Mascarpone Peach Cake

Perfect summer cake: moist, not too sweet and simply beautiful. Can also be made with apricots or nectarines.

Source: Slightly adapted from Apricot Mascarpone Cake @ Apron and Sneakers

Taste: 5 (out of 5)
Difficulty: 2 (out of 5 - the most difficult parts: beating eggs if you don’t have a stand mixer and slicing peaches ;-) )

Ingredients:
- 125 g all-purpose flour
- 125 g mascarpone cheese
- 2 eggs
- 75 g white sugar
- 2 medium peaches for the cake + 1 for garnish
- a pinch of salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup icing sugar for dusting
- 2 tbsp rose petal (or other liquid jam)
- mint leaves for garnish
Total: one 8-inch cake

Directions
1. Beat eggs with sugar and salt until they double in volume and become light and fluffy. This is best done with stand mixer. In the meantime you can peel and finely chop 2 peaches.
2. In another bowl stir the mascarpone until it softens a little.
3. Add 1/4 of the beaten eggs into the mascarpone and mix to loosen the mascarpone. Then gently fold in the remaining eggs.
4. Add the flour, baking powder and vanilla extract and mix in gently.
5. Gently mix in the diced peaches.
6. Pour the mixture into an 8 inch greased baking pan and bake at 350F for about an hour. After 30 minutes in the oven, cover the cake loosely with aluminum foil, so that the top does not burn.
7. The cake is done when a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let the cake cool completely before removing it from the pan. Waiting for the cake to cool is also extremely difficult :-)
8. Remove the cake from the pan. Slice the remaining peach into thin slices and arrange them on top of the cake. Heat the jam in microwave for 20 seconds until it melts, and brush over the peaches. Sprinkle the cake with icing sugar and decorate with mint.

Afterthoughts:
- This cake tastes absolutely delicious, it’s packed with peaches, it’s very delicate and not too sweet, in one word: perfect!
- The original recipe on Apron and Sneakers used apricots. I am sure nectarines would also be great in this cake. The quantities mentioned here are ½ of the original quantities. In fact, I made 2 8-inch cakes, which is exactly equal volume-wise to one 11-inch cake. Pick your size :-).
- This cake was love of first site: I was looking for a dessert to make for a party, and I was looking for a recipe to use my homemade mascarpone, and then I saw this beautiful cake, orange and shiny (and I am always attracted to anything orange). So I knew I was meant to make this cake. And it turned out as good as it looked on Rowena’s photo, and even my photo turned out decent. So I even decided to post this.
- By the way, if you don’t know Rowena’s blog, you should certainly check it out. Not only does it have delicious recipes, you can also find equally mouth-watering photos of Italy. See for yourselves.

This recipe is published on http:RecipeNewZ.com: