I decided to experiment with my yellow cake recipe for my mom's birthday cake. I took my usual recipe (a variation on Sylvia Weinstock's) and added diced peaches to the batter before baking. My cake is usually moist but with the peaches it ended up dry and crumbly. Could the acidity in the peaches have caused this? They sat in the bowl for at least 1/2 hr. after I chopped them. Could that be it? Thanks for any insight you may have!

How odd. If anything I would think the peaches would've added to the moisture. Hope someone is able to give you some helpful advice.

I really don't think the peaches had anything to do w/the problem. Well........that is if it is a box mix. If scratch it might as I don't do sc ratch so can't really say.

One thought I had was that maybe the cake had to cook longer with the fruit. I've noticed that with pancakes. Just that extra 5 minutes might have dried it out...who knows.

I have found that fresh peaches are the easiest to add to scratch recipes. The added fruit and some juice seem to work well. I think you may have hit a moist spot and baked too long. Do it again, but go with your regular time.

I will have to say that SW's recipe is more temperamental than others I have used. I use my grandmother's pound cake recipe because it can handle anything. I've also used other favorite recipes, but I would shy away from SW's with fruit just because I would think it would need a few times to tweak. I have greatly altered her recipe for my own use, but it is still not the most forgiving recipe.