Maybe baking cakes is part of my redemption journey, simply giving people the opportunity, ever so briefly, to allow their faces to light up and to live for just one more nice thing, like a piece of warm, right out of the oven cake!

When browsing through some old magazines at the library, I happened upon this fabulous recipe for a fresh peach schnapps pound cake. What’s a more excellent way to highlight the produce of summer than baking with a hot weather rock star, the peach! And when you include fresh eggs to the ingredients, the result is a dense but fluffy and fruity masterpiece.

For a dense cake, the secret is to bake low and slow, so this peach wonder bakes at 325 for one and a half hours. The first step of mixing is the most important one for achieving the proper rise on a pound cake. Cream till almost white and fluffy the eggs, sugar, and butter with vanilla. The dry ingredients of flour, soda, and salt are added next alternately with the wet ingredients of schnapps, buttermilk, and chopped peaches. To bake, pour the batter into an extra large greased and floured bundt pan (regular size won’t hold it all). Upon removal from the oven, allow cooling in the pan for fifteen minutes before inverting on to a cake platter. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve plain or with a dollop of whipped cream and some more fresh peaches. Now that’s the way to celebrate summer’s bounty!

Have you visited your farmer’s market for fresh local produce?