Summer's Toying

Amazing how a quick a person can get spoiled in just the mere clicking of a month. I am up in New York bopping around, and course, visiting the farmer’s market. I was hoping to catch the tail end of the cherry harvest but alas, this year it was a brief and underwhelming season as reported to me by one of my favorite sources for the first of summer’s stone fruits. Sad for the denizens of the northeast who usually get some intense, juicy cherries, however, I was secretly pleased because I missed nothing.

Quickly on the heels of cherries along will come peaches and plums, and then finally, the last member of the stone fruits -- apricots. In the market here I have been stuffing my face with sugar and shiro plums but I had to pass on the peaches. Having been in the south for much of the summer I have been eating redolent, luscious icons of summer for a while now, and these Yankee -raised cousins are shy and demure – nothing I want in a peach. When I was in Provence, and strolled through the village markets, the peaches sent out an aromatic siren’s call tempting all to its readiness. That trip set a standard that I refuse to compromise. If my eyes were not wandering from table to table surveying the haul of the week, I would have never known the peach had arrived back here in the canyons of New York. Silence is not something I expect or desire in this fruit. I’d say these northern family members need a few more weeks of heat, sun and branch time before this sensitive nose may catch a whiff of its vitality.

Peach-Lavender Cake – yields 9” cake
1-pound ripe peaches – cut into 1/2” slices
1-1/2 cups vanilla low-fat yogurt
4-eggs
1/4-pound unsalted butter – melted
1-teapoon vanilla extract
1/2-cup sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons lavender buds
2-cups all-purpose flour
1/2-teaspoon baking soda
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8-teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 350-degrees.

Lightly butter the 9-inch cake pan, and distribute the sliced peaches on the bottom.

With a whisk, beat together the yogurt, eggs, butter,

vanilla,sugar and vanilla to thoroughly mix.

Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Using a spatula mix the flour into the yogurt mixture to just combined. Pour the batter over the peaches and bake for 35 to 40 minutes.

Let the cake cool completely, and then turn it out with the peaches on top.