Summer
by: Erin Jeanne McDowell
July6,2018
4.4
5 Ratings
- Prep time 1 hour 15 minutes
- Cook time 1 hour 15 minutes
- Makes one 9-inch four-layer cake
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Author Notes
This cake is a serious summer showstopper. First, there’s four layers of cake made with cornmeal for texture and yogurt for a little tanginess. They’re sandwiched together with a super delicious mascarpone cream, plenty of juicy sliced peaches, and my clumpiest streusel to complete the cobbler extravaganza. Make it for a birthday party, and you won’t need to bring a gift. Make it for a cookout, and prepare to watch people come up for seconds and thirds. Or make it for yourself for no reason at all, because it’s just that good. —Erin Jeanne McDowell
- Test Kitchen-Approved
What You'll Need
Ingredients
- CAKE
- 4 cups(482 g) all purpose flour
- 2 cups(227 g) fine cornmeal
- 1 tablespoon(12 g) baking powder
- 1 teaspoon(6 g) baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon(2 g) fine sea salt
- 1 cup(198 g) vegetable oil (or other neutral oil)
- 1/2 cup(113 g) unsalted butter, melted
- 2 cups(425 g) dark brown sugar
- 6 large (340 g) eggs
- 2 teaspoons(10 g) vanilla extract
- 2 cups(454 g) plain full-fat yogurt
- EXTRA CLUMPY STRUSEL
- 1 cup(120 g) all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup(106 g) light brown sugar
- 3/4 cup(75 g) old fashioned oats
- 1/4 teaspoon(2 g) ground cinnamon
- 10 tablespoons(142 g) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
- FILLING + FINISHING
- 3 medium (about 467 g) peaches, thinly sliced
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 1/3 cup(66 g) granulated sugar
- 1/4 teaspoonalmond extract
- 12 ounces(341 g) mascarpone cheese
- 1 cup(113 g) powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 cups(341 g) heavy cream
- 1 1/2 teaspoons(7 g) vanilla extract
Directions
- Make the cake: preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9 inch cake pans (the pans should be at least 2 inches tall).
- In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together to combine.
- In a large bowl, whisk the oil, melted butter, and brown sugar well to combine. Add the eggs one at a time and mix well to combine. Stir in the vanilla.
- Add about half of the flour mixture to the egg mixture, and whisk well to combine. Add all of the yogurt, and whisk to combine. Finally, mix in the remaining flour mixture. Scrape the bowl well to be sure it’s all well incorporated, but don’t overmix.
- Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared pans. Bake the cakes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the cake is golden brown, 45-55 minutes.
- Cool the cakes for 15 minutes inside the pans, then invert onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Make the streusel: line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, brown sugar, oats, salt, and cinnamon to combine.
- Add the cubed cold butter and mix (with your hands or a pastry cutter) until the mixture forms moist clumps.
- Crumble the streusel onto the prepared baking sheet and bake until evenly golden brown (it will spread a bit and come together – don’t worry!), 15-20 minutes. Cool completely, then use your hands to break it up into large crumbles.
- Prepare the filling: in a medium bowl, toss the peaches, lemon juice, sugar, and almond extract to combine.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, mix the mascarpone and powdered sugar to combine. Add the cream and continue to whip until the mixture becomes thick, like medium-peak whipped cream. Mix in the vanilla extract. Reserve in the refrigerator until ready to use.
- To assemble the cake, use a serrated knife to cut the domed tops off of both cakes, then to cut each into two even layers. You’ll have four layers total.
- Place one layer on a platter or cake stand, and scoop ¼ of the whipped cream onto it. Top with ¼ of the peaches (I use a slotted spoon to be sure I don’t bring too much juice along with the fruit), and crumble ¼ of the streusel over the peaches.
- Place another cake layer on top, and repeat the process, continuing to pile the layer cake high until you’ve used up all of the ingredients.
- The cake is best served within 4 hours – refrigerate until ready to serve. If you want to make it further in advance, you can prepare all the components, but wait to build it until closer to serving time!
Tags:
- Cake
- Cobbler/Crumble
- American
- Cornmeal
- Oat
- Peach
- Milk/Cream
- Fruit
- Summer
- Dessert
See what other Food52ers are saying.
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jennifer
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Mary Paskett
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PRST
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Erin Jeanne McDowell
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I always have three kinds of hot sauce in my purse. I have a soft spot for making people their favorite dessert, especially if it's wrapped in a pastry crust. My newest cookbook, Savory Baking, came out in Fall of 2022 - is full of recipes to translate a love of baking into recipes for breakfast, dinner, and everything in between!
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12 Reviews
Ldaly58 August 22, 2019
An addendum: I highly recommend doubling the peaches to 6, and doubling the whipped cream/mascarpone recipe as well, if you want the visual effect in rhe photograph. I used 2 9 inch cake pans, and followed the directions. On a hunch, i added an extra half cup of whipping cream, and a 4th medium sized peach, and I STILL only had enough for 3 layers. In addition I had to cut up a 5th peach to finish the top of the 3rd layer.
Following the directions as written would allow for only a very thin layer of whipped cream, and a few peach slices on each layer. I certainly can't see that it would give the end result in the photograph. This has happened more than once in other recipes that I followed to the letter. Food photography often shows an artificially enhanced end product.
Ldaly58 August 21, 2019
The cornmeal is interesting, but I think the peaches and cream would be better served with a lighter fluffier cake. The cornmeal makes the cake dense, and quite frankly, dry. The peaches and cream help to offset the dryness, but if you have a few bites of cake left over, they are dry. I plan to sprinkle the cake layers with simple syrup, adding juice from the peaches. On a side note - in the instructions for the streusel, it mentions adding salt- but there is no salt listed in the streusel ingredients, and I dont think it belongs in streusel, which is sweet and cinnamon-y. The streusel, by the way, came out like granola. It would have been simpler, easier, quicker just to buy some granola and sprinkle on top.
Overall a pretty cake, but I'm definitely not enthralled with the cornmeal.
jennifer September 8, 2018
do you think I could cut the recipe in half? thx!
SCalabretta August 25, 2018
Beautiful! And I loved reading about your process. Can’t wait to make this
Jama August 10, 2018
Thank you very much for for information in grams. Warmest rgeards
Mary P. August 5, 2018
Sweet! Thanks!!! I just don’t make streusel often enough. Thanks for your year-long hard work and patience.
Mary P. August 5, 2018
Cannot wait to make! Quick question: if I coursely chopped almonds to add to the streusel, do you think it would work or would they separate from the streusel?
Erin J. August 5, 2018
Totally would work!!! Customize your streusel!
PRST August 3, 2018
Erin- this looks so fabulous and delicious!!! Any recommendations on the best way to cut it?
Erin J. August 5, 2018
The cake is surprisingly sturdy! Use a sharp serrated with a sawing motion - it holds together really well!
PRST August 6, 2018
Thanks Erin! I was thinking I could use a long thin wood skewer for each slice to hold the layers together while cutting and plating (then remove) but maybe it's not necessary.
Ldaly58 August 21, 2019
I used a cake leveler.
