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| Raspberries are "wonderlicious" berries |
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| Raspberry and peach cake |
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| Side way of the cake |
I always have a soft spot on fruits, especially raspberries and peaches. Both of them are definitely top of my list. I like the unique features of raspberries, as summarised by whfoods.com "they are delicately structured with a hollow core, with almost melt-in-your mouth texture". There are certainly many benefits of consuming Raspberries . I presume that raspberries are understated fruits compared to the other berries such as strawberries and blue berries. I wonder why we couldn't plant raspberries commercially in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia as they do with strawberries. Perhaps the Malaysian Agriculture Ministry should do something on this matter.
On the other hand, the stone fruits- peaches are said to be native to Persia (now known as Iran), even though they have been cultivated in the early days of China. Sometimes, we tend to have confusion between peaches and nectarines. Apparently, peaches have fuzzy skin, where else nectarines are smaller and sweeter with reddish, smooth skin. It is said that a peach tree could bore nectarines as well.
All right, back to this cake - I have decided to bake this cake due to its two ingredients- my favourite fruits of raspberries and peaches. I wanted to bring something different for my department's pot-luck party, and this cake fitted the bill. When I brought this cake this morning, my colleagues kept asking me what it was actually. They thought it was a pudding, as they kept guessing the actual ingredients, much to my own amusement. Well, I told them that it was all berries and peaches- fresh produce of USA (the raspberries) and CHINA ( the white peaches that I had used). The fresh produce were definitely worth the price, as opposed to canned goods. The use of the fruits in the cake, made the texture felt airy and light with a tinge of natural sweetness and a little bit of sourish taste, thanks to presence of raspberries. I definitely think that if you do not have the luxury of having raspberries in your local grocer, you could always replace them with strawberries with a little bit of lemon juice. Thus, I am sharing the recipe of this "wonderlicious" cake, so that everybody could try at home . To have a big cake as seen from the pictures, please double the amount of ingredients used.
The recipe ( originally from the Good Housekeeping book)
Ingredients
200g unsalted butter, melted, plus extra to grease
250g self-raising flour, sifted
100g soft brown sugar
4 medium eggs, beaten
125g raspberries ( you can put half of this amount)
2 large, almost-ripe peaches/ nectarines, halved, stoned and sliced ( I used peaches)
4 tbsp apricot jam/ conserve
juice of 1/2 lemon
How
Preheat oven 150c for about 8-9 mins- I did this.(The book stated -preheat oven 190c {170c fan oven} mark 5). Grease a 8 inch (20.5cm) cake tin (you can use springform cake tin) and baseline with baking parchment ( baking paper). Put flour, sugar in a large stainless steel bowl. Make a well in the centre. Add the melted butter and eggs. Mix well. (Please use the hand mixer to mix them well, so that you wouldn't have any curdles in your cake mixture). Spread half the mixture over the base of the cake tin, add half the raspberries and sliced peaches. Spoon the remaining cake mixture, smooth over, then add the remaining raspberries and peaches, pressing them down in the mixture slightly. Bake for 1-1/4 hours until risen and skewer inserted comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave in the tin to cool for about 10 mins. Warm the jam and lemon juice together in a small pan and brush over the cake to glaze. Serve warm or at room temperature.
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| The cake is glazed with warm apricot jam and lemon juice |
Happy baking everyone, now it's the time to have some "fruits" in our cakes...
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