Savannah…my home sweet home, but, for the past 8 years I’ve been living in Pensacola, Florida.  I try to go back to Savannah every chance I get since I still have family living there.  On my last visit to Savannah I was in the downtown historic area and came across a small hard-back cookbook “Savannah Classic Desserts” and had to buy it.  It’s not a thick cookbook, but it’s packed with some awesome looking desserts.  The first recipe I made from this cookbook is called “Peach Pound Cake.”  This recipe is from a lady named Martha Gidden Nesbit.  Martha Gidden Nesbit is Savannah’s best-known native cook, with books, television appearances and a catering business on her list of accomplishments.  For the past few years, she has been busy co-authoring cookbooks with Paula Deen, owner of “Lady and Sons” restaurant in the downtown historic district in Savannah.

In the cookbook Martha writes, “Using my sour cream pound cake recipe from my first cookbook, Savannah Collection, and peaches that were ripe, but not too ripe, I created this recipe.  If the peaches are really ripe, you’ll have to drain most of the delicious juices, or your cake will be soggy.  IF your peaches are too hard, don’t use them—they simply don’t have any flavor.  IF you can’t get perfect peaches, use canned.  Regardless of the type of peaches, the pound cake will be very moist and a little gooey on the bottom.  The lemon glaze adds a little tangy sweetness and is pretty.”

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do.  This is a moist sweet pound cake, and at the same time tart from the lemon glaze you pour on top.  This recipe I will be definitely make again…I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

 

Happy Pound Cake Baking!

 

 

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

3 cups granulated white sugar

6 large eggs

1 cup sour cream

3 cups all-purpose flour, sifted

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

2 cups fresh or canned finely chopped and well-drained peaches

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 300F.  Butter and flour a 10-ich tube pan.

To Make the Cake:

Combine the butter and with white sugar in an electric mixer with a paddle attachment.  Beat until well combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and cream again.  Add the eggs, beating well.  Scrape down the sides and beat again, until the batter is smooth.  Add the sour cream and beat well.

Combine the flour and baking soda and fold into batter.  Add the vanilla and almond extracts and beat until just combined and batter is smooth.  Stir in peaches.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan.  Smooth the top.  Lift up the pan and drop it gently onto the counter to get rid of any air pockets.

Bake for 1-1/2 hours.  Do not open the oven during this time.  The cake is done when the top of the cake is nicely browned, the sides pull away from the pan, and a tester inserted near the center will come out clean.  If the cake isn’t done after 1-1/2 hours, turn the oven temperature up to 325F, and bake for 10 minutes more, and test again.

Allow the cake to sit in the pan for about 20 minutes, undisturbed.  Loosen the edges of the cake from pan with a knife.  Invert cake onto a plate, then invert back onto a wire rack to completely cool.  Gently transfer to a cake plate.

To Make the Glaze:

1 and ½ cups sifted confectioners’ sugar

¼ cup fresh lemon juice

Directions:

Whisk together the confectioners’ sugar and lemon juice until smooth.  Glaze the cake while still warm, but not hot.  Spoon glaze over the top of the slightly warm cake; the glaze will harden when it dries.

Note: Two 16-ounce cans of peaches yields 2 cups of chopped peaches.  If the humidity is high, the glaze will remain “gummy.”  You’d be better off not using the glaze and just serving the cake naked, with a dollop of whipped cream.

Recipe by Martha Gidden Nesbit

“Savannah Classic Desserts” Recipes from Favorite Savannah Restaurants

** I have everything at room temperature.

** I add eggs one at a time.

**I used fresh frozen peaches in the pound cake, but sliced can peaches on top.

**I also used half lemon juice and half peach juice in the glaze.