Baltimore Peach Cake seems to be the bane of local recipe writers. By 1966, Evening Sun food columnist Virginia Roeder was exasperatedly telling readers “as for peach cake, I have published the recipe several times.” In 1958, she wrote about how she was bombarded each year with requests for peach cake recipes. Even Roeder’s predecessor, Eleanor Purcell, writing in racist dialect as “Aunt Priscilla” wrote in 1921 that she “done already gib a recipe fo’ peach cake.” (I’ve resolved to make a post addressing this ‘Aunt Priscilla’ elephant in the room before the year is out.) In 1991 the Sun reported that Baltimore Peach Cake was THE most requested recipe.
My own site analytics indicate that while no one has *asked* me for a recipe, plenty of people have done a search which led to my post. This has made me uncomfortable since that recipe was kind of a failure.
1914
I’m willing to bet that modern tested recipes are more reliable, but I thought I’d give it another shot (or two) nonetheless. This time around, I turned to Roeder’s recipe. The results were somewhat better, but I stuck with the regrettable 400° oven temperature – leaving my cake with a surface that was a little too tough. The Aunt Priscilla column was from a time before oven temperatures. In one version the top is dotted with butter. In another, it is topped with meringue after baking. Probably worth a try, frankly.
But again, when it comes to Baltimore Peach Cake, bakeries are considered the final word. The tradition is believed to have originated with the city’s German population. Advertisements in the early 1900s tempted diners to Brager’s Bakery with peach cake, iced tea and deviled crabs. Goetz’s bakery took out an ad announcing that the demand for their “celebrated peach cake” had exceeded supply in 1910. Would-be customers were encouraged to place their Saturday orders on Friday.
1964 Advertisement
In 1911 the prices of peaches went up and the Sun despaired that “Baltimore is writhing in the agony of a peach-cake famine.” Thereafter, the paper continued an annual tradition of singing the praises of peach cake. In 1913 they wrote “It is wonderful how much human enjoyment can be squeezed into the compass of one small piece of peach cake.” Another day that year, there was a snippet that read “Peach cake! ‘Nuff said.” In 1917 they called it “the universal peace-maker.”
Aside from Aunt Priscilla’s topping the cake with some butter, the glaze isn’t mentioned until the 1940s. Silber’s Bakery began to advertise its “sugar n spice glaze” in the 60s. Walter Uebersax of Fenwick Bakery told Sun writer Helen Henry that their caramel glaze was a “trade secret” in 1968.
By this time, Virginia Roeder has acquiesced to running her peach cake recipe annually. “No mention of peaches should be made without including the recipe for the famous Baltimore Peach Cake,” she wrote in 1969. “Requests for this recipe have led all others. Here it is once again.”
One Sun columnist who has never tired of writing about peach cake is Jacques Kelly. His occasional articles on peach cake are always a celebration, and a platform to advise against any cinnamon or glaze. “I think of this glazing as Formstoning what was once a simple and delicious product,” he wrote in 2010. I’m not sure that unglazed peach cakes are even offered by any of the small handful of peach-cake-selling bakeries within Baltimore City, however. Maybe we can compromise just a little, to keep this beloved tradition alive.
Recipe:
Peach Cake With Raised Sweet Dough Base
(Makes two 9-inch round cakes)
1 Cup lukewarm milk
.25 Cup sugar
1 Teaspoon salt
1 cake compressed yeast (2 ¼ tsp dry yeast)
1 egg
.25 Cup shortening
3.5 to 3.75 Cup flourMix together milk, sugar, salt and crumble into mixture, yeast. Stir until yeast is dissolved. Stir in egg and shortening. Mix in first with spoon, then with hands, half the flour, then the remainder of the flour. When the dough begins to leave the sides of the bowl, turn it out onto a lightly floured board and knead. Knead dough, then place in greased bowl, turning once to bring greased side up. Cover with damp cloth and let rise in warm, draft-free spot until double in bulk, about 1 ½ to 2 hours. Punch down, let rise again until almost double in bulk, 30 to 45 minutes. Divide dough in half.Pat dough into greased 9-inch round pan forming a ridge around the edge. Arrange thinly sliced peaches overlapping one another in a circle around the center. To keep peaches from darkening, sprinkle with lemon, orange or grapefruit juice. Cover and let rise until double, 25 to 35 minutes. Bake 25 to 30 minutes in 400-degree oven.
Quick Apricot Glaze:
Add 1 tablespoon hot water to 1/3 cup apricot jam.
Recipes from The Baltimore Evening Sun, 1958
