Movin' to the country, gonna eat a lot of peaches

Back when I was brainstorming for Diane's birthday dessert, I came across a Peach Cobbler recipe by Paula Dean. I LOVE Paula's recipes! Her pie crust is my go-to. I always enjoy watching her show on the Food Network, with her Southern accent and how she insists on adding way too much butter to everything. I watched the video for the peach cobbler and was salivating. I couldn't get it off my mind for weeks. This weekend, I decided to give it a try. I went to the Pleasant Hill farmer's market on Saturday morning to pick out my peaches. The recipe was super easy, and came out so yummy. Here it is:

Peach Cobbler

4 cups peeled, sliced peaches

2 cups sugar, divided

1/2 cup water

8 tbs butter

1 1/2 cups self-rising flour

1 1/2 cups milk

Ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the peaches, 1 cup sugar, and water in a saucepan and mix well. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat.

Put the butter in a 3-quart baking dish and place in oven to melt. Mix remaining 1 cup sugar, flour, and milk slowly to prevent clumping. Pour mixture over melted butter. Do not stir. Spoon fruit on top, gently pouring in syrup. Sprinkle top with ground cinnamon, if using. Batter will rise to top during baking. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes.

Let the cobbler cool for a bit to let the peaches firm up, but still serve when warm. So mouthwateringly delicious.

So I'd like to take this opportunity to tell you about Iron Cupcake: San Francisco. Iron Cupcake is a cupcake baking contest. Much like the popular television show, Iron Chef, there is a specific ingredient selected for each month's challenge and that ingredient must be incorporated in some way into each participant's recipe. I attended last month's event in San Francisco, just to find out what it's all about. I had such a great time! I got to meet and sit with the founder of the entire Iron Cupcake franchise, Sandy Ploy, the Cupcake Queen. Here's a summary of last month's event on Sandy's blog No One Puts Cupcake in a Corner. This month's challenge is "seasonal fruit." Since my peach cobbler turned out so great, I decided to attempt Peach Cobbler Cupcakes. Here's a photo of my experiments:

I had to try all sorts of different measurement combinations of the butter, batter, and peaches to get the correct consistency for the mini cupcakes. I found the perfect combo and decided to add a cinnamon glaze and top them with homemade whipped cream frosting. Iron Cupcake SF is tonight. I'll get a photo of my finished entry as well as some of the competition and will post about it tomorrow. Wish me luck!