Design*Sponge » Blog Archive » in the kitchen with: lena corwin’s fresh fruit cake

This favorite recipe of mine comes from a family friend, Jane Newman. I often make it for brunch with friends and everyone loves it (All it requires is a cup of tea or coffee)! The recipe can be made with many different combination of summer fruit, like peaches, nectarines, plums, and berries- it’s also great with pears in the Fall. We did some annual blackberry picking near our family’s Northern California cabin (where these pictures were taken) and bought nectarines at a farm stand. I always try to use local and season fruit (but if you find these ingredients at the grocery store, that’s ok too!). I hope you’ll enjoy this cake as much as we do- Happy Baking! -Lena Corwin

*click here to download lena’s d*s desktop wallpaper designs for september!*

CLICK HERE for the full recipe after the jump!

FRESH FRUIT CAKE

This favorite recipe of mine comes from a family friend, Jane Newman. I often make it for brunch with friends and everyone loves it. It requires a cup of tea or coffee! I took these photos on a recent vacation with family at our cabin in Northern California. The recipe can be made with many different combination of summer fruit, like peaches, nectarines, plums, and berries. It’s also great with pears in the Fall. We did some annual blackberry picking near our cabin and bought nectarines at a farm stand. I always try to use local and season fruit (but if you find these ingredients at the grocery store, that’s ok too!). I improvised with a skillet for a baking pan, instead of a regular 8″ pan.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
grated zest of one lemon
1 cup flour
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 pinch salt
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups diced fruit
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Cream the butter and the sugar (I do this by hand using two forks). Add the grated lemon zest. Add the eggs, and vanilla, stirring each to combine. In a separate bowl combine the flour, salt, and baking powder. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir to combine. Pour the batter into a greased 8″ pan. Top with the fruit. Combine the brown sugar and cinnamon, and sprinkle the mixture on top of the fruit. Bake for 30 minutes, or until the top is browned.

I literally went “OMG” when the pic came up. Have mercy! Looks delish! That should fit into a “priority mail” box just fine I would think. I’ll look forward to it’s arrival, Ladies. So sweet you are!

(Seriously, Lena… you’re killin’ me here!)

I am scared to cook this because after Lena’s pumpkin bread last time, I got addicted and couldn’t stop baking it…even worse, I couldn’t stop eating it!!

I know this will be perfect for fruit in any season!

Hello

for the southern hemisphere readers who would like to make this (it seems reminiscent of a clafouti?) an American stick of butter is 113 grams – not 250 grams (!) … which is how blocks of butter are sold down here. And an American cup is 240ml, versus an Australian 250ml.
Sharing this not to be a pedant but because I have come a cropper on the butter!
I love the skillet and I can’t wait till summer here so I can pop in all that yummy fresh fruit! mmmmmm

“Cream the butter and the sugar (I do this by hand using two forks). Add the grated lemon zest. Add the eggs, sugar, and vanilla, stirring each to combine”

You mentioned adding sugar twice- you may want to fix that.

i just baked this this morning and it is absolutely wonderful! as an added bonus, my apartment smells divine (i have already had two neighbors come wandering up the stairs to investigate!)

thank you so much for the recipe!

All set to make this — last of season fantastic peaches and these photographs too delicious to resist — BUT I second Tina’s query above about the sugar instructions . I’m a fairly new baker and so don’t know what to change. Is the second mention of sugar (”add the eggs, sugar, and vanilla, stirring each to combine”) just a mistake? Thanks for your help!

Delicious! I replaced one cup of flour with one cup of gluten free all purpose fluor and a couple of pinches of xanthum gum. I also used strawberries which turned out great. But they sink to the bottom of the skillet and do not add that beautiful color to the plate.

@Supriya – Brown Sugar in the US is generally the ‘packed’ kind (which can be made by adding one tablespoon of molasses per cup of sugar, and mixing it together with a fork until it’s uniform. Less molasses is lighter brown sugar, more molasses is darker brown sugar, as some recipes call for light vs dark brown sugar)

I made this for my boyfriend to serve to his guy friends (he hosted them for dinner before a bachelor party). It must have tasted good because he was unable to save me a slice to try!

I’m making it again this Sunday for a more civilized party, so I should get some this time!

erendira,

oh my gosh, you’re right! this is embarrassing. the recipe should call for baking powder, not soda.

i was at my parent’s house when i typed up the recipe from my mother’s recipe book– i just spoke to my mom and she has it written down incorrectly.

grace, can you please correct my mistake?

i’m so sorry for the error! yikes!

Great recipe! I’ve made it 6 times now. With raspberries, pears or both. I add grated marzipan – just sprinkle a few tablespoons over the batter before adding the diced fruit. It adds a wonderful richness.

quick question–I baked it using b.soda (so now I know it should be powder), peaches and plums and strawberries, but it was still mushy after almost an hour in the oven! And my oven runs hot… what did I do wrong? Or is the soda powder mix up the chemistry reason why it didn’t cook through? The edges were divine!

I just made this tonight and it was delicious AND very aestetically pleasing. I used blackberries, blueberries and nectarines. I didn’t use lemon zest as in my experience that can turn a dish bitter – instead I squeezed the lemon juice of the fruit. Very tasty!

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