea
• ~3 cups powdered sugar

Directions:

1. First, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line a muffin tin with papers.
2. Whisk together the dry ingredients.
3. Melt the butter and mix in the eggs, milk, and vanilla. Whisk until blended.
4. Combine the wet and dry ingredients, mixing until just combined.
5. Spoon the batter into muffin tins, filling about half full.
6. Bake for approximately 16-18 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
7. Once the muffins have cooled, pour approximately 1/4 cup of boiling water over the teabag. Let this steep for a few minutes.
8. Remove the teabag and mix in powdered sugar little by little until the desired glaze consistency is reached (approximately the viscosity of corn syrup).
9. Dip the muffin tops in the glaze and let harden for a few minutes.
10. Serve with tea, coffee, or plain.

What's your favorite topping on a muffin? Do you like streusel, glaze, or something else?

Did I mention my eBook? It's for sale in the upper left corner, and I'm also giving a couple of copies away to people who join the site via Google Friend Connect!

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