Sunday 5 June 2011

Stone Fruit Yogurt Cake

The scare over E. coli carried on Spanish fruit and veg has had one benefit for me - loads of 'reduced to clear' peaches and nectarines in the supermarket, as well as salad stuff. Now that the Spaniards are deemed not to be at blame, I have no worries about using their imported produce - well washed of course, if eaten raw.

This Stone Fruit Yogurt Cake from Dan Lepard was the starting point for using some of the peaches I bought. This is a cake which is very much liked by C at Cake, Crumbs and Cooking, and every time I saw a version there it made me want to try it, but this is the first opportunity I've had to bake it using what I had in stock, rather than having to buy fruit especially for it.

If there's a choice of peaches or nectarines to eat raw, the nectarines, with their smooth skin, always win out over fuzzy peaches, which meant that the peaches were getting past their best. I skinned four small peaches for this recipe, using three sliced for the fruit topping, and one chopped and added to the cake batter. To improve the colour and flavour, I added about 50g of frozen raspberries to the topping and another 50g to the cake batter.

The instructions say to line the cake tin with foil, and then oil the foil. I cannot stress how important this is, especially if using a springform tin, and how important it is to make sure there are no holes in the foil. Despite using extra thick foil, and treating it really carefully, I must have torn it somewhere, as there was an escape of sugary fruit juices which burnt onto the oven floor during cooking, with a quite unpleasant smell. The foil also needs to be well-oiled, as I left some of the fruit behind, stuck to the foil, when I turned out the cake, and had to quickly put the pieces back into place on top of the cake - talk about a tough jigsaw! The sticking might have more to do with losing the juices during baking than not oiling the foil well, but it's a point to note for the future

This is a really lovely cake, moist and lemony with the fruit adding extra flavour and texture. The frozen raspberries had thawed by the time they were mixed into the batter and the juice gave little ripples of pink throughout the cake, as well as concentrated bursts of flavour from the fruit. The peaches alone did not have a strong flavour, but adding the raspberries gave a complimentary boost to the overall flavour.

I didn't get the really fine, close texture that C got with her cake, but I suspect this was because I hurried the mixing process, and didn't let my butter warm up enough before creaming it with the sugar. Because I've been baking with oil a lot, recently, I'd forgotten how important this stage is. And don't worry that I'm sabotaging CT's diet, he wouldn't eat this sort of cake anyway - fresh fruit is not one of his greatest loves! He's finishing up the previous chocolate cake while the rest of us eat this one.

16 comments:

Snowy said...

A great way of using up fruit Suelle. Looks delicious.

Suelle said...

Thanks Snowy! BTW - I can't post any comments on your blog at the moment, because I'm having similar logging in problems to you. I can only post comments on blogs with 'pop-up' comment forms.

Caroline said...

I'm really glad you like it! I find it a very reliable and tasty recipe. You're right about needing to make sure the foil isn't ripped at all though - I had a juice escape once. I don't tend to oil the foil, but I do put a circle of parchment paper on the base of the foil, which prevents the fruit sticking pretty effectively.

Suelle said...

Thanks for the parchment tip, C. I don't know why I didn't think of it - I even put parchment into non-stick tins!

MissCakeBaker said...

This looks delicious and summery

Chele said...

Well now that explains why I can't find peaches or nectarines the last few days!!! I thought it was just cucumbers ... really must start watching the news more often! Great cake though, I love seasonal treats like this ;0)

Suelle said...

Chele - I think it was just salad under suspicion, but around here people seem to be avoiding everything from Spain, meaning that supermarkets had to reduce them to try to sell them!

Maria♥ said...

I think the Spanish should sue Germany for being too quick to point the finger! Spain has lost so much money because of this and its the last thing they need with the financial crisis over there!

Love these types of cake and this looks gorgeous.

Maria
x

Suelle said...

I certainly think there should be some financial compensation for Spain, Maria - perhaps from the EU. Particularly as they now think it's German-produced bean sprouts!

Hazel - Chicken in a Cherry Sauce said...

I love all the colours here. I am seeing a lot of fruit cakes recently - I must make one soon!

Choclette said...

Another very pretty cake. I love the colours in this - as well as the flavours of course ;-)

Unknown said...

oh I love this kind of gooey, moist cake, simply my favourite. (I made something similar with strawberry puree this week.)

looks so pretty too!

Baking Addict said...

What a delicious and pretty looking cake. I was just thinking about making a pineapple upside down cake today. Now I just want a slice of yours :)

Alicia Foodycat said...

Such a pretty colour! I had some peaches in my veg box last week, but they went mouldy before they softened enough to eat. Very annoying!

celia said...

Suelle, what a pretty cake! It's all spring and summer, a feast for the eyes to our cold side of the world!

Suelle said...

Oh, Celia - isn't it strange how we always want what others have got - I commented recently on how good one of your dishes looked, if only it were colder here! LOL!