Hmm, I struggled to find a title for this. The original recipe is from the Waitrose magazine, and can be found here, titled Summer fruit and almond cake. The picture in the magazine looked so inviting that I couldn't resist making it, hoping to speed the arrival of summer in my corner of the country and the inclusion of a packet of defrosted frozen summer fruits reminded me of the stash of fruit in my freezer. Rather than use a mixture of summer fruits, I decided on exclusively redcurrants and then decided to use a couple of relatively ripe (unusual for this time of year here!) peaches I'd picked up in the supermarket on a whim. Peach and redcurrant seemed an appealing combination, the slightly tart redcurrants counteracting the sweetness of the cake and the juicy peach adding texture. Mmm, I could just taste it!
The recipe was easy to put together, it's one of those where lining the tin is more hassle than making the actual cake and it would have been even quicker if I'd just used a bag of frozen fruit - no chopping of peaches then! I obviously had to change the recipe a little to sub out the almonds (although I'd definitely recommend leaving them in with this fruit combo - peaches and almonds are often paired together and although I'm not in a position to pass judgement, I'm sure everyone else isn't wrong). Instead of using 150g self raising flour and 100g ground almonds, I used 175g self raising flour and 75g fine semolina. I used just over 200g of redcurrants, and 2 small/medium sized peaches, just on the verge of ripeness, but not dripping with juice.
The photo above isn't great anyway, but the cake did catch a little round the edges - I think it was the juices of the fruit caramelising on the outside of the tin, so I'm not sure what I could do about it next time. The actual cake wasn't overcooked.
I think next time, I might be tempted to remove the berries from the stalks whilst still frozen - they made a bit of a mess coming off once defrosted, and I think they might have kept their shape better if they'd defrosted individually.
This was a really delicious cake - I love the inclusion of fresh seasonal fruit in cakes - bursts of peachy sweetness and slightly tart redcurrant, just as I had imagined. The cake was moist and more-ish, it's just a shame there isn't any of it left!
11 comments:
I can see that this has the potential to be used with any fruit which doesn't produce too much juice when it cooks. I find these sort of recipes very useful. Thanks for drawing it to my attention.
Your cake looks gorgeous and I love the combinatiion of fruit. I am looking at that slice and thinking that would make a yummy breakfast this morning and my porridge just isn't going to be quite so appealing now.
A lovely summery cake!
Looks a lovely fruity cake. I love the idea of the tart redcurrants against the sweet peach.
Sounds yummy! I too have some peaches that seem to ripening very quickly - wonder why that is, not like the usual supermarket fare! Can't beat a nice bit of fruity cake with this nice weather.
This is summer on a plate! delish!
Looks delicious, C! I love how the fruit is all clustered in the middle on top - and that it didn't all sink! :)
Are you allergic to almonds? My youngest son is allergic to tree nuts, but can eat almonds, peanuts and hazelnuts.
Suelle - yes, I can see that you'd need relatively 'dry' fruit. Hope you enjoy it if you try it!
Jacqueline, sorry to put you off your porridge! And it has fruit in so surely it could be breakfast!
Beth, Katie, Lucie thanks!
Chele, I was surprised these peaches were ripening, I was expecting them to go from hard to mouldy!
Celia - yes, I'm definitely allergic to almonds and tree nuts and I'm pretty sure hazelnuts too, but can eat peanuts (as I'm sure you know they're a legume really) and also cashew nuts. I'm reliably informed by my brother that I'm not missing out on anything, he reckons most nuts are nasty. My mum would beg to differ! I'm always relieved that I can have peanuts because that must be such a tricky allergy to work round. Almonds are irritating for baking purposes though - no macarons for me!!!
That's a very pretty slice of cake indeed. I hadn't thought of substitituing semolina for almonds so interesting to see it works so well, less fat too, did you increase the fat content of your cake? If not, then another benefit maybe? Delicious!
What a beautiful cake!! your crumb looks perfect! "Peaches and currants sound like a wonderful combination, I am so happy to have found your blog!
Uncanny! I tore THAT recipe out of THAT magazine only this afternoon!!!
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