I am predominantly a savoury person, I do like cake, but I can have cake lying around and I wouldn't eat it; unless it was pop's fruit cake. But I do LOVE sponge and fruit, but stewed fruit. Infact stewed fruit is my fav way of eating fruit, lol.
And on one of my health kicks, I bought some figs, because they are super nutritious, but then kind of wasn't sure what to do with them, so in a desperate attempt to use them before they went bad I found a recipe for fig and raspberry cake, the sponge is kind of something between pastry and sponge, and has a super texture, its also so easy peasy to make, and actually you can stuff it with any fruit you like in the middle, I often use apples and raspberry's or today I used plums which worked a complete treat, it really good as an afternoon treat or even a very satisfying pudd.
So here goes, the recipe is slightly adapted from one in the book 'The Produce bible' by Leanne Kitchen, the amazon book link is on the left sidebar and I can highly recommend this book, its stupendous.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Ingredients:
175gms unsalted butter
145gms of caster sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
260gms of self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
7 plums, chopped
tsp of grated lemon peel
sugar for sprinking on top
Method:
Cream butter and sugar until its light and pale, Add the egg and egg yolk, and beat again, sIft in the flour and baking powder and add a pinch of salt, stir it to combine, chill for a few minutes until its firm enough to roll out.
Divide the dough into 2 halves. I used a loaf tin this time, and it worked superbly, take half the dough and fit it into the bottom of the tin, I just spread it out with my hands rather than rolling it out. Add the layer of chopped plums and sprinkle lemon yest over, roughly shape second half of dough and pop it on top and then spread this out gently to the edges, but don't compact it though, sprinkle sugar on the top ad cook for 30 minutes, then let it cool a bit and gently turn it out, its nice to eat still warm or cold is nice too.
You can use any fruit that cooks well, like raspberries or cooking apples or apricots, or mixtures of them are superb as well.
I like it served with a bit of creme fraiche.....
Comments