a nectarine and blackberry cake

a nectarine and blackberry cake

19 Jan 2015

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

Read more

rhubarb crumble cake and canada day

rhubarb crumble cake and canada day

1 Jul 2013

A few months ago I made a Plum Crumble Cake for my Delicious Bites column on decor8. One of the readers suggested adapting the cake to make a rhubarb crumble cake. I thought that was a great idea and when I saw rhubarb was on sale at my local fruit shop I decided to give it a go.



Once upon a time I discovered the 'More Gretta Anna Recipes' cookbook. Inside was a recipe for plum cake and over time I've adapted the recipe so many times I can't remember the original recipe. This rhubarb crumble cake is my latest adaption of the recipe.



Rhubarb is one of my favourite fruits so while the cake was baking I made a batch of oven baked rhubarb to put on my breakfast.



The cake rose high and handsome and the whole house smelt of cinnamon.



Here's the recipe for you.



Rhubarb Crumble Cake
Crumble Topping
¼ cup (55 gm) brown sugar

¼ cup (35 gm) plain flour

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ cup (60 gm) pecans or walnuts

30 grams (1 oz) cold unsalted butter cut into small chunks

½ cup chopped rhubarb

Cake Ingredients

250 grams unsalted butter

½ cup caster sugar

½ cup light brown sugar

2 eggs

1½ cups self raising flour

½ cup plain flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

175 mls buttermilk

2 cups chopped rhubarb 

Grease and line the base of a 23 cm springform tin. Preheat the oven to 190°C. 

To make the topping, combine the flour, brown sugar and cinnamon in a food processor. Add the pecans and butter and pulse until just combined. Place the crumble topping in a small bowl and refrigerate while making the cake.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Add the 2 eggs and mix until combined well.Sift the flours with the cinnamon. Add the flour alternately with the milk to make a soft batter. Mix in the 2 cups of chopped rhubarb. 

Spoon the batter into the greased tin. Sprinkle the top of the cake with the crumble and tuck the remaining rhubarb into the crumble layer. 

Bake the cake for 1-1¼ hours or until the cake tests cooked when a skewer is inserted into it. Cool the cake in the tin for about 15 minutes before turning out to cool on a wire rack.



I love Canada having spent some time living and working in Edmonton in Alberta. I keep revisiting Canada every chance I get. It's my second favourite country in the world, after Australia of course.

July 1 is Canada Day so Happy Canada Day to all my Canadian friends.

Bye for now,

Jillian

Read more

Apricot Cake

Apricot Cake

24 Jan 2011

Normally apricots in Sydney are a bit hit and miss - a bit too much talk and not enough action. Not this summer though. Not only have they looked gorgeous, they've tasted gorgeous as well. I bought some from my local fruit shop last Friday and took them home with no plans other than to eat them.

Then I started thinking about my favourite plum cake recipe by Gretta Anna and wondered how the cake would taste if I made it with apricots?

Just like the plum cake, many of the apricots sank to the bottom of the cake ensuring the cake was nice and moist. The apricots themselves added a nice tang to the taste of the cake and the cake was deemed a success by my test audience.

I took a slice home with me and once I've finished this post I'm going to make myself a cup of tea and enjoy my slice. Thanks to the lovely girls from Miljo for the wooden board and butter spreader you see here which arrived in the Christmas post.

See you all again on Wednesday, which is Australia Day and keep emailing those suggestions for my new food feature

Bye for now,

Jillian

Read more

Zucchini Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

Zucchini Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

8 Mar 2010

I visited Farmer Andrew this past weekend. Farmer Andrew lives in Dungog about a 3 hour drive from my place in Sydney. I thought I'd do a bit of country style baking and decided to make some zucchini cupcakes. I knew I'd be able to get fresh eggs from the girls in the henhouse and when I checked the nesting boxes, there were 4 eggs waiting for me. I brought zucchinis with me but there were some zucchinis growing in the veggie garden.

I can't remember how long I've had this recipe and whether I wrote it myself or copied it from someone else. It's simply a carrot cake recipe which uses zucchini instead of grated carrot. I also use toasted walnuts and crushed pineapple in the recipe, which makes the cake nice and moist. Normally I make a 8-9 inch cake using this recipe but thought cupcakes would be a nice idea.

I was a bit surprised when the recipe made 16 cupcakes. Two came back down with me on the drive to Sydney.

I've not eaten one of the cupcakes yet - I'm waiting to have mine after dinner with a cup of tea but Andrew assures me they're yummy.

I hope you had a lovely weekend and return to work today refreshed and invigorated. I'll be back on Wednesday with my last Melbourne post so until then,

Jillian

Read more