Peach & Thyme Traybake
We celebrated my Mum's 60th birthday this weekend by taking her for afternoon tea at Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Not content with the cakes on offer there, I also decided to bake a little something for us all to share.
My Mum is normally the one baking cakes for us, always showing up with one when she comes to visit. So the pressure was on a little! My go-to is normally a banana bread loaf or carrot cake, but I wanted to do something summery (as the weather was so warm) and a bit different for a change.
A good friend of mine had made a peach tray bake when I went to visit the other month and I knew my Mum liked peaches, so I looked up various recipes online before landing on this one from Sainsbury's.
Peach and thyme wouldn't have been two ingredients I'd think to put together, but I enjoy adding herbs to bakes, so I gave it a whirl.
Ingredients:
225g soft salted butter
2 tsp thyme leaves, plus extra to scatter
225g caster sugar
100g ground almonds
250g self-raising flour
1½ tsp baking powder
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
4 large eggs
3 tbsp milk
1 x 400g tin peach slices in natural juice
1 tbsp honey
Recipe:
Preheat your oven to 180°C and line a 20cm x 30cm traybake tin.
Begin by beating the butter in a mixing bowl until very soft, then add the thyme and caster sugar.
Next add the ground almonds, half of the self-raising flour, baking powder, lemon and 2 eggs.
Once thoroughly combined, add the remaining flour and eggs, plus the milk.
Mix everything together until smooth then spread into the traybake tin.
Drain the peaches and lay them out on kitchen paper, using another sheet of kitchen paper to pat them dry. (Tip: cut any thicker peach slices in half so that the peaches are a consistent size).
Arrange the peach slices on top of your cake mixture, gently pressing them down a fraction.
Bake for 30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
Finally, warm the honey in a microwavable bowl in the microwave for 10 seconds, then brush over the warm cake and scatter with the extra thyme leaves.
Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before placing it on a wire rack to cool completely.
Cut into squares and enjoy at room temperature, or slightly warmed, with vanilla ice-cream or cream.
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