In the midst of summer boredom I find that my desire to bake grows. I love trying new recipes that I find on Pinterest and changing them a bit to make them my own. I wanted to make a desert that was very light and fresh. I also wanted to bake something that was a reflection of the summer and unitize the fresh produce that is in season this time of year. After spending time deciding between the countless recipes I had on my boards I decided to make some yummy peach cupcakes.

When I bake I like to set the mood so that I have the best baking experience and do not get stressed out. We all know how frustrating baking can be when you are not into it and end up adding too little or too much of something and it causes your desert not to turn out. To do this I put on some acoustic music from my favourite artists, as a way to relax my mind. I put on my apron to prevent my bright white shirt from getting flour and food colouring on it. Getting that off would not be a fun task. Lastly I gathered my ingredients before hand to make it easier while baking and prevent me from having to run back and forth. After all this is done I begin baking my heart out.

I believe that while it is important to follow a recipe, sometimes making some changes to the ingredients can lead to something even yummier in the end. Of course there are some ingredients such as flour, baking soda and eggs that you should follow exactly because they are what make the perfect consistency of the desert. However, there are ingredients such as in this case the amount of peach puree that you put in that is entirely up to you. Sometimes I set out to make a change in the recipe, for example the amount of chocolate chips in the batch based on my personal preference. I tend to add even more then the recipe calls for because I love my deserts to be extra chocolatey. Other times changes in a recipe occur when I do not plan ahead and find out that I do not have one of the ingredients while baking. It happens to the best of us, but I encourage you to still make the desert anyways because you never know how it will turn out in the end. Who knows maybe you will come up with something even better!

While baking these peach cupcakes I realized how important it was to sift all of my dry ingredients together first before adding them to the wet ingredients. This made the cupcakes more light and fluffy.

After spending a couple hours in the afternoon baking my peach cupcakes and letting them cool it was time to frost them. I used my handy dandy piping bottles and made a design on each of the cupcakes. I did not want to put too much frosting on each of the cupcakes because I did not want to make them too sweet, but the amount of butter cream frosting that you pipe on is entirely up to you.

I decided to take a risk and not use vanilla in my cupcakes (well I didn’t have any) and it ended up making them taste great. It is also up to you whether you want to add chunks of peaches into your batter. I decided not to and they still tasted like sweet peaches. A final dusting of sprinkles over the pink peach frosting gave these cupcakes a touch of sparkle.  The moment of truth for these cupcakes is the taste test from my family and friends. They turned out tasting and looking amazing. Everyone loved them! I would definitely make these cupcakes again and they are a great desert to bring to any party.

To make the baking experience even more fun you could invite some girlfriends over and have a baking party.  It allows everyone to catch up and have a yummy treat afterwards. I hope you all try to make these cupcakes and have a fantastic time baking them. Happy baking everyone!

Peach Cupcakes ingredients

2 1/2 cups of cake flour*

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 cup of sugar

1/2 of vegetable oil

1 egg

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract (optional)

2/3 cups of water

2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar

4-5 drops of pink or red food colouring

4-5 medium sized peaches

Peach Buttercream ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter (room temperature)

3 cups powdered sugar (more or less depending on how sweet you want it)

1/4 fresh peach puree

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2-3 drops of pink or red food colouring

* To make cake flour all you have to do is substitute one tablespoon of flour for one tablespoon of corn starch for every one cup of flour.

Peach cupcake directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place your cupcake holders into their tin and set aside for later.
2. In a bowl sift together you cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
3. In a blender, put in 2-3 pealed and pitted peaches and blend until smooth. Measure out 1 and 1/4 cup for the cupcakes and save 1/4 cup for the butter creme frosting.
4. In another bowl add sugar, peach puree, vegetable oil, egg, vanilla extract, water and apple cider vinegar and beat with a mixer until smooth.
5. Add the flour mixture and beat on low for 1 minute. Add 4-5 drops of pink or red food colouring (depending on how light or dark you want to make it). Beat on medium speed for 1-2 minutes until combined. (you can also choose to add chunks of cut up peaches to your batter at this time as well)
6. Fill each cupcake holder 2/3 full with batter and bake in the oven for 18-22 minutes.
7. Once done place the cupcakes on a cooling rack to cool to room temperate.

*Optional to slice one peach into very small wedges to place on top of the frosted cupcakes.

Peach Buttercream Directions

1. In a bowl, beat butter (at room temperature) at a medium speed until creamy. Then add powdered sugar one cup at a time beating at a low speed until blended after each addition.
2. Add in 1/4 cup of peach puree and vanilla extract.
3. Add 2-3 drops of pink or red food colouring to make the frosting a light peachy/pink colour
4. Fill a frosting bag with buttercream and pipe onto room temperature cupcakes in any way that you desire.