So this recipe came about because I had leftover pink peaches from another recipe, and I did not want those to go to waste. Pink peaches are made by taking the peels off of white peaches, turning that into a simple syrup, then cooking the white peaches in said simple syrup. The syrup, through being made with the peach peels, has this pleasant pink color, which then gets imparted into the white peaches as they simmer down in it. However, since the process for making the pink peaches is so intensive, I usually make them with at least 4-6 white peaches at a time, even when my recipes that call for it uses maybe half to a full peach’s worth of pink peaches at most. Luckily, I had a fun idea with some of my remaining pink peaches: a pink peach and white chocolate poundcake. Now, a long, long time ago, I made a similar kind of recipe to these. However, it was over 5 years ago, and I feel like my skillset in pastry has really evolved since then, so I wanted to revisit that old recipe, but with several tweaks. The first is the batter. I wanted to do a simpler poundcake recipe, using just whipped butter and sugar, eggs, and flour. To that, I added in chopped up pink peaches, and originally, I was going to do just white chocolate. However, I was kindly gifted with Royce Chocolate’s hakutoberry and hakutowhite chocolate, which are literally peach-flavored. It was like the universe wanted me to bake these cakes, I swear! So in lieu of the white chocolate, I went this route instead. And just to jazz it up a little more, and because my friend Karen gave me a bottle of moscato almost a year ago that was definitely going to go bad, I wanted to use moscato, a sweet dessert white wine, in several components as well, just to add a light, elegant finish to the cake.

For the components, we have a pink peach and peach chocolate-flavored poundcake, pink peaches on top for garnish, a peach-moscato namelaka, and moscato gelee. The poundcakes themselves are quite simple to make, while of the other components, the only ones that require a bit of technical savvy would be somewhat the pink peaches, and definitely the namelaka. The moscato gelee is straightforward, being made by melting agar into moscato, cooking off the alcohol, and then setting that into molds. The pink peaches require a bit of attention during the simmering/steeping process, since you don’t want the peaches to turn mushy in the syrup. The namelaka, on the other hand, can be challenging. Namelaka is a Japanese-French fusion technique, which is done by emulsifying chocolate, cream, and gelatin to form this silky, light whipped ganache meets mousse-situation. If you are not careful, it can split, and go pear shaped really quickly. The extra challenge here is that we are using moscato, which is still somewhat acidic, since it is a white wine. Acid and dairy don’t usually mix well together at high temperatures, so a lot of it is just cooking down the moscato, melting the gelatin into that, allowing it to mix with the white chocolate first, bring down the temperature, then mixing in the cream. So long as you do that, the namelaka should come together just fine. So long as you do not overmix it, at which point it curdles. If you do, my advice, besides crying, is heating it all over a double boiler until it just melts, adding in 10g more of the white chocolate and a little bit of honey, stirring that together, letting that cool down, and then attempt to gently re-mix it until it all comes back together. Namelaka can be fiddle some, but it adds a gorgeously creamy texture that this kind of poundcake plays really nicely off of!

Makes 2 mini pound cakes:
For the pink peach:
1 white peach
a pinch of salt
1/4 cup water, plus more for storing the peaches
2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp lemon juice

Peel and pit the white peach, reserving the peels. Slice the peach on the second thinnest setting on your mandolin to form thin slices. Store the slices in salted water.

In a pot, take the reserved peach peels, the 1/4 cup of water, sugar, and lemon juice, and bring that all to a simmer for 10 minutes. One the liquid has taken on a rosy pink hue, take the pot off heat, and strain out the peels. Drain the peach slices from the water, and place them directly into the pot with the pink peach syrup, allowing the slices to steep in the still-warm syrup, off direct heat, for 10 minutes. Transfer the peach slices, syrup and all, into an airtight container and refrigerate.

For the cake batter:
1 stick unsalted butter
2.5oz granulated sugar
2 eggs
a pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
3oz chopped up pink peach
2oz chopped up white chocolate(I used Royce Hakutoberry/Hakutowhite Chocolate)
4oz all-purpose flour

In a bowl, whip the butter with granulated sugar until the butter is pale white and easily spreadable. Whip into that the whole eggs, one at a time, and then fold in the white peaches. Toss the white chocolate with the flour, and then fold that in as well to form your batter.

Distribute the batter between two lined mini loaf pans. Bake the cakes at 375 degrees F for 30 minutes. Allow the cakes to fully cool before removing them from the pans.

For the moscato gelee:
1/4 cup moscato
a pinch of salt
1g agar powder

In a pot, bring all of the ingredients to a simmer. Once the agar has dissolved into the liquid, take the pot off heat and pour the liquid into a shallow silicone container. Refrigerate for 10-20 minutes, or until the gelee is firm, and then cut into smaller pieces if desired.

For the moscato-peach namelaka:
1/4 cup moscato
1 tsp gelatin powder
1/4 cup white chocolate(I used Royce Hakutoberry/Hakutowhite Chocolate)
a pinch of salt
1/4 cup heavy cream

Reduce the moscato with gelatin by about half. Once the gelatin is dissolved fully, pour the white chocolate chips into the liquid and stir until combined. Take off heat and stir in the salt. Once everything is melted together, allow the mixture to chill down in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes. Transfer to a stand mixer with a paddle attachment and beat until soft, then fold in the heavy cream, stirring until everything is combined and velvety in texture.

For garnish:
Pink peach syrup
Pink peach slices

To start, brush the pound cakes with the remaining pink peach syrup. Then pipe the moscato-peach namelaka on top of the cakes. Garnish the tops with moscato gelee and pink peach slices to finish.