Home Cooking

Peach Carrot Cake – Carrot Cake with a Delightful New Twist!

Sabrina Pflug | Peach and the WillowLeave a comment

Peach Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and Blackberry Garnish

Oh how I love Carrot Cake! I think not so much for the carrot part, but more for that decadent, fail proof cream cheese frosting part. For me, the cake is a medium just to get to the frosting! Is that awful??? SNS? Same goes for Hummingbird Cake…but I digress…just look at this beautiful Carrot Cake!

Peach Carrot Cake...slice of heaven

Easter is a little over a week away and millions of folks around the world will celebrate this holy holiday by “brunching and lunching” with family and friends.  My hunch is that Carrot Cake will make its share of appearances at dessert tables far and wide.  If Carrot Cake is one of your favorites like it is mine,  then you will definitely want to add this new twist on a traditional dessert to your Pinterest board.  It just so happens that my blog’s namesake, the glorious peach,  is the added ingredient that creates such a delightful new riff on a classic cake.  The peach notes in the cake are subtle…the perfect balance of fruit and spice.  I decorate my Peach Carrot Cake in the naked fashion, not to overwhelm the cake with too much of that beautiful cream cheese frosting.  Believe me… it’s hard for an icing addict like myself to admit, but this cake is so good it doesn’t need frosting!!!  Trust me on this one and keep the frosting layers thin.  I also love the rustic elegance the cake renders…especially with the addition of peaches and blackberries.  So earthy and beautiful…like spring and summer wrapped into one!  Peach Carrot Cake

PEACH CARROT CAKE WITH CREAM CHEESE FROSTING & CARAMELIZED PEACHES

Makes one 6-inch cake; Serves 8 – 10

Ingredients for the Cake:

  1.  3/4 cup salted butter
  2. 3 large eggs
  3. 2/3 cup granulated sugar
  4. 1/3 cup + 1 1/2 tbsp light brown sugar, firmly packed
  5. 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
  6. 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
  7. 2 tsp baking powder
  8. 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
  9. 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
  10. 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  11. 1 3/4 cups grated carrots
  12. 1 can of peach halves in juice (2/3 cup of peach pure will be used in the cake, save the rest for the filling)

Ingredients for Cream Cheese Frosting:

  1.  3/4 cup softened butter
  2. 7 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
  3. 3/4 – 1 cup powdered sugar
  4. 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

For the Filling:

  1.  Remaining Peach Puree Peach Carrot Cake with Peach Glaze and Blackberries

Caramelized Peaches:

  1.  3 – 4 fresh peaches (you may also use frozen peaches, thawed)
  2. 3 tbsp butter
  3. 3 tbsp light brown sugar, loosely packed
  4. Fresh Blackberries

Cake Directions:

  • Heat oven to 350 degrees F
  • Line with parchment and butter sides of two 6-inch cake pans
  • Melt the butter and leave to cool.
  • Beat eggs and sugars until fluffy and lighter in color and texture, about 3 minutes.  Add melted butter and vanilla and beat until combined.
  • Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a bowl, then stir into the batter until just smooth.
  • Peel and grate the carrots.  Put the peaches (without the juice) in a blender or food processor and process until smooth.
  • Add grated carrots and 2/3 cup of the peach puree to the batter and stir until combined.  Divide the batter between the two cake pans.
  • Bake for about 40 – 43 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.
  • Leave to cool in the pans for 20 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

  • Beat butter until pale and fluffy.  Add cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla and beat until just smooth.
  • Put the bowl in the fridge while you cut the cake.

Assembly:

  • Cut both cake layers in half with a serrated knife so you end up with four cake layers.
  • Put the first cake layer on a cake board or directly onto a plate or cake stand.  Spread a layer of frosting on the first layer, then spread a layer of peach puree over. Repeat this until you’ve used up all layers.
  • Spread a thin layer of frosting all over the cake and put in the fridge while you prepare the topping.

Caramelized Peaches:

  • Slice the fresh peaches.  Heat the butter over medium heat in a non-reactive skillet. Add brown sugar and swirl with a wooden spoon until the sugar melts.
  • Add the peach slices and caramelize for 2 -3 minutes.  Let cool completely, then put them on top of the cake with the blackberries.

***Cake recipe credit:  Award winning baker, writer and blogger, Linda Lomelino               ***Peach Carrot Cake Photo Credits:  Robyn Rodehaver

Looking for other great cake ideas for Easter (or anytime!)???  Try this one from Peach and the Willow!  Click HERE for recipe!Mandarin Orange Pound Cake

Everyone Enjoy and Happy Easter! He is Risen!  He is Risen Indeed!  Love ~ Sabrina

 

Green Sauce ~ Three Saucy Babes ~ Part 3

Sabrina Pflug | Peach and the WillowLeave a comment

Green Sauce

Awwww…Green Sauce, you beautiful babe you!  You’re pretty, smart and voted most likely to succeed!  Dinner parties are more interesting when you’re invited as you simply light up the table!   Vegetables are more vibrant when you’re around.  Even the humble grilled cheese breathes a breath of fresh air when you come to call.

Green Sauce is relatively new to my kitchen but has quickly sprung to the top of my “must have” list.  Although this saucy babe shares similar ingredients with Salsa Verde, Chimichurri or Pesto (all of which I greatly enjoy), I find Green Sauce to be something quite different and delicious in its own right.  The parsley and basil swim around beautifully in the most perfectly salty/citrusy bath, lending a freshness to almost anything with which its is paired.   My “go-to” for a quick dinner party is Seared Steak with Green Sauce.  It’s fancy without being snobby,  never takes itself too seriously but always completely consumed to the great delight of my guests.

Grilled Steak, Roasted Carrots, Purple Sweet Potatoes, Corn and Green Sauce
Pan Seared Steak with Roasted Carrots and Purple Sweet Potatoes finished with Green Sauce.  Green Sauce pairs as beautifully with the vegetables as it does the steak!

I’m a big believer that sauce should enhance the food…not smother the food. It should be a compliment to the dish…not overwhelming to it. I find this sauce always delivers!

I recently dined at a fantastic New Orleans restaurant, Peche Seafood Grille, on Magazine Street.  One of the dishes we ordered that evening was whole Red Fish, the quintessential fish of choice for locals. Upon arrival to the table I was delighted to find that the entire top of the fish was covered with their version of Green Sauce!  What a compliment to this beautifully prepared dish!  I have also recently noted that one of Nashville’s acclaimed restaurants, Husk, also serves their version of Green Sauce with beef dishes.

Husk
Photo courtesy of HuskNashville.com
Grilled Provolone Cheese with Green Sauce
A break from blogging for a quick lunch.  Green Sauce and Provolone Grilled Cheese!  Hello versatile sauce!!!  Taste-y sammy!

GREEN SAUCE

  1.  Two cups packed flat leafed parsley leaves
  2. One cup packed Basil leaves
  3. One garlic clove
  4. 2 tsp. capers
  5. 2 anchovy fillets
  6. pinch red pepper flakes
  7. 1/2 to 3/4 cup olive oil
  8. Juice of one lemon
  9. Pinch of salt

Place all ingredients except olive oil in food processor or blender (blender will produce a Green Sauce Eclipsesmoother sauce and this is what I prefer) and pulse until leaves are broken down.  Stream in the olive oil, more for a loose sauce, less for one that is more dense.  Do not over puree’ but, instead, keep it a bit course in nature.

Serve atop meat or vegetables on a large platter or in a bowl for passing.

Recipe compliments:  Food 52  (my favorite food blog!)

Try your own variations with all three of these versatile sauces and share your results in the comments!   I just love hearing from you guys!!!  Cheers!!!

Three Saucy Babes
Three Saucy Babes; Salad Sauce, Good Gookamookee Sauce and Green Sauce

 

Roasted Pork with Whiskey Plum Sauce

Sabrina Pflug | Peach and the WillowLeave a comment

My mama makes a MEAN Pork Roast.  It’s “slap your mama good”..pardon the pun!  My family and I grew up eating her roasts on Sundays and holidays, and the taste always conjures up those memories.  Lavish, over-filled plates of roasted meat, rice and gravy and fresh from the garden vegetables or ones pulled from the freezer from last summer’s harvest.  It conjures family and community and glorious chit chat that I long to remember and revel in my heart and mind.  No matter how many times I make Roasted Pork, it seems I always find myself dialing her number and asking the specifics of her recipe yet one more time.  Her tips no doubt change with each call…and that’s probably on purpose, don’t you think?  I mean, the magic she’s putting into her roast is her magic…the love and pixie dust she puts into her food is hers alone.  That magic is hard to communicate on a recipe card or pinterest board, or even in a phone conversation.  But still…I call, I ask, I attempt.

My Roasted Pork is a “riff” on my mama’s roast.  She would say, “well, you’ve gone and messed it up” but au contraire!  “Mama…wait ’til you get a load of this…and a taste!”  ROASTED PORK with WHISKEY PLUM SAUCE .  The sauce may change your life!  The tanginess of the plums marries so beautifully with the richness of the pork.  The faint sweetness of the whiskey is a delicious and unexpected note.  Pour the sauce over the meat and vegetables as you serve or on the side as I have done and then make sure you have nice bread on the table to help clean the plate of all the saucey goodness!

Roast Table View
ROASTED PORK WITH WHISKEY PLUM SAUCE

INGREDIENTS:

  • 3 – 4 pound pork butt roast
  • Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • 2 Plums, pitted and quartered
  • 1 Large Yellow Onion, quartered
  • 2 Cloves Garlic, minced
  • Couple Splashes of Worcestershire
  • 1 Tbsp chopped fresh Rosemary
  • 1 lb carrots
  • 6 – 8 Red Potatoes, diced
  • 1 Cup Chicken Stock
  • All purpose Flour
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 shot of Whiskey (optional and I used Jack Daniels)
  1. Turn oven to 325 Degrees F.
  2. Place 2 Tbsp EVOO into Dutch Oven.  Turn stove top on high and heat oil (watch carefully…don’t burn the oil).
  3. Salt and Pepper your Pork Butt on all sides.  Don’t skimp…the roast can take it!
  4. Now sear the meat on all sides.  Make sure you end with fatty side up.  This way, the fat flows down into the meat while it’s roasting.  Juicy!!!
  5. Once the meat is seared, throw in your onion, minced garlic, plum and chopped rosemary… turn heat to med. high.
  6. Now douse with two or three splashes of Worcestershire Sauce over meat, plums and veggies.
  7. Pop into the 325 Degree oven…UNCOVERED.  It should look something like this going in…Roast Into Oven
  8. Walk away and cook for two hours.  Your home will be filled with the most delicious aromas.
  9. At the two hour mark, add your carrots and potatoes to the dutch oven.  I like to make sure I salt them as I layer the vegetables.  I also put a bit of the cooking liquid over the potatoes and carrots before returning to the oven.
  10. Set your timer and cook uncovered, one additional hour.  At the end of that time, your pot should look like this…Roast Out of Oven
  11. Turn off oven.  Remove the roast, potatoes and all but TWO carrots from the Dutch Oven onto a Serving Platter to rest.  Cover lightly with foil.
  12. The broken down bits of heaven that are left in the dutch oven should look like this and you are about to make sauce magic out of them.The Makings of the Plum Sauce
  13. Dump this mixture into a blender, reserving 1/4 quarter cup of the liquid drippings and leaving in the dutch oven.
  14. Pulse the roasted veggies and plums until pureed.
  15. Meanwhile, heat the reserved roasting drippings over a medium high heat.  Once bubbling, scatter a couple Tbsp flour into the reserved liquid and make a roux.  The flour will ball up immediately and at this point you will need to whisk in the chicken stock slowly.  Whisk out any lumps as it begins to cook and thicken, about 3 – 4 minutes.  It should look like this…Roux
  16. Return the roasted plum and vegetable puree’ back into the pot and cook on medium, stirring to heat through.
  17. Add the shot of whiskey and stir (optional).  Wait for the alcohol to cook out, about a minute, and then taste for salt and pepper.  Add as needed.  You may not need very much, if any, because you layered with salt as you added the vegetables to the roast.
  18. Simmer on low for about five minutes or until ready to serve.
Juicy and flavorful Pork
Comfort Food
Rich and Decadent Sauce

Enjoy this meal anytime but it’s especially great for Sunday Suppers, Holiday Celebrations and Friends and Family Gatherings!  And one more thing!!!…Roast Pork leftovers make excellent Pulled Pork Sandwiches later and I will be sharing my crave worthy BBQ Sauce in an upcoming post that you will want to make again and again!

Until then…Cheers!!!  XOXO

Roasted Pork and Sauce
ROASTED PORK WITH WHISKEY PLUM SAUCE