Better Than . . . Peach Poke Cake

 I was late for the bus yesterday.

Now, I'm not normally late for the bus, although I have my share of bus stories.

But this one was particularly entertaining.

So, I was done fixing my hair and the alarm went off that it was time for me to head for the bus. I started looking for my backpack, but it wasn't where I had left it.

I started searching for it, calling all over the house asking if anyone had seen it.

Meanwhile, my mom was asking if anyone had seen my little sister.

I wasn't too concerned about her, I just kept looking for my backpack.

I started getting a little frantic, if I didn't find it soon, I would be late for the bus.

My mom started panicking about my little sister, jumping to conclusions about her getting kidnapped or something.

I was running all around the house looking for my backpack and I could hear my mom opening and slamming doors calling her name.

She told me to come outside and look for Cebey (her nickname). I ran over to the neighbor's house but didn't see her. She started looking at the church next to our house but couldn't see her.

We went inside to call my dad, and then I look out the window and what do I see on the front lawn?

Cebey, with my backpack.

I have gum in the side pocket, xylitol, for my braces. Cebey knows she isn't allowed to chew it.

We asked her where she was, and with a grin she responded, "I was hiding in the pricklies! I was mom, I was. And I ate SB's gum."

Apparently she hid in the bushes, "pricklies", over at the church and chewed up half my pack of gum.

Well, I needed to hurry and get to the bus stop or I would be late. I reminded my mom of this. We hopped in our giant 12 seater van and drove off. Halfway down the hill I remembered that I left my glasses on the piano. We drove back up, and I jumped out of the car and dashed into the house. Then we went down the hill, to see the bus pulling away.

My mom asks if I can give her directions to the next bus stop.

I can't.

So we wait at the corner and as the bus goes by we follow it. And all my friends wave at me.

So then I got on the bus and went to school and it was a normal boring day.

Anyways, so, that was kind of stressful.

Want to know what's the exact opposite of stress?

Desserts. DESSERTS is STRESSED spelled backwards.

Make's sense, doesn't it.

This cake is super good alone, light and fluffy, with the perfect peach taste, and is made infinitely better when you add sweetened condensed milk to it, making it ooey gooey and moist.

The total backwardsness of stressed.

Best Peach Poke Cake
A light and fluffy peach cake turned gooey and moist with sweetened condensed milk in the holes.
Ingredients:

• 2-2 ½ cups unbleached white flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 cup fresh peach puree
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup water
• 2 tablespoons vinegar
•  1 can of sweetened condensed milk
• 1 tub of cool whip
• peaches and toffee for garnish

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Lightly grease and flour a 8-inch square cake pan. 
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and sugar into a bowl. 
3. In a measuring cup, mix together the peach puree, oil and vanilla. Add the peach mixture to the dry ingredients and whisk together until combined.
4.  At this point, you may want to add some yellow and food coloring to achieve a peachier color. When the batter is smooth, add the vinegar and stir quickly. The batter will foam slightly where the baking soda and vinegar are reacting. Stir just until the vinegar is evenly distributed throughout the batter.
5.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake for 25 to 30 minutes.
6. Poke about 20-25 holes in the cake with the handle of a wooden spoon. Pour sweetened condensed milk onto cake (all of this is done with the cake still in the pan!). Try to spread as evenly as possible and fill all the holes. 
7. Spread cool whip on top. 
8. Garnish with sliced peaches and toffee. Serve, or chill and wait.

Adapted from Cathlin cooks . . . but mostly bakes!

This cake is really fun to make! Have you ever done those baking soda vinegar experiments? I totally love them and seeing the baking soda make the vinegar fizz up.

Well, baking soda and vinegar are the key to fluffy desserts. They make the same type of chemical reaction in a dessert as they do in a science experiment. The best flakiest pie crusts have vinegar in them. And the best cakes, you guessed it, have vinegar in them!

I used to be worried that it would give the dessert a weird smell or flavor, but it doesn't! It kind of disappears when it bakes, and if any is left, the peach flavor covers it up.

That's what makes this cake super fluffy, the perfect base for a BTS cake. This is one of my favorite cakes, hands down, and the BTS part of it totally ups the ante.

Do you need to hear anymore? Go make this cake!


 I edited some photos by Tastebook. I made them say Peach Better Than . . . Cake at the top for my own purposes. This post is just a shout out to Amanda and her delicious peach mango sunrise poke cake. Thanks for the delicious recipe Amanda! Everyone, go check it out! Because this post is all about Amanda! Because while it looks like it's about the best cake ever in the world, it's really all about honoring our fellow blogger and friend Amanda. Keep up the good work Amanda! You are a great example of blogging (I love all the foods you share on Tastebook, which is such a great site for recipe sharing!) and I just wanted to dedicate this post to you. That is why I wrote this post. I just wrote about the cake for fun, because really, this is all about you. This post is for you. The BTS cake is just a nice little addition, like a present for you. The whole purpose of me writing this is to honor you. Not the cake. Because this is all about you. The whole reason of my blog is so I can honor bloggers like you. I do the recipes just to attract people here so they can see what a truly amazing personality you have. I hope you aren't angry that I edited your photos. The only reason I did it is so that I can compare the differences between our recipes and show that even though we're different, we're both awesome. Again, I hope you're not angry that I honored you like this. That is why I edited your photo, to honor you and show how cool you are. I hope I can grow up and make as many cool things as you.Once again, if you are offended by me editing your photos, well think of it like this. This is just a shout out to you, like many bloggers do with their friends at the bottom of their posts.

And if you can't tell, I merged it with some ice cream. Because Amanda's photo doesn't have gooey sweetened condensed milk dripping out of the sides.

Here's her photo.                        


And mine

Can you see the difference? (lame question, don't answer that there is totally a difference). One of them looks a teensy bit better than the other? It's Amanda's. Obviously.
  

Oh, and the ice cream I merged it with was Sinful Southern Sweet's Mama's Peach Ice Cream.