SOMETIMES GREAT RECIPES ARE born out of inspiration, but I will bet most of the time they come from desperation.
Such is the case this week as my family is vacationing in the mountains at an annual adventure away with limited phone, internet, and the amenities of a home kitchen.
But when someone is celebrating a birthday, you bake cake, right?
And it just so happens that the one we were feting is from South Carolina and loves SC peaches.
A cast iron skillet was already on the packing list. So were some decent knives, flour, sugar, and seasonings. I had packed a nice organic vanilla from Rodelle, and I even brought a box of King Arthur cake flour although the cake I am sharing today is quite forgiving and accepts most any flour it’s offered.
Good peaches help. So does dark brown sugar. I’ve leaned away from buying “light” brown sugar these days because it doesn’t have the flavor or color it once did. Now my chocolate chip cookies are mahogany colored when made with dark brown and so good.
The original “skillet cake,” pineapple upside-down was born 100 years ago in a publicity campaign from Dole pineapple. The company was eager to build awareness for its brand and asked American cooks to submit their favorite recipe using canned pineapple.
As I have written before, when the contest recipes rolled in, the majority were for a pineapple cake baked in an iron skillet and flipped upside-down to serve. The name stuck.
When I wrote my book Skillet Love, I was determined to create a pineapple upside-down recipe with a moist cake that could live up to the buttery, sugary fruit topping. I landed on a hot milk sponge cake, and that’s the cake batter poured on top of peaches for our last-minute birthday cake, too.
Like a summer recipe with staying power, this peach cake is simple and uncluttered.
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.