Buttermilk Pudding Cakes with Fresh Peaches

I'm trying to get back to my Unread Shelf Project and tackle a cookbook a week. One cookbook a week, from my collection, try a handful of recipes, decide whether or not to keep it. I already know I'm keeping this one, so it was silly to test it - The Lee Bros. Simple Fresh Southern: Knockout Dishes with Down-home Flavor. Apart from being the longest cookbook title ever, this is a cookbook from the brothers who grew up in Charleston who pay tribute to southern food in a myriad of ways. I own their first one, The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook, and have referred to it when I needed a recipe for red velvet cake, vegetarian collard greens, and even a recipe for savory waffles with creamed mushrooms, which is on the menu for this week by complete coincidence. The Simple Fresh Southern Cookbook is thinner than their others cookbooks, but I have loved what I've tried. One recipe for field peas with roasted beets is my favorite solution for coming home from the farmers' market with random stuff (I usually add goat cheese to it.)

So when I flipped through the cookbook this time, I found myself drawn to the Buttermilk Pudding Cakes. They looked simple, quick, and versatile. The cookbook has a long list of simple accompaniments and more complicated dressings like peaches in bourbon, but I just sliced up fresh peaches and called it good. And it was! I struggle a bit with pudding cakes, always hard to know where the line is between "pudding" and "raw batter." (Jenny's note: I already know what I did wrong as I create this post! My oven temperature was wrong. DOH.)

Buttermilk Pudding Cakes with Sugared Raspberries
Serves 8

Buttermilk pudding cakes:

3/4 cup sifted all-purpose flour (3 ounces)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 large eggs
3/4 cup whole or lowfat buttermilk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup sugar
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature

Raspberries:

8 ounces (2 cups) fresh raspberries
1/4 cup sugar
Whipped cream (optional)

1. Heat the oven to 425 F with a rack positioned in the top third of the oven.
2 Sift the flour with the baking powder in a large bowl. In a second large bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk until creamy and yellow, and then whisk in the buttermilk, vanilla, sugar and butter (the mixture will look curdy and broken; that is fine). Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture, and whisk until the batter is combined and smooth.
3 Divide the batter among 8 standard-size (3-ounce) nonstick muffin-pan cups, filling them two-thirds full. Bake for 9 minutes. Check the cakes by inserting a knife tip between the rim of the cake and the muffin cup and pulling gently to expose the side of the cake. If the side of the cake appears evenly browned, the cakes will hold together when inverted and are ready. If not, bake for another minute and check again.
4 While the cakes bake, place the raspberries in a medium bowl. Shower them with the sugar, and then use your hand to gently toss them in the sugar until they have a light dusting on them. (If the berries are overripe and bursting, or wet because you washed them, the sugar will dissolve on them. This is fine -- they'll still taste great!)
5 When the cakes are done, invert them onto individual small plates and divide the berries among them, mounding them on top and around the cakes, and top with a dollop of whipped cream, if using.