The Baltimore peach cake arrives this time of year. It's a simple confection: a single sheet of light raised dough, closer to a cake than a biscuit, topped with fresh peach halves. It's baked just enough for the fruit to begin to shed its juices. The effect is slightly mushy and always delicious.

Local tradition says the summertime dessert came with the German bakers who arrived in Baltimore in the 1870s.

Peach cake is a strictly seasonal dish. It has to be made with fresh, ripe peaches. Bakers prepare the confection on large metal sheets. Years ago, they sprinkled powered sugar over it. It did not have a long shelf life. In the last several decades, bakers have washed the peaches in a thin glaze to preserve their appearance a little longer. No matter what steps the bakers take, the cake does not last long. Many local fans of the treat confess to opening the baker's white paper box and snitching a section before it can make it home.

Peach cake fanatics become rhapsodic as they recall the peach cakes of their youth. They recall the old Baltimore corner bakeries that also served as neighborhood gathering places. They think of Waverly's Arthur and Burri, George Doebereiner on North Avenue, Duane in Charles Village, Heying's in South Baltimore, New System in Hampden, and Silber's and Muhly's, which had numerous branches.

The cakes are still made by the old Baltimore firms of Herman, Fenwick, Simon, Hoehn and Woodlea.

jacques.kelly@baltsun.com