Peaches and Cream from the Nashville Farmers Market

We love summers at the Nashville Farmers Market. This year the peaches have been spectacular. We are big fans of JD Country Milk for their drinkable yogurts and other delights. This week we indulged in  heavy cream. You have to get there by noon on a Saturday or else they will have sold out of most of the good stuff. This week we also bought Alabama peaches, which have more tang than the furry South Carolina peaches we’ve been eating lately. We bought them from the back shed where we also found some sweet ripe, local doughnut peaches. Those we devoured before we could take a photo. This morning we indulged in the peaches and cream with some local blueberries. It was decadent. If you go to the market check out the new Louisiana Seafood Company. Their fresh yellowtail, grouper, and shrimp have been selling out weekly.

Cupcakes in Germantown

The Cupcake Collection
213 6th Ave. N
Nashville, TN 37208
www.thecupcakecollection.com

For an afternoon treat, we headed to Germantown for some of our favorite cupcakes. The Cupcake Collection is located near Monell’s in a cute purple Victorian. They make and sell cupcakes, and they sell them for a fair price, $1.50 (+tax = $1.64). Their cupcakes are regular-sized, with just the right amount of frosting, not like the over-sized, over-done, over-sweet cupcakes found elsewhere. On this trip we had the red velvet–one of the few options left.  (They’ll keep selling the goods, until they’re all gone.  So the earlier you go, the more options you’ll have.)  The cake bottom was red, light, and fluffy. The frosting was rich and divine, but not over done. The staff is quite friendly and seem to love working there.

Cake, Cake, and Cake

Recently we had a three-for-one birthday party, and Joy from Marmalleta Bakery made the cakes pictured above.  Despite the 100+ years  celebrated at the fete, the three cakes became the focal point.  I requested a mocha cake (decadently buttery and subtle), and the other two were of the carrot and velvet variety.  Many, many revelers hailed the carrot cake as the best they’ve every had, while others insisted on the velvet.  A humorous debate ensued because the cakes were so damned good.

No storefront yet, but you can special order from Marmalleta.  Joy’s work is a sign of Nashville’s growing number of food artisans.

Joy wrote about the process and details of making our gateaux on her blog.