White Peach Shortcake

You know for a self proclaimed non-baker, I sure am making a lot of baked goods. How does that happen? Oh I know! I love desserts thats how! And this time my dessert making was intensified with my mother in town. She loves desserts as much as me. In fact there was one night for dinner we had boiled peanuts and key lime pie! Healthy and nutritious right? lol! Well this dessert was an inspiration from a local cupcake shop we found in downtown Fort Walton Beach. It was called Cupcakes by the Beach. She only had about half a dozen options and we chose 3 of them. We tried the Red Velvet, Chocolate Hazelnut, and Strawberry Shortcake. They were decent cupcakes but nothing spectacular. And after looking at her strawberry shortcake I started to get ideas of how I would make the shortcake cupcake. And sitting on the counter in front of me were some perfectly ripened and sweet smelling white peaches. So I looked over at my mother and asked if she was up for an adventure. I would make a better tasting white peach cupcake with my own whipped cream frosting. So we started scheming our next day's dessert.

I will go ahead and let you know up front that after making and eating this it tastes more like an actual shortcake than a cupcake. The cake part itself tastes more like pound cake than a white cake. It is very tasty and as long as you know its a shortcake and not a cupcake it tastes much better in your head!

Cake Recipe:
1 3/4c cake flour
1 1/4c all-purpose flour
2c sugar
1T baking powder
3/4t salt
1c butter, cubed and cold
2 eggs
2 egg whites
1c whole milk
1t vanilla and/or 1 vanilla bean scraped

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In a medium bowl combine cake flour, all-purpose flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Using a hand mixer or stand mixer. Add in butter and mix until just coated with flour.

In a small bowl beat your egg whites until stiff. In a separate bowl mix together eggs, milk, and vanilla. Slowly add the egg mixture to your dry ingredients in 3 parts. Then gently fold in your egg whites.

Next time I make these I may not do cupcakes since they do taste more like pound cake than cupcakes. Maybe mini loaf pans would be better.

Peach Puree:
6-8 ripe white peaches
1/2c sugar

Remove all flesh from peaches and place in a medium pot with the sugar. Bring to a low boil and simmer gently until peaches are cooked through. Using an immersion blender or regular blender puree the mixture. I left the skins on my peaches because I like the pink color of the puree.



I placed a small dollop of puree in the center of the cake batter in the tins and swirled it around with a wooden skewer providing a marbled effect. But it glomped to the bottom of the cupcake and we ended up with upside down peach cupcakes. Next time I might omit some of the liquid in the cupcake and replace it with the peach puree. I also might save 1-2 peaches and cut up and place some fresh peaches in a hollowed out center of the baked cupcake. So choose whatever method you think works best for you and if it turns out please be sure to let me know!

Be sure and save the remainder of your puree to drizzle on top of your cake later!

Bake cupcakes for 17-20 minutes.  Cool on a rack.

Whipped Cream Frosting:
8oz mascarpone cheese, softened
6T powedered sugar
2c heavy cream, whipped

Using a hand mixer combine mascarpone and powedered sugar until smooth. Gently fold in the whipped cream until fully incorporated.


Once your cakes have cooled dollop some frosting on the cake and drizzle generously with peach puree.

Hopefully you enjoyed your peach shortcake as much as we did. And any improvements you make to this first try please be sure and let me know!