Picking The Right Ingredients:
Peach Coffee Cake

The Peach Coffee Cake stands as a juicy symbol of summer: the fruit is just aching to be picked and you can smell the ripening goodness. You have been longing for these days, when you can actually bake something fresh and sweet. You have put off your fruit filled cakes throughout the winter, just so you could create something from the summer growth.

Or have you been?

If you are like most individuals, you did not let the fact that summer had not arrived deter you from your baking. Instead, you just used alternative ingredients to create the summer flavors you craved. For example, if you wanted a peach coffee cake, then you simply bought yourself some canned peaches or peach pie filling and got to baking.

Cake fanatics are clutching their hearts in horror at the moment.

But, for those of us who cannot wait for fresh ingredients, this does not seem like such a bad idea. Why should you wait for something that can be alternated? There isn't really a difference anyway, is there?

Well, yes and no.

A peach coffee cake typically calls for fresh peaches; this means waiting for summer and selecting only the ripest ones. This creates a delicious flavor and a highly moist cake.

For some people, however, a peach coffee cake should not be limited to the summer season. So they use things like pie filling and canned peaches for the flavor, and then add in extra sugars and such to balance it out. They say it works.

Does it? It really depends on what you consider a peach coffee cake.

Some swear by fresh ingredients and they do so with good reason. Fresh peaches do create a rich taste, without having to use a great deal of additives for flavor. They also make the cake healthier since the levels of sugar and cinnamon are decreased.

But there is a downside: you can only bake them in the summer. This makes for a limited amount of pie fulfillment.

For those who use the substitutes, however, baking can be done at any time. Whenever they crave a peach coffee cake, they just by fillings and start preparing. This lack of time restriction certainly makes this kind of coffee cake appealing.

But, unlike ones used with fresh ingredients, these cakes are not always guaranteed to have the same rich taste. And, since they can require more sugar and extras, they end up being higher in fat and calories. Even the canned peaches or pie filling can add quite a larger amount of this due to the high levels of sweeteners.

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So you have to ask yourself a simple question: what do you want? If you are craving a peach coffee cake in the dead of winter, do you want to make one with artificial ingredients or simply wait for summer? Here’s a sample of the cake with he sugar…to help you with your decision, of course:

1 (18 ounce) box yellow cake mix
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup pecans
1/4 cup firm butter
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups sour cream
1 (29 ounce) can peaches, drained

Grease & flour 9x13 pan. Mix 2/3 cup cake mix with sugar, nuts and butter until crumbly. Beat eggs and blend in sour cream and remaining cake mix, batter will be slightly lumpy. Spread 1/2 batter in pan, sprinkle top with 1/2 sugar mixture. Spoon on peaches, spoon on rest of batter and top with rest of sugar mixture. Bake 350 for 30 to 40 minutes.

There really is no right or wrong answer as far as sweetener. Both cakes are delicious and both come with their own advantages and disadvantages. You just need to decide what you want and then get to baking.