We celebrated Tobin’s second birthday today (his true birthday, yesterday, was the first day of school, so we separated the madness).  There is video and a full Tobin Times coming once I get them organized, but for now, here’s a shot of his cake and a couple of him after having put on his brother’s socks and shoes.  The windmill is because he loves them.  Whenever we see one (or best of all, a whole wind farm) from the car, he gets so excited.  The motif on the cake was Miles’s idea.  I made the turbine out of marzipan, which is also Tobin’s new favorite food.  I kept feeding him little pinches of it so I could work on the cake without him hounding me, and he developed a new love.

The cake was slightly adapted from Ina Garten’s Summer Peach Cake.  It was really good–dense and moist.  It was also so simple and unfussy that I don’t even have to look up the original recipe to write it here.  I remember exactly what it called for an exactly what I did.  It would have been tasty with some sort of crumb topping, but birthday cakes require frosting, so cream cheese frosting it was.

Peach Cake

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/3 cup granulated sugar, divided
8 oz sour cream, room temperature
2 eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups AP flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp kosher salt
4 large or 5 small peaches, peeled and chopped into 1/2 to 1-inch pieces, including any juices that accumulate
1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350F.  Prepare a 9×13 pan with oil+flour spray and a parchment sling.  Add more oil+flour spray on top of the parchment.

Toss the peach pieces with 1/3 cup sugar and cinnamon; set aside.  Cream 1 cup of sugar and butter with a mixer for 3-5 minutes, or until light and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time until well-incorporated, then add sour cream and vanilla.  Whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  With the mixer on a low speed, add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in several additions.   Stop mixer and fold peach pieces and juices into the batter.

Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 50-55 minutes, or until a wooden pick comes out dry.  Serve warm or at room temperature.