Rainy Sunday afternoon domestics

Well I was planning to mow the lawns and give Miss Daisy a bath but nature decided otherwise and sent rain.

Princess B's shoe bags are finished:and:I even made a little band to hold all three of them together:Cooling in the kitchen is a Peach Danish which I'm taking to J's tonight when I go to dinner.Alison Holst's Peach Danish from Very Easy Vegetarian Cookbook

1 or 2 x 425g cans sliced peaches
75g butter
1 large egg
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup juice from canned peaches
1/4 tsp almond essence
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups self raising flour
1/2 cup icing sugar
2-3 tsp lemon or peach juice
1/4 cup toasted flaked almonds

You can make an adequate cake using one can of peaches, but two cans is nicer, if you have them. Drain the peaches in a sieve, keeping the liquid from the can.

Warm the butter until it melts, in a fairly large pot. Add the egg, milk, 1/4 cup of the saved peach juice and the almond essence, and beat with a fork to combine.

Chop the peaches in the sieve roughly, then add about half of them to the liquid mixture with the flour and sugar. Fold everything together until the flour is dampened, taking care not to overmix or break up the fruit. Stop mixing before the mixture is smooth.

Spray or line a cake tin 23cm square (or a roasting pan which is a little bigger), spread the mixture over the bottom evenly, then arrange the remaining peaches evenly over the top.

Bake at 190 c for 15-30 minutes (depending on the size of the tin) until the centre of the cake springs back when pressed. Put the hot cake on a rack, or leave in the tin if you can serve wedges straight from it.

Mix the icing by beating the icing sugar with enough peach syrup or lemon juice to make a thick cream. Drizzle this over the warm cake, then sprinkle with the toasted flaked almonds.

Note: toast the almonds on an oven tray while the oven is heating up. They should turn light brown in about 2-3 minutes.

(Soundtrack: Thomas Dolby, Astronauts & Heretics)