Italian Rum and Peaches Cake

I've updated the recipe for this well loved cake since first posting it on July 9, 2012. It's just as delicious and hopefully easier to follow and make.

This week we had a small party to celebrate my sister, Milana's, engagement and as it turns out, my future brother-in-law loves the flavor of rum in desserts. Score! I didn't even know that when I was making this cake! Isn't it great when you make such a great guess? Welcome to the family, Andrey! We are so happy for the two of you. We also had Raspberry "Piece of Cake" Cake, and when we took a vote, the table was split down the middle. It'll be up to you to decide.

I couldn't agree with him more. This cake is incredibly moist and flavorful, and with the addition of a rum syrup soaked into the light and fluffy sponge cake layers, it also has peaches, and all comes together in a feather-light cake packed with summery flavors. (My own wedding cake was a cannoli cake with peaches:), so of course I had to add those in too).

With layers of vanilla and chocolate pastry cream in between the cake, it's also topped with a cream cheese frosting. I also think that it just wouldn't be the same without toasted almonds. It gives the cake a crunchy texture and adds to the combination of all the other flavors.

Yields: 1 cake

Ingredients:

Cake:

3 Sponge Cake layers (1 ½ of the recipe)

Italian Pastry Cream:

6 egg yolks

6 Tablespoons sugar

6 Tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 ¾ cups milk

2 Tablespoons butter

4 oz semisweet chocolate, for the chocolate pastry cream

½ Tablespoon chocolate liquer, optional, for the chocolate pastry cream

Rum Syrup:

¼ cup rum

½-3/4 cup peach syrup, from canned peaches

Frosting:

2 (8 oz each) package cream cheese, softened

¾ cup powdered sugar (or to taste)

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ cup heavy cream

2 (15 oz) cans peaches (1 for the cake and 1 for decoration)

1 cup sliced and toasted almonds, to decorate the sides of the cake

Instructions: 

Sponge Cake Layers

Make your sponge cake layers first. Since you will need 3 cake layers, make 1 ½ of the Sponge Cake recipe.

Here's the math for the Sponge Cake Ingredients:

¾ cup cake flour

¼ cup plus 2 Tablespoons all purpose flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

4 ½ Tablespoons milk

3 Tablespoons butter

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla

8 eggs, separated and at room temperature

15 Tablespoons sugar, divided

For the step  by step instructions on how to make and bake the sponge cakes, click HERE.

Pastry Cream

Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and flour until they are an even consistency. It will be pretty stiff, so don't panic and think you did something wrong. Scald the milk, heating it just before it boils. You will see tiny little bubbles on the surface of the milk. This picture isn't that great, but you get the idea. Slowly pour in a little bit of the hot milk into the yolk mixture, whisking vigorously as you pour, to loosen it up a little. Continue adding the hot milk to the yolk mixture, whisking the whole time. This will prevent the egg from curdling and also from having lumps in the pastry cream. Add the rest of the milk. Pour the whole mixture back in the pot and heat over medium low heat, stirring frequently until it thickens. Add the butter, mixing it in until it melts completely.

If you do get lumps, it's not the end of the world, just pour the pastry cream through a fine-mesh sieve. No problem - no more lumps.

Set aside 1 ½ cups of the pastry cream.

Chop the chocolate or grate it on a box grater. Add the chocolate and chocolate liquer to the 1 ½ cups of pastry cream and mix until the chocolate has melted. Cool both pastry creams. You can cool slightly and place in the refrigerator, or set it in a bowl of ice water to make it faster. Make sure to cover the pastry cream with plastic wrap or parchment paper right on top of the pastry cream to prevent a skin from forming on the surface.

Preparing the rest of the cake components:

Meanwhile, drain the peaches, reserving ½ - ¾ cup of the peach syrup.

Mix the rum and peach syrup together. Chop the peaches from one of the cans into small pieces. Slice the other can of peaches into thin slices. Frosting:

Use a standing mixer with a whisk attachment or a hand mixer to mix the softened cream cheese with the powdered sugar and vanilla until evenly combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl a few times.

Pour in the heavy cream (make sure it's really cold) and mix again, starting on low speed (it will spray all over the place if you don't) and gradually increase to high until the frosting is nice and thick.

Assembling the cake:

Prepare the cake plate or cake stand by lining all the edges with aluminum foil. (This will make clean-up a breeze later). Cut each sponge cake in half horizontally. The cake layers will be pretty thin once you slice through them, but that's the cake that we're going for - really juicy with lots of layers. Brush the top of each layer with the syrup. Top with about ⅓ - ½ cup of the vanilla pastry cream. Sprinkle with some of the chopped peaches. Top with another sponge cake layer, brushed with syrup. Spread about half of the chocolate pastry cream on top of the cake layer. The next layer of cake is spread with more vanilla pastry cream and peaches. Brush the next layer with the syrup, spread with the remaining half of the chocolate custard. Top with another cake layer, brushed with syrup, spread with vanilla custard and more peaches. Top with the last cake layer.

If you have pastry cream oozing out of the sides like I did, take of off with a spoon or spatula:).

You might have a bit of the pastry cream left over, that's fine. A nice little treat for the cook:). 

Let the cake firm up a bit in the refrigerator, for at least an hour. It will be much easier to spread the frosting over it. I like to leave it in there overnight.

Since one of my cake pans was not exactly the same size as the other two, I trimmed the sides of the cake to be even. Also easier to do after an hour or two in the fridge:).

Spread some of the cream cheese frosting on top of the cake and on the sides of the cake.
Press the toasted almonds to the sides of the cake. (You will also have some almonds left, but it's much easier to work with more almonds than to try to use exactly what you need.)

I used a 1 M Wilton frosting tip to pipe more of the cream cheese frosting around the perimeter of the cake. (It's easier to pipe the frosting if it's really cold, so I put it in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes first.) Then I shingled the thinly sliced peaches in the center of the cake, so that they were overlapping each other.

Store the cake in the refrigerator. 

Italian Rum and Peaches Cake

Olga Klyuchits

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 3 hours hrs

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Total Time 3 hours hrs 30 minutes mins

Course Sweets

Servings 1 (9 inch cake)

Ingredients

  

3 Sponge Cake Layers:

• ¾ cup cake flour
• ¼ cup plus 2 Tablespoons all purpose flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 4 ½ Tablespoons milk
• 3 Tablespoons butter
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
• 8 eggs separated and at room temperature
• 15 Tablespoons sugar divided

Italian Pastry Cream:

• 6 egg yolks
• 6 Tablespoons sugar
• 6 Tablespoons flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 ¾ cups milk
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 4 oz semisweet chocolate for the chocolate pastry cream
• ½ Tablespoon chocolate liquer optional, for the chocolate pastry cream

Rum Syrup:

• ¼ cup rum
• ½-3/4 cup peach syrup from canned peaches

Frosting:

• 2 8 oz each package cream cheese, softened
• ¾ cup powdered sugar or to taste
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ½ cup heavy cream
• 2 15 oz cans peaches (1 for the cake and 1 for decoration)
• 1 cup sliced and toasted almonds to decorate the sides of the cake

Instructions

 

Sponge Cake Layers

• Make your sponge cake layers first.
• For the step by step instructions on how to make and bake the sponge cakes, click HERE.

Pastry Cream

• Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and flour until they are an even consistency. It will be pretty stiff, so don't panic and think you did something wrong.
• Scald the milk, heating it just before it boils. You will see tiny little bubbles on the surface of the milk.
• Slowly pour in a little bit of the hot milk into the yolk mixture, whisking vigorously as you pour, to loosen it up a little. Continue adding the hot milk to the yolk mixture, whisking the whole time. This will prevent the egg from curdling and also from having lumps in the pastry cream. Add the rest of the milk.
• Pour the whole mixture back in the pot and heat over medium low heat, stirring frequently until it thickens. Add the butter, mixing it in until it melts completely. If you do get lumps, it's not the end of the world, just pour the pastry cream through a fine-mesh sieve. No problem - no more lumps.
• Set aside 1 ½ cups of the pastry cream.
• Chop the chocolate or grate it on a box grater. Add the chocolate and chocolate liquer to the 1 ½ cups of pastry cream and mix until the chocolate has melted. Cool both pastry creams. You can cool slightly and place in the refrigerator, or set it in a bowl of ice water to make it faster. Make sure to cover the pastry cream with plastic wrap or parchment paper right on top of the pastry cream to prevent a skin from forming on the surface.

Preparing the rest of the cake components:

• Drain the peaches, reserving ½ - ¾ cup of the peach syrup.
• Mix the rum and peach syrup together. Chop the peaches from one of the cans into small pieces. Slice the other can of peaches into thin slices.

Assembling the cake:

• Prepare the cake plate or cake stand by lining all the edges with aluminum foil. (This will make clean-up a breeze later). Cut each sponge cake in half horizontally. The cake layers will be pretty thin once you slice through them, but that's the cake that we're going for - really juicy with lots of layers.
• Brush the top of each layer with the syrup.
• Top with some of the vanilla pastry cream. Sprinkle with some of the chopped peaches. Top with another sponge cake layer, brushed with syrup. Spread about half of the chocolate pastry cream on top of the cake layer. The next layer of cake is spread with more vanilla pastry cream and peaches. Brush the next layer with the syrup, spread with the remaining half of the chocolate custard. Top with another cake layer, brushed with syrup, spread with vanilla custard and more peaches. Top with the last cake layer.
• Let the cake firm up a bit in the refrigerator, for at least an hour. It will be much easier to spread the frosting over it. I like to leave it in there overnight.

Frosting:

• Use a standing mixer with a whisk attachment or a hand mixer to mix the softened cream cheese with the powdered sugar and vanilla until evenly combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl a few times.
• Pour in the heavy cream (make sure it's really cold) and mix again, starting on low speed (it will spray all over the place if you don't) and gradually increase to high until the frosting is nice and thick.
• Spread some of the cream cheese frosting on top of the cake and on the sides of the cake.
• Press the toasted almonds to the sides of the cake. (You will also have some almonds left, but it's much easier to work with more almonds than to try to use exactly what you need.)
• I used a 1 M Wilton frosting tip to pipe more of the cream cheese frosting around the perimeter of the cake. (It's easier to pipe the frosting if it's really cold, so I put it in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes first.) Then I shingled the thinly sliced peaches in the center of the cake, so that they were overlapping each other.
• Store the cake in the refrigerator.