Tamarillo Fruit Sponge Cake

This is an amazing dish. It's sweet, and yet tart at the same time. It makes great use of those gorgeous red fruits that have become so available in the recent years.

Must be eaten quickly, though, as it will not keep.

Tamarillo Fruit Sponge Cake

Ingredients:

500g tamarillos
125g sugar
1/2 cup water
1 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
50g butter
50g sugar
1 egg
milk to mix

Method:

1. Place 125g sugar and water in pan, bring to the boil, stir to dissolve sugar and allow to boil gently for 5 minutes.

2. Peel the tamarillos, slice into the syrup and cook gently for 5 minutes.

3. Place butter and 50g sugar in mixer bowl, cream until light and fluffy. Add the egg slowly until well beaten in.

4. Sift together flour and baking powder and add to creamed mixture at lowest speed, 1 Tbsp at a time. Mix in 2-3 Tbsp milk to form a dropping consistency.

5. Place hot stewed tamarillos in greased oven-proof dish and spoon sponge mixture over top. Smooth with a knife and bake at 180-190*C for approximately 45 minutes until well risen, firm and golden brown.

6. Serve hot, sprinkled with icing sugar.

Serves: 4

Rating: 4.5

Carrot Cake With Apricots and Cranberries

This deliciously moist carrot cake recipe is packed full of carrots and succulent apricots, topped off with a yummy buttercream icing and chopped cranberries. It can keep for several days when stored in an airtight container

This recipe comes from http://www.tried-and-tested-vegetarian-recipes.com/carrot-cake-recipe.html

Carrot Cake With Apricots and Cranberries:

Ingredients:

Cake:

3 medium sized carrots, peeled and finely grated
100g dried apricots, chopped into small pieces
3 medium sized eggs, lightly beaten
175g light brown sugar
175g self-raising flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
grated zest of 1 large orange
175ml olive or sunflower oil

Buttercream icing:

75g butter
175g icing sugar
Few drops of vanilla essence
25g dried cranberries, finely chopped

Method:

1. Pour the brown sugar, eggs and oil into a large bowl and stir gently. Next, add in the grated carrot, chopped apricots and orange zest and mix gently.

2. Place the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ground cinnamon in a large sieve and sift into the cake mixture. Gently mix together all the ingredients.

3. Pour the cake mixture into a greased and lined 8" round cake tin and bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for approximately 40-45 minutes until the cake has risen nicely and feels firm and springy in the middle. Cool the cake in its tin for about 5 minutes then turn out, peel off the lining paper and leave to cool on a wire rack.

4. While the cake is cooling, make up the buttercream icing by placing the butter in a bowl and beating until softened. Next, gradually sift and beat in the icing sugar then add a few drops of vanilla essence until the icing is a creamy consistency. Spread the icing over the cooled cake and sprinkle with the chopped cranberries.

Variations:

You could try adding 100g of chopped raisins to the cake mixture instead of the chopped apricots. And a sprinkling of chopped walnuts in place of the cranberry pieces also works really well in this carrot cake recipe. If you don't have any oranges to zest, a squirt or two of lemon juice will do the tangy trick!


Nutrition:

As well as helping to improve our eyesight, carrots also contain beta-carotene - a powerful antioxidant that is believed to combat harmful free radicals in our bodies which can contribute to heart disease and cancer.


Rating: 5!!