Kitchen Frenzy: Austrian Fruit Kuchen√

Hannah Waldbaum gave me this recipe and it works every time. I am a Very Bad Baker because I don't like to cook the same thing twice and I love to fiddle with recipes. Baked goods do not respond well to this approach. Their recipes don't like being messed with. Chemistry is involved and even small changes in quantities cause big changes in results. Nearly all my kitchen tantrums have been over sunken cakes or breads that failed to rise.

This recipe is super quick to throw together and for some reason it is so straightforward it has repeatedly resisted my best efforts to ruin it. You don't need a math degree to transpose the ingredients to make a smaller or large cake.

8 oz. butter (room temp)
8 oz. soft brown sugar
8 oz. flour (half wholewheat pastry flour, half white unbleached)
4 large eggs (room temp)
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
Fruit (depending on the size: 3-4 peaches, 6-10 apricots, 2-3 apples or 6-10 plums etc.)

Turn the oven on to 400 degrees.

Prep the fruit. Skin and quarter the peaches (or quarter them first and then skin them - easier, or if you are short on time don't bother skinning them - easier still), halve or quarter and pit the plums or apricots, skin and slice the apples into eighths etc.

Throw soft-ish butter into the food processor with the sugar and blend until pale.
With the blender on add the eggs one at a time leaving a few seconds between each egg.
Take the top off and throw in the flour, baking powder and salt.
Put the top back on and pulse just a few times to mix.
Pour into a buttered and floured pan (12 x 8)
Arrange the fruit gently and quickly on top.
Do NOT press it into the mixture - it will sink into the cake and can ruin it.
Throw into the oven for 20 - 25 minutes.
It will be golden brown and fill the kitchen with the best smell in the world. OK OK - there are others: bread baking, garlic sauteing, lemon zesting, bacon frying ... but it's right up there.

Update ... Wednesday 19th June
I remembered at 4 o'clock that I was bringing a cake to choir so I threw myself into a serious kitchen frenzy using 12 ounces of flour/butter/sugar, 6 fresh eggs from our chicklets, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, 1/8 tsp of salt and 2 big teaspoons of vanilla essence - for a bigger slab of cake! Everything organic from the Citizen's Co-op including the plums. The plums were a pain - I couldn't halve them - I had to quarter them which ended up being just fine. I used a 16 x 12 pan.

I had a few plums left over and some cherries that needed eating in the fridge so I pitted them all and made a quick fruit compote by simmering them with a little water for 15 minutes or so. No sugar. The fruit had just the right degree of tartness to complement the sweet (but not too sweet!) of the cake.

The cake, compote and washing up were all done and dusted by 5 pm.

Ellen's eyes got really big. "Are you taking that whole cake to choir?" she asked pointedly as it came out the oven. A little later she said "Can I have some?" and a shorter while later "When can I have some?" and then "Can I have some now?" A Chinese water torture of carefully graded questions.

There was something really good about this cake. I used more white flour than usual (8 oz white to 4 oz wholewheat). I used a cane sugar that is a very pale brown. The eggs all had orange yokes. The result was a yellow cake that was light and very tasty.

It got SisterSong's seal of approval - we even sang a happy cake song which was a little weird and very funny.