a fresh fruit loaf

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A cake loaf w/ fresh fruit… This isn’t my 1st try. To be honest: my overall experience is that a cake w/ fresh fruit likes to collapse due to too much fresh fruit – or to be flavorless & dry due to the lack of enough fresh fruit. Therefore I’m always skeptical when folding in fresh fruit into batter. (More than once recipes in books/blogs proved incorrect!).

However, this loaf w/ apples was really fine.

In my test series concerning loaf cakes I have 2 loafs so far w/ fresh fruit. There was the banana bread & now it’s the apple cake. The main difference between the versions is that in the banana bread I didn’t use any dairy products. It’s only butter & sugar & eggs & flour & mashed banana…

For my vanilla loaf as well as my orange loaf I had butter & sugar & eggs & flour & a „dairy“ component – so did I for my apple loaf. Concerning the „dairy“ component I used so far:

  • mascarpone
  • ricotta
  • sour cream.

All is fine. The mascarpone adding some solidity, the ricotta some more lightness & the sour cream is pure freshness.

…& I always worked w/ butter!

 

 

Only once I tried oil instead of butter; it was my savoury loaf. Here it was oil & crème fraîche…

 

For the record:
I wasn’t so happy w/ oil instead of butter in a sweet cake beforehand because my experiments w/ oil resulted in soggy cakes more often than I liked it. Maybe it was always too much oil…

 

However, let’s start w/ the apple loaf!

There are the usual suspects…

 

 

Mainly:

  • flour
  • butter
  • eggs
  • sugar
  • sour cream
  • apples.

I had some green apples, rather tart apples. (These apples are all-season apples in my trusted food store.)

So now:

  • The oven is preheated to 150° C w/ fan.
  • The apples are peeled & trimmed & diced.
  • Sugar is mixed w/ cinnamon.
  • Sour cream is mixed w/ vanilla extract.

An electric handheld mixer combines butter, sugar & eggs. The mix goes into the flour.

We add the sour cream & finally fold in the diced apples.

 

 

The batter is ready now &…

 

 

…finds its new home in the baking tin.

 

 

After a oven session of about an hour the cake is ready to cool.

 

 

Enjoy!

 

a fresh fruit loaf
Prep Time25 minutes
Cook Time55 minutes
ingredients:
  • 200 g sugar
  • 125 g butter
  • 2 eggs
  • 200 g all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 150 g sour cream 20%
  • 2 apples about 200 g diced apple after trimming & peeling
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • a pinch of ground cinnamon
  • a pinch of salt
icing:
  • 150 g icing sugar
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice
  • 2 tbsp butter
equipment:
  • a loaf tin 25 cm
  • an electric handheld mixer
how to:
  • Preheat the oven to 150° C w/ fan.
  • Line the loaf tin w/ baking paper - crosswise.
  • Trim & peel & dice the apples.
  • Combine sugar (incl. a pinch of salt) & butter w/ the electric handheld mixer until fluffy.
  • Add eggs & mix until smooth.
  • Add the flour mixed w/ the baking powder & the cinnamon & mix until well combined.
  • Finally add sour cream, vanilla essence & mix...
  • Fold in the diced apples.
  • Pour the batter in the prepared loaf tin & let it bake in the oven for about 55-60 min.
  • Make the famous test w/ the wooden pin...
  • Let the cake cool down for about 10 min - then lift it out of the tin.
  • Remove the baking paper carefully & let it cool completely on a cooling rack.
for the icing:
  • Combine the icing sugar, the butter & the lemon juice until smooth & spoon all over the cake; let the icing get firm in the fridge (about 20 min).
Notes
Prep Time: Add about 10-15 min for the preparation & applying of the icing.
Baking paper: baking paper is the best solution to minimize the cleaning efforts after the baking session. Of course you may also use butter or oil together w/ some fine breadcrumbs...
The cake will be fine for 4-5 days in an airtight container sitting on your kitchen counter.
You may also store the cake in the fridge; then it will get a little firmer.

 

(information on equipment)

 

 

Now we are dealing w/ the icing affair.

I tried lemony icing based on icing sugar several times, but… sometimes it got really runny. So now I added some butter to the icing – it worked fine. After a short time in the fridge the icing was perfect: soft, but firm. Not at all runny.

 

In general I like cake w/o icing – my credo: if a cake isn’t fine w/o any icing it’s not worth baking the cake.

The most simple way of icing a cake is just sprinkling sugar all over the cake. What might happen: the sugar melts into the cake… (So you’ll have to repeat the sugar sprinkling before the next serving!)

If doing an icing w/ icing sugar & some fruit juice (or any spirits!) I’d like to recommend to use some butter in the icing cream for firmness.

If you like chocolate icing just melt the chocolate & drown the cake in chocolate – make sure there’s enough space in your fridge for cooling! (I made my comments about ganache some weeks ago… Be sure I’ll work on ganache!)

…& there is buttercream: heavy, solid, filling, but delicious. Make sure that you’ll use it wisely, lightly, sparingly… (I cannot help, but I always think automatically of biscuit when thinking buttercream – not loaf cake…!)

 

 

I let the loaf rest on my kitchen counter carefully covered. The cake was fine, soft & fluffy even after some days.

 

 

The businesswoman w/ too many office hours thinks 

I can hardly hold off… this delicious soft & fresh cake…
Where is my espresso?

 

 

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keep it simple. be flexible. always.