Honey Cornmeal Bundt with Peaches and Blackberries
Makes one ten-cup Bundt cake
Ingredients:
1 ½ cups unsalted butter (3 sticks), melted
¾ cup granulated sugar
½ cup of your favorite honey, plus ¼ cup for finishing the cake (I prefer local from the farmer’s market)
1/3 cup buttermilk
4 large eggs
1 egg yolk
Zest and juice of one ripe lemon (or a lime might be nice!)
1 ¾ cup cornmeal, medium grind (I use Bob’s Red Mill)
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp kosher salt
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
2 tsp Chinese Five-Spice
2 cups ripe blackberries
1 ripe peach, pitted and cut into small dice
1) Preheat the oven to 300 degrees (this is a lower temperature slow bake)
2) Melt the 1 ½ cups butter and use 2 Tbsp to grease your Bundt pan and then sift the pan with 2-3 Tbsp all-purpose flour. Give the pan a good bump in your kitchen sink to ensure you have an even coating of flour without lumps.
3) Toast your cornmeal in a non-stick pan over a medium burner. Toast until the cornmeal is just starting to smoke, shaking constantly, and it fills your kitchen with a roasted corn aroma. Set aside to cool slightly.
4) In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, toasted cornmeal, salt, baking powder and soda and five-spice.
5) In a larger bowl, whisk together the eggs and yolk, sugar, ½ cup honey, buttermilk, melted butter and the zest and juice of the lemon. Whisk in the dry mix, one cup at a time, just until no lumps remain.
6) In the medium bowl, toss the blackberries and the diced peach with 1 Tbsp additional all-purpose flour and then fold the fruit into the cake batter. Pour the finished batter into the prepared Bundt pan and gently place the pan in the oven.
7) Bake the cake for 40 minutes, then rotate the pan and bake for roughly 20 minutes more until a wooden skewer comes out clean when inserted.
8) Let the cake cool on a wire rack for ten minutes then invert onto your serving plate.
9) Warm the additional ¼ cup honey and gently brush over the cake while the cake is still warm.
