peachy cinnamon coffee cake

In the past I have never really seen eye-to-eye with baking. It’s precision and the whole ‘needing to read all of the directions thing’ really rubbed me the wrong way. The experimentation that goes into savory cooking–adding a bit of this and a few glugs of that–has always gotten my blood pumping. I’ve tried to blame it on my ‘art’ background, but really, I think it just boils down to a lack of attention span. I would often skim baking directions and about half way through say, ‘yeah, yeah, I’ve got this’. Well it turns out that this is not an advisable approach to baking. Which is why, until recently, we haven’t gotten along.

I say ‘until recently’ because there has been a relatively recent change in my life: having kids. This change has forced me to alter my outlook on baking (as well as about a million other things). Before kids, baking was cooking’s tedious, high maintenance cousin. Now, baking is the answer to the question, ‘how do I have my kids help me in the kitchen?’ Baking is the way I can share and pass on my love of creating in the kitchen but also keep them away from sizzling pots, sharp knives and salmonella-y death traps. There is also the added bonus of a built in lesson: how to ‘follow directions’ – I am still mastering this myself -, how to ‘count cups and tablespoons’, and how to ‘not whip the whisk out of the bowl of dry ingredients and effectively covering everything in flour’. All good lessons.

 

The inspiration for this Peachy Cinnamon Coffee Cake came from a recipe I found in my Grandma’s recipe box. It immediately spoke to me. I ran into a snag, however, while shopping for the ingredients. The recipe called for a boxed muffin mix that I could not locate. Anywhere. The old me would have said ‘forget this’ and swung by the bakery. But the new me relished in the challenge. I went about searching for a similar ‘from scratch’ recipe that I could make my own. I came across an amazing looking apple cinnamon coffee cake recipe and with some swaps and tweaks, decided I could make this work. The cream cheese in the batter makes the cake incredibly moist. Roasting the peaches elevates the peachy flavor, taking it to the next level. A warm ‘it’s-almost-fall’ level. I love that level. As well as any cake that can be passed for breakfast food. Because, really? Cake for breakfast is awesome.