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a nectarine and blackberry cake



Hi every-one,

it's summer in Sydney so we're in the midst of the stone fruit season. Plums, peaches and nectarines abound in the fruit shop. I just love this time of year! Last weekend I made this cake to bring into work, my first for the year. I was planning on making a nectarine and raspberry cake but when I spied punnets of blackberries in the shop, I changed my plans.







I adapted my regular butter cake recipe a little and replaced some of the flour with almond meal. It makes for a really moist cake.



I sliced the nectarines and placed a layer inside the cake and topped the cake with some more sliced nectarines, a few of the blackberries and a sprinkling of flaked almonds.






It's such a lovely simple cake and you can use any seasonal soft fruit or even frozen berries. I've made variations of this recipe using plums, blueberries, apricots, raspberries and even rhubarb and each version has been delicious. I snaffled a few slices for myself and as hoped, the cake was lovely and moist.



Here's the recipe for you. For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C. If you want to make a 9 inch/23 cm cake, double all the ingredients and bake the cake for the same length of time.



Nectarine and Blackberry Cake (makes one 18 cm cake)
Cake Ingredients 
3 nectarines
1 tablespoon caster sugar 
125 grams (4 oz) unsalted butter 
100 grams (½ cup) caster sugar 
Grated rind ½ lemon
1 egg
¾ cup self raising flour
½ tsp baking powder
¼ cup almond meal
60 – 90 mls (¼ - ⅓ cup) milk
150 g punnet blackberries or raspberries
Flaked almonds
Optional – icing sugar (confectioner’s sugar)

Cake 
Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F conventional oven. Grease and flour a 18 cm springform tin and line the base with baking paper.

Cut the nectarines in half and remove the pits. Slice each nectarine into quarters, put into a small bowl and sprinkle over the tablespoon of caster sugar. Set aside.

To make the cake, cream the butter, sugar and lemon rind in a bowl until light and fluffy. Add the egg and mix until combined well. Sift the flour and the baking powder together then mix through the almond meal. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk to make a soft batter. You may not need to use all the milk. Spoon half the batter into the greased and lined tin. Layer a few of the nectarine slices over the top of the batter then sprinkle over a few berries. Gently spoon the remaining batter over the fruit. Arrange the remaining nectarine slices over the top of the cake, scatter the remaining berries and top with some flaked almonds.

Bake the cake for 1 hour or until the cake tests cooked when a skewer is inserted into it. Some of the nectarines may sink to the bottom of the tin while cooking. Cool the cake in the tin for about 15 minutes before turning out to cool on a wire rack. If desired, dust the top of the cake with icing sugar.

I'd planned to photograph this cake last Sunday on a funny tumble down bench in the garden but the weather changed and it poured all day. This happens every time I plan an outdoor shoot so instead I photographed the cake in my sun-room while the rain tumbled down outside.

I hope you enjoyed the weekend however it was spent.

See you all again next week,

Jillian
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2 comments

  1. Hi Jillian, thank you very much for sharing this wonderful recipe. I must say that it taste really really good and moist too. By the way, I've linked my post back to you. (http://mintyskitchen.blogspot.com.au/2015/04/nectarine-cake.html)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Veronica,

    glad to hear the cake went well,

    J

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