Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion.
Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.

—Anne Rice

Happy eleventh birthday, La Pêche Fraîche!

To have two birthdays every year (my own, and that of La Pêche Fraîche) is to be reminded twice over of the passing of time. Right now, the ache of the wheel of life turning underfoot is all that I think about.
However, even with that always weighing on my mind, I marvel that eleven years has already passed while this blog grows.
I am so thankful for constants in this season, for people and things that feel reliable.
This blog is an extension of me, but it is really one of the only aspects of myself that feels really solid to stand on lately.
I am so grateful for it. And I am grateful to all of my readers.

So, thank you all; now and always.

I seem to go through phases with bananas (I don’t like to eat them raw too often because I don’t like the smell of banana peel in my compost); recently, I have been really enjoying banana bread and banana cake.
I’ve made a few iterations recently, including a really stand out dairy-free banana loaf for my match day celebrations.

This cake leans into the moistness of banana cake by bolstering it with yogurt, lending body and mild tanginess to the sponge. A luscious maple butterscotch sauce lays thickly between, providing sweetness balanced with salt. Silky Italian meringue buttercream, my go-to, wraps around the whole cake and seals in the moisture.
This is a simple but lovely cake, easily made in an afternoon if you don’t go over the top with floral decorations as I have done.
I made this cake in steps, first completely frosting it and then chucking it in the fridge for a night while I made all of the flowers.
Once they had fully chilled, I carefully transferred them to the cake.
A huge benefit of meringue buttercream is how well it holds up, even in the heat, so even with elaborate decorations, you have time to place them exactly how you want.

Ten years / choco-Kewpie ichigo daifuku cake
Nine years / raspberry cloud cake
Eight years / white chocolate, mascarpone, and lemon cake
Seven years / yellow cake with cherry buttercream
Six years / vegan coconut and chocolate cake
Five years / simple chocolate cake
Four years / eclectic chocolate cake
Three years / vanilla almond cake
Two years / malted milk birthday cake
One year / eek

Banana and Maple Caramel Cake
makes 1 3×6-inch layer cake

ingredients:
for the banana cake:
85 grams (6 tablespoons) butter
200 grams (1 cup) granulated sugar
1 egg
110 grams (1/2 cup) yogurt
25 grams (2 tablespoons) oil
225 grams ripe (brown) bananas, roughly two
225 grams (1 1/3 cups) AP flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

for the maple caramel sauce:
28 grams (2 tablespoons) butter
110 grams (1/2 cup) brown sugar
80 grams (1/3 cup) heavy cream
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon sea salt

for the Italian meringue buttercream:
5 large (140 grams ) egg whites
250 grams (1 and 1/4 cup) sugar
75 grams (5 tablespoons) water
1 teaspoon salt
565 grams (5 sticks, 2 1/2 cups) butter, cut into 1-inch pieces

directions:
Make the cake: preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease and flour 3 6-inch pans.
Beat butter and sugar for 5 full minutes: mixture should be very light and fluffy and not gritty.
Add egg and beat for another 3 full minutes.
Scrape the bowl and add in the buttermilk and oil and stir until just starting to combine.
Mash the bananas very well and add to the mixture, again stirring a few times.
Add the flour on top of the batter, with baking powder, baking soda, and salt on top of the flour.
Stirring slowly at first, then increasing speed, mix batter until fully combined.
Scrape the sides of the bowl and mix again for 20 seconds to ensure homogeneity.
Portion the batter evenly into the three prepared pans.
Bake for 18-20 minutes, until a tester comes out with just a few moist crumbs and the tops spring back when pressed.
Allow to cool completely.
Make the caramel sauce: place butter, sugar, and cream in a sauce pan and heat while stirring until caramel is bubbling and thick.
Pour in maple syrup and sea salt and whisk vigorously to combine.
Heat gently while whisking if any lumps form until the sauce is smooth.
Allow to cool completely.
Meanwhile, prepare the Italian meringue buttercream: place sugar, salt, and water into a pan over medium heat.
Begin to whip egg whites on high; once the sugar syrup comes to 240 degrees F, the egg whites should be at soft peaks.
Slowly stream the hot syrup into the whipping egg whites, being extremely careful to not splatter the syrup.
Whip on high speed until the meringue has cooled to close to room temperature (or fully room temp, if your butter is completely at room temp).
Add butter one piece at a time, whipping until fully combined.
Tint the frosting as desired with gel food coloring.
Pipe circles of frosting onto the cake rounds and fill with half of the maple caramel.
Crumb coat the cake and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or until crumb coat is completely hardened (this is especially important given the caramel inside of the cake).
Frost as desired.