Fresh Fruit Cake Recipe

"Another recipe published by the biggest favourite of mine " Jeremy Vincent ". This cake is a great way to use fresh fruit in your baking during the summer period when the fruit is cheap & plentiful . You can stay simple and use only one kind of fruit or mix different fruits together for a fruit salad effect. Before using the fruit in the batter it may be necessary to drain any excess juice from the fruit, before adding the fruit to the batter and also some fruits will benefit from a light sprinkling of lemon juice to stop browning whilst waiting to be incorporated into the cake batter. Serve this cake accompanied with whipped cream or a scoop or two of vanilla ice-cream, and I am sure you will love it."

Step by Step Method

Step 1

Preheat oven to 180°C.

Step 2

Butter a 23cm cake tin, preferably one with a removable base, and sprinkle with the dried breadcrumbs.

Step 3

Dust off excess crumbs and set tin aside.

Step 4

Cream the butter and sugar together, add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition to incorporate the ingredients.

Step 5

Sift in the flour and baking powder together and with a wooden spoon mix the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture with the milk and vanilla paste (and almond extract if using), stirring only enough to incorporate.

Step 6

Spoon half the batter into the tin and carefully spoon in the fresh fruit on top of the batter. Then spoon the second half of the batter over the fruit. Don't worry if the batter does not completely cover the fruit. During the cooking process, it will spread and the fruit will be encased in the cake.