millions of peaches

Does anyone remember that stupid song by the Presidents of the United States of America?

Doesn't matter, but I hope it's not stuck in your head now...

I needed to bake something yesterday. Needed. I hadn't baked anything in days, and I was having withdrawals. Withdrawals from the use of wooden spoons and mixers and unbleached all-purpose flour and from the actual devouring of baked goods. To be honest, the toffee ice cream bars I bought last week had been placating my sweet tooth. I'd had all I could take yesterday, though. Besides, I had some peaches that needed to be used and I couldn't just sit and eat them all. So, I started looking around for recipes that would use up the peaches in the fruit bowl and not require me to go out for any ingredients. I found a recipe for a peach upside down cake, and I decided to work from that. All in all, it's a pretty tasty dish, but, man is it ugly. Seriously unattractive. Most of that can be attributed to the fact that the peaches were too soft to be neatly halved and pitted. A more accurate description of the peaches' fates would be "peeled and ripped by the handful off of the pit."

Anyway, I messed with the basic recipe and here's what I came up with...in case you've got some peaches hanging out in your kitchen and have a hankering to bake something in this ungodly heat.

Ouiser's Peach and Blueberry Upside Down Cake

1/4C Unsalted butter
1/2C Packed brown sugar
1/4tsp Ground nutmeg
1/8tsp Ground cinnamon
3 Peaches; peeled, pitted, and halved (or ripped apart into a mass of flesh that does not look anything like a peach)
1/2C Fresh blueberries
1/2C Unsweetened applesauce
1/2C Packed brown sugar
1 egg
1tsp Vanilla extract
1-1/4C All-purpose flour
2tsp Baking powder
1/2tsp Kosher salt
1/2C Milk

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Melt the butter in a 2qt casserole dish. Add brown sugar, nutmeg, and cinnamon to the melted butter and mix until combined. Arrange peaches and blueberries in dish. Combine applesauce and brown sugar until well mixed. Beat in egg and vanilla. Mix dry ingredients together. Add dry ingredients to applesauce mixture alternately with the milk. Pour over fruit and bake 35-40 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Let cake cool for five minutes, then invert onto serving plate. (Watch out for the syrup that will inevitably pour all over your counters.)

The cake really needs some ice cream or whipped cream on top, but I have neither of those things in the house. Bummer.