Fruit Packed Cake Pastry

I have some big stuff planned for this blog that has me very excited! I wont give too much away but lets just say you can expect a few more videos coming your way. ;)

Now, on to this recipe. I made this a few weeks ago because I knew my family, more specifically my parents, would love it. You see my parents are a little overly obsessed with eating ‘healthy foods’, something that, as a dessert baker, I get into arguments on with them. They claim that its my fault that they have gained weight, gotten diabetes, and in general just consume waayyy too much sugar.

Well I say “don’t eat it.” Simple as that. Of course they always point out that me baking 2-5 times a week doesn’t really help, I always offer them the fact that wherever they go there will be treats, and if they want to stick to a healthy lifestyle, they will have to make an effort to do so, not me.  You would think that would be the end of the story. End of discussion.

But nooo…not in my house. So I continue to bake, and they continue to eat, and we therefore decided to come to a healthy middle point. I would continue to bake but try to bake a little less, and cook a little more, and when I do bake, its ‘healthier’ foods. So when I saw this recipe I just KNEW my parents would love it. It’s a simple cake jam packed with fruit on top!

Boy was I right, this has become a favorite in our house, and I’ve made it several times. I ended up adding a lot more fruit than called for in the recipe, because that’s how the parents like it (though they STILL said they wanted more fruit for next time!), and I also substituted yogurt for sour cream, and it still tasted wonderful.

Overall, this is a keeper in our house, but next time I might try another cake recipe, and just top it with fruit. Now don’t get me wrong, this tastes wonderful just as is, but I personally felt like the cake batter needed an extra little something something, though my family thought it was fine as is!

Fruit Pastry Cake

(source)

Ingredients:
100g butter, soften at room temperature
200g caster sugar (I cut down to180g)
50g sour cream (I replaced with same amount of low fat yogurt)
3 eggs, lightly beaten, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon or orange zest
210g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
500g fruits* tossed with 2 tablespoon sugar*
(You can use strawberries, blueberries, peaches, bananas, oranges, pears, apples, pineapple, or any other fruits that are not too juicy. I omitted the sugar and used as much fruits, either fresh or canned, as needed to fill the top of the cake)

Method:

1. Wash, cut (chunks or slices, as desired) and drain fruits, toss with sugar (if desired) and set aside. (if using canned fruits, wash the fruits to remove the syrup, omit the sugar).
2. Grease (with butter) and flour the side of a 9" round pan or a 8" square pan and line the base with parchment paper.  *** I used a 10 inch one with the removable sides
3. With an electric mixer, cream butter, sugar and sour cream (or yogurt) till light and fluffy.
4. Dribble in the eggs gradually and beat till incorporated in the batter. (The mixture may appear slightly curdled.)
5. Add vanilla extract and zest. Mix to combine.
6. Sieve over flour and baking powder and mix till smooth. (To avoid getting flour all over my work surface, I mixed the flour into the batter using a spatula, just a few strokes will do, then I used the electric mixer to mix the batter till smooth.)
7. Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth out the top with a spatula.
8. Arrange fruits on top, don’t press the fruits down into the batter. Decorate the fruits as desired.
9. Bake in pre-heat oven at 180degC for 60-70 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the cake. Cover the top with foil in the last 15 mins of baking to prevent the top from getting over browned.
10. Leave the cake to cool in the pan for about 5~10 mins. Unmold and transfer to wire rack to let cool completely. Dust the cake with some icing sugar if desired.

 

I started off with a pretty design, but then I saw I had a bunch of fruit left over so I just sprinkled them in around it ;)