TWD/BWJ: Nectarine Chiffon Cake

Of all times for me to decide to bake early...

Well, it was Labor Day. The King of the Castle and the Prince were both home. I blame them. TOTAL DISASTER! First, I should say that I was already making a pecan pie.  The King ordered a 6 pound box of the most beautiful, delicious pecans last week.  I think it was a Groupon or something. I've been nibbling them and dreaming of a pie. Today was pecan pie day.

I figured as long as the oven was hot I might as well bake the Nectarine Chiffon Cake. And could send at least half of each dessert back to school with the Prince. You know how much sugar college boys need.

Let me rewind for a second and tell you about Labor Day weekend in Atlanta. There's something for everyone. One of my favorite events is the Decatur Book Festival, the nation's largest independent book festival. Oh the joy of it! You wander from building to building, hearing authors talk about their books.  For two days you can do this, and it's totally free. Mind-boggling really.  This year, I could only make it on Sunday having previously signed up for a full-day quilt workshop on Saturday (which was awesome - some years there are just too many wonderful things). Still, on Sunday alone, I heard presentations about the dangers of prescriptions drugs, the development of the Lithium Ion battery , the stories held in our DNA, the similarities between writing a book and making music, and how creativity works. It doesn't matter who you listen to. When someone writes a book, they're passionate about the subject. It's always interesting!

And then there's DragonCon. Legions of people converge on downtown Atlanta dressed as everything from videogame characters to zombies to superheroes. My daughter's good friend said "I tripped on the steps and Captain America caught me!" Personally, I'm not interested in the convention activities, but one of these years, I WILL make it to the DragonCon parade on Saturday morning.

Oh yes, there were a few other events too.  Braves games (with Lynard Skynard afterward on Friday), a NASCAR race, a Hot Air Balloon Festival, and a Whiskey and Beer Fest. Like I said, something for everyone. And too much for any one person.

Back to the cake, er, disaster.  All went relatively well until the timer went off. Testing the cake with a toothpick, I determined that it was nowhere near done. Set the timer for 5 more minutes, twice. All the while my husband, the King of All Things Olfactory, announced repeatedly (and emphatically) that something was burning. The cake did look dark. I finally got tired of listening to him and removed the thing from the oven even though the toothpick never did test clean. Thought maybe it'd firm up as it cooled. NOT. More like some kind of lava cake.  The prince and I had a little piece anyway, with ice cream of course. But it wasn't good. I didn't care for the flavors or the streusel. Not even gonna try this one again.  On a brighter note, the pecan pie came out great! Oh, if you'd like to prove to me that the cake is wonderful, feel free to find the recipe here or here, and the blogs of other bakers here.  Good Luck!

This week's shoe showed up right down the street from my house. Not really a disaster, but it IS ominously black.