Peaches and Cream Salted Caramel Cake

I came across this recipe in the Waitrose Kitchen Magazine and could practically taste it from the beautiful photos. My little sister had made it for a birthday and a leaving party respectively, and it was so well received that I had to have a go myself. Sugar-coated sibling rivalry and all that...

 

Now, not to get all Nigella food-porny with you, but this cake may well be the sexiest thing you've ever eaten. Light, caramel flavoured cake, softly whipped, vanilla bean scented cream and salted caramel sauce layer over juicy peaches, and (for the perfect crunch and contrast), roasted pecans. Oh. My. God.



You could easily do some serious damage to this on your own, slumped in front of the TV, but it is definitely best served as a dessert in my opinion. The caramel and whipped cream make it decadent, and yet the fruit and the pecans mean that its not too cloying. For those that haven't jumped on the salted caramel bandwagon, this is a great recipe to try. The sea salt just gives enough tang to make the caramel even more delicious, and it works beautifully with the pecans. I have to say I did half the quantity of the sea salt in the original recipe after my sister reported that perhaps it was a little too strong, but each to their own. Also, the triple cake thing looks stunning, but the cakes are super thin and a little flat - so in my version I just halved the recipe to give two beautiful, plump cakes and just squidged all the filling in the middle and on top.

 

Perhaps the best thing about this cake is the fact it uses the gorgeous Seriously Buttery Caramel Dipping Sauce - both in the cake and as the oozy, groan-inducing filling. Don't even get me started on the uses for this pot of heaven - think dipped fruit, marshmellows, cookies, drizzed over ice cream, pancakes, Ryan Gosling (whoops, my mind wandered off there...) stirred through yoghurt, you name it. I may have had to test several (ahem, six) peach slices by dipping them in this sauce as I went along. All in the name of research, obviously.

Being new to the whole blogging thing I stupidly didn't take photos of this as I was making it, nor did I have the good camera (or any idea of how to style food photos!)  Hey, sometimes it just doesn't work out like that. These photos are trusty iPhone jobs. I couldn't find the original recipe from Waitrose online for some reason, but here is the beautiful picture of it on their Pinterest page.

If you only make one thing before Autumn truly settles upon us, make it this. Perfect dinner party delightfulness, but hey, even if you just make it for yourself, you won't be disappointed

 

Laura x