Vegan Champagne Peach Cake

Greetings again! I'm back with some delectable recipes from my recent accumulation of vegan cookbooks. I'm up to four so far, and I really can't decide which is my favorite! For this recipe, I dove into the Sticky Fingers dessert cookbook. I have to introduce Sticky Fingers first, however.

Sticky Fingers is a 100% vegan bakery in NW Washington DC.  Doron Petersan, the creator/owner/baker extraordinaire, also won twice on Food Network's Cupcake Wars! Quite some accolades there! We first ventured there when my in-laws were in town, and I was flabbergasted by its scrumptious treats! This was when I was vegetarian/considering veganism, so it was a great time to try it out. It has, to date, the best vegan bacon I've ever had. The con? Wow, it's expensive for teeny tiny portions. Honestly, we only went back solely because we had a gift card. And even then, everything's a la carte so getting a full meal will likely cost you $20/person. Yikes! Now, I'm not here to knock them; I absolutely acknowledge being vegan can be very expensive! However, it's not really a place that I would want to frequent. I'm all about a deal. Now if their portions were bigger and/or had meals rather than separate items to sell, that'd be another story. Nevertheless, they have some of the best vegan food I've ever had. Probably second to Vedge, right here in Philadelphia. Though Vedge is far more upscale and decidedly not a bakery. Regardless, they're both yummy! So look them up: Sticky Fingers Bakery

Alas, we arrive at my peach champagne cake thanks to Linvilla Orchards here in PA! I've been bummed about not being able to go and pick peaches, apples, tomatoes, etc. in PA since living out of state. My mother-in-law goes every year, and it's such a festive, fall-ish thing to do that I was elated we could join this year! Enter, fresh white and yellow peaches straight from the trees! It was so much fun to sit on a tree and eat a peach straight from the branch. Best peaches ever. Enter peach champagne cake, inspired by a recipe in the Sticky Fingers' Sweets cookbook!

I won't go into the details because, frankly, it was a bit laborious and I'm not going to write out the entire recipe here. I highly recommend getting the cookbook, however! I took the idea for a raspberry cake in the book and switched it to peaches while adding a small amount of champagne sitting in my fridge I've had since graduation. Th result was a glorious, fruity peachy peachy cake! I made a frosting with fresh peach puree to top it all off.

The verdict? Personally, I'm not a huge fruit fan in my desserts let along chunks of it like I left in. I wanted everyone to get the taste of those fresh peaches, so I didn't puree them for the cake. I didn't put am million chunks in, but it was enough to feel like I was in peach overload palace. That being said, a peach fan would probably fall head over heels for this cake. Me? Eh. I would switch it up next time and  puree the peach for the cake batter and leave the frosting alone as plain vanilla. Again, I'm not a huge fan of fruity desserts except for a fruit pie e.g. Apple or whatnot. I guess I just don't like chunks of anything in my desserts. Ah well. It was still worth the effort, and it was my official first foray into the Sticky Fingers cookbook!