It’s rewarding when you make a recipe that turns out great. But it’s REALLY rewarding when you invent a recipe that just rocks your socks off. And that, my friends, is what happened here.

A few days ago a friend of mine gave me a bottle of St. Germain, an elderflower liqueur. The irony here is that neither he nor I really drink all that much…somewhere between rarely and next-to-never. But, St. Germain is a very light, very refreshing liqueur that doesn’t even taste like alcohol. It can be easily mixed with champagne, club soda, or tonic; it would go nicely in a mimosa, and even when sipped alone it doesn’t make your face all pucker up.

I set myself up with the challenge to try to use this in a recipe. Because the drink is so light, I knew I could not pair it with any bold flavors, but also needed to stick to something with a hint of summer. So I decided peach would complement the flavors of the elderflower.

I settled on a peach pound cake. No recipes looked quite right, so I invented my own. Truth be told, the recipe below was my second attempt. The first had actual diced peaches and peach syrup in it and the texture was just wrong. So, I omitted those ingredients and instead just used peach nectar for attempt number two. Bingo. Not to toot my own horn, but this is the moistest pound cake I think I’ve ever had.

The peach flavor is subtle, but I don’t know what one could use to make it bolder aside from peach extract, which I doubt many people have (though I looked it up, it does exist). On the other hand, the subtlety of the peach allows the St. Germain to shine.

I used the St. Germain for the glaze. For this, you’ll have to add the liqueur by taste, adjusting according to your preference. If you don’t want to include alcohol, just leave that out of the recipe, reduce the powdered sugar, and have a traditional glaze. Similarly, I see no reason why the St. Germain could not be substituted with something like Peach Schnapps, Grand Marnier, or Champagne. Get creative and come up with your own flavors.

Peach Pound Cake

1/2 lb (2 sticks) unsalted butter (room temperature)
2  c. granulated sugar
4 large eggs (room temperature)
3 1/4 c. all purpose flour
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
1 1/4 c. peach nectar (room temperature) (I used Goya)
3/4 c. buttermilk (room temperature)
1 t. vanilla

• Preaheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour bundt pan.
• Cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
• With the mixer on medium speed, add eggs, one at a time.
• In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
• In a third bowl, combine peach nectar, buttermilk, and vanilla.
• Add flour and buttermilk mixtures alternately to the batter, beginning and ending with the flour.
• Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.
• Cool for 15 minutes in bundt pan, remove (don’t worry if there are small flaws, glaze will cover it), cool completely and glaze

St. Germain Glaze

2 c. powdered sugar
1 t. vanilla
2 T softened butter
3 T milk
St. Germain to taste (I used about 1 1/2 shots)

• Combine, adjusting St. Germain and powdered sugar to desired taste and consistency.