My forum friend Vi shared this recipe with me a long time ago. She calls it a fruit pastry but to me it’s a coffee cake which is topped with fruit. It’s simply lovely at tea time or anytime at all actually! Just beware, it is a very addictive cake and after one slice, it’s really hard to resist going back for a second and third…

Plum Nectarine Grape Fruit Pastry

The recipe is so simple and uses the basic creaming method for the cake. And it uses up whatever excess fruit you may have handy. If you don’t have any fresh fruit handy, just use canned—they work too! I’ve used a combination of different fruit—strawberries, plums, peaches, blueberries, and mandarin oranges. Just don’t press down on the fruit when you lay it down on top of the cake batter. It will sink into the cake all on its own while baking.

Plum Blueberry Mandarin Fruit Pastry

The key to this cake is in the tangy ingredients—the sour cream and lemon/orange zest makes the cake come alive and is what makes you keep coming back for more. I always zest my lemons and oranges whenever I use them and put the zest in a ziplock and stick them in my freezer. That way, whenever I have a recipe that calls for only the zest, I already have some handy to use. My friend, Vi, suggests that instead of freezing, just put the zest into a jar with some sugar and that will keep it from spoiling and is great to be added as flavoring to any of your baked goods.

Plum Blueberry Mandarin Fruit Pastry

Vi’s Fruit Pastry Recipe

Ingredients:
200g sugar
3/4 stick (100g) butter
50g sour cream
3 eggs
210g all-purpose flour (I’ve substituted 1/3 with whole wheat without any issues)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp lemon/orange zest
500g fruit tossed with 2 Tbsp sugar (I find that 500g is sometimes too much so I slice up as much fruit as I think I will need and if I use canned fruit, I omit the sugar)

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Cream butter and sour cream and sugar till light and fluffy.
3. Add eggs one at a time and beat till incorporated in batter.
4. Add vanilla essence and zest.
5. Stir in flour and baking powder and mix till smooth.
6. Butter and flour a 9” round pan. Pour batter into pan and even out top with a spatula.
7. Place fruit on top. Don’t press the fruit down into the batter. Decorate the fruit as you please.
8. Bake for 60-70 minutes or until tester comes out clean when inserted into the cake.
9. Cool and then remove from pan. If you want to pretty it up some more, you can dust the cake with some powdered sugar but it is really good as is too.

Plum Blueberry Mandarin Fruit Pastry Slice

You might even want to double the batch just so you can share with friends. Enjoy this cake and let me know if you are as addicted to this as I am (I love it so much that I’m now afraid to bake it as I am very capable of wolfing down half the cake myself!).

Cheers, Annie

This cake was entered into the “High Tea Treats” Monthly Mingle, created by Meeta and hosted by My Diverse Kitchen.