Baltimore Peach Cake at the Fenwick Bakery

19 Photos

Photos and text by Barbara Haddock Taylor

When summer peaches are at their peak, Fenwick Bakery in Parkville is, too.
During July, August and early September, the bakery slices up to 1500 pounds of ripe peaches per week from Susquehanna Orchards in Delta, PA, for their famous Baltimore Peach Cakes. The cakes (and peach buns as well) have been a local favorite for much of the bakery’s 104 year history.
Bakery employees, many of whom have worked there for decades, mix a yeast batter, raise the dough, roll it into sheets and cover it with fresh-sliced, skin-on peaches. After some time in a hot oven, the cakes are set out to cool. When a customer arrives to pick them up, handfuls of brown sugar are sprinkled on top at the last minute, so that the cake won’t get soggy.
On a busy summer Saturday, the bakery sells anywhere from 24 to 30 sheet pans of the peach cake, for which customers often wait in long lines. JoAnn Airey of Parkville, who bought 3 cakes one morning, summed up the feelings of many of her fellow customers when she said “I’ve had peach cake for many years from many bakeries. Nobody does it like Fenwick.”