This cake was my original intended gift for my mom on Mother’s Day, before I found out that white peaches weren’t in season in May. For this recipe, I went with white peaches for a filling, as a reference to my childhood. Growing up, we had white peach trees in our backyard, and every summer, my personal fondest memory was eating ripe white peaches straight from those trees. I have always wanted to do this trick where you take the peach peels, turn that into a simple syrup(which will be naturally dyed pink from the pigments in them), and then poach peaches in that to bring that color into the fruit. I have seen that done in several pastry videos(including my talented friend Jess Wang‘s!), and wanted to use that technique here. With the peaches, you do have to core them, and then boil the peaches in the syrup, just to really get that color locked in there, and as a failsafe, I let the peaches sit in the pink syrup for at least 1 day(technically I let them sit in the syrup for 3, but after 1 day, the peaches were already a gorgeous vibrant pink!).

The cake itself is a chiffon cake that is made with a tangzhong, or cooked flour mixture. That kind of technique is usually reserved for Japanese milk bread, and that it does to a dough is creates that soft, spongy texture from cooking out the glutens and gelling the starches in the flour! In the case for a cake, however, the tangzhong gives it a lightness, since gluten is gives cake a tougher crumb, and cooking that off in advanced helps to alleviate that issue. I soaked the cake with the leftover pink peach syrup, which is infused with ginger power and a touch of lemon juice. Whenever we were sick, my mom would have us drink this ginger-honey-lemon tea to help us better. In this case, those flavors also play off of the peaches beautifully, since ginger and peach go together quite nicely. That and the lemon juice is being used in the syrup to help lock in that pink color in the syrup, as it lowers the PH level, which brings out a more vibrant pink color! I personally find that with unripe white peaches, they taste similar to a winter melon, in that they are snappy, pleasantly sweet, but kind of watery, which in turn, make them have an almost cooling effect on the palate. Ginger, being naturally spicy, does the opposite, warming the body up. So the two work in tandem here to balance out the eating experience of the cake.

For the cream component of the cake, I am blending cream cheese with mascarpone cheese, strictly because cream cheese contains a lot of emulsifiers that hold it together, whereas mascarpone does not. Since mascarpone is high in fat content, and lacks the emulsifiers cream cheese has, it runs the risk of separating or splitting when you fold whipped cream into it, or just whip it in general. With desserts like tiramisu, the workaround to mascarpone separating is usually adding egg yolks, which will bind all of that fat together. In this case, the cream cheese does the same thing. I always preach that cream cheese is a magical ingredient, because it can thicken or bind a lot of things, and it is a statement that I stand by! I am also using gelatin to further stabilize the cream, since I want to give this cake the best chance at standing firm. Since the cake is not using a buttercream, it is really important to keep the cake layers and the peach really cold. I froze my cake layers solid, since that will help the cream semi-set around it as you place each cake layer down, giving the assembled cake a little more structure. While I love the flavor of cakes that are made with just cream, or a whipped non-butter situation, they are admittedly very temperamental and easy to topple over, so there is no such thing as too much time in the freezer when it comes to the step between layering on the crumb coat and spreading on the final layer of cream!

For the pink-poached peaches:
4 white peaches, peeled and pitted, peels reserved
peels from 3-4 peaches
1/2 cup water, plus more to store the peaches in
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 cup granulated sugar
a pinch of salt
1/4 tsp powdered ginger

Store the peaches in salted water. In a pot, heat up the peach peels, lemon juice, 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup sugar, salt, and ginger powder over medium heat until the sugar dissolves and the liquid turns pink. Strain out the peels. With 3 of the peaches, cut them into wedges. With the remaining peach, slice it on the second-thinnest setting on your mandolin, and using flower-shaped cookie cutters, cut out flower shapes. Poach the peach wedges in the syrup for 5 minutes, and the slices for 3 minutes. Then store the peaches, in the syrup, in an airtight container, and refrigerate for at least 1 day.

For the cake:
¾ cups + 1 tbsp all-purpose flour
3 tbsp cornstarch
1/3 cup milk, in two parts
5 eggs, separated
¾ cups granulated sugar
¼ cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
a pinch of salt

In a pot, heat up 3 tbsp all-purpose flour with 1 tbsp cornstarch and half of your milk, stirring everything over medium heat until a paste forms. Take the pot off heat, and stir in the remaining milk, egg yolks, and canola oil to help loosen the paste. Pass the paste through a sieve if it is still lumpy. In another bowl, whip the egg whites with sugar, vanilla, and salt to stiff peaks. Into the egg yolk paste, sift in the remaining flour and cornstarch. Then fold into that the whipped egg whites to form your batter. Spread the batter onto a lined quarter sheet tray, and bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes. Allow the cake to fully cool before using. Cut the cake into 6-inch rounds, using scraps as necessary to form a third round. Then transfer to the freezer for at least 1 hour.

For the mascarpone-cream cheese whip:
1 1/2 tsp gelatin powder + 1 tbsp cold water
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup granulated sugar
a pinch of salt
8oz cream cheese
8oz mascarpone cheese
1 tsp vanilla extract
12oz heavy cream, whipped stiff

In a pot, heat up the gelatin, water, sugar, and salt and bring to a boil. In a mixing bowl, start by whipping the cream cheese until soft. Once the gelatin and sugar are dissolved into the water, pour that liquid into the cream cheese and whip again until combined. Then gently fold into that the mascarpone cheese and vanilla extract. Finally, fold in the heavy cream. Keep the cream refrigerated until time to assemble.

For initial assembly.
Brush the peach-ginger syrup onto your three cake rounds, but more generously on the scrap layer. Start with a normal layer of the cake first, then scoop on about 2oz of the whip. Press into that about 5 wedges of pink peach, and then spread on about 1oz more of the whip. Repeat these steps, but using the scrap layer for the middle layer of cake. Then place on the last layer, and spread a thin layer of cream around the cake, just to form a crumb coat to seal everything in. Freeze the cake for at least 45 minutes, then spread another layer of cream around the crumb just, smoothing it out as well. With any leftover cream, pipe it on top of the cake. Then garnish with more pieces of pink peach in the middle, and the peach slices.