Summer Morning Coffee Cake

Everyone should have this easy, delicious anytime cake in their kitchen repertoire. You can use any stone fruit with this. Right now, we love it with dainty white Opal peaches.

1 stick (4 oz / 8 tablespoons) butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1/4 tsp ground cardamom, optional but it adds a nice herbal-lemony flavor
1/2 lb peaches, pluots, or nectarines, pitted and sliced into eighths
1 tablespoon sugar mixed with a pinch of cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, or cardamom

Preheat oven to 350 F. Cream butter with sugar and salt until fluffy and well combined. Add eggs one at a time, beating well. Beat in vanilla. Sift flour, baking powder, and cardamom (if using) together. Stir flour gently into butter mixture. Scrape batter into an 8” x 2” round pan, lightly greased if you plan on unmolding the cake, ungreased if you’re happy eating it right out of the pan. Embed the fruit slices, cut side down, into the surface of the batter. Sprinkle lightly with spiced sugar. Bake for 45- 50 minutes, until the top of the cake is a deep golden brown and the fruit has almost vanished beneath the surface. Serve warm or at room temperature.