It has been a long time, unfortunately, since I last posted on my blog - and thought to use some "down time" during the end of the summer to do so. 

With four small children at home (aged 2 & 10 months till 8 years old), and my good wife Rebecca, to feed, I am always on the lookout for recipes that will please the kids while also being palatable to the adults. I do most of my home cooking on Thursdays and Fridays, in anticipation of Shabbat*, and it's always a rush for me to finish in time, while leaving Rebecca time to clean-up after me!

A few months' ago I was trying to think of dessert that would appeal to all as both a dessert, served with ice cream and/or fruit salad, for example, and a cake that could be served with a nice cup of lemon tea. Our children love jelly (which is Jello to those who live in the American colonies the other side of the Atlantic), and Rebecca is particularly fond of cake.  I am quite partial to fruit - fresh, dried, canned, juiced, etc. - so thought that it would be amazing to find a recipe that combined all these three ingredients for success. 

One of the features that I love about the internet is the ability to search for just about anything, with results being found in many disparate websites from different parts of the globe. And so, I starting searching for a dessert that includes cake, fruit and jelly, and lo and behold, I received a  good number of recipes; unfortunately none "hit the spot" and I decided to continue searching, this time in Hebrew. I know that a cake with a layer of jelly was a popular dessert here in Israel in years gone by, although it might now be considered passé by some, so thought this might show fruit, as it were. 

Any indeed it did! I found a number of recipes that answered my criteria, and following please find the one that I use, which I translated from the Hebrew. 

I sincerely hope that you enjoy making - and consuming - the scrumptious home-made comfort cake and look forward to your feed-back!

Wishing you and yours a most enjoyable summer (for those of us here in the Northern Hemisphere),

DSB
David S. Berman

bermandie@gmail.com

* Shabbat is the seventh day of the week, observed as a day of rest by Jewish people throughout the world - and a day on which work [as prescribed in by Jewish law] is not allowed. This includes cooking and baking, although preparing salads, setting the table, etc. is allowed.

 

Sponge Cake with Fruit Topping

Ingredients

1 can of tinned fruit (apricots and peaches work well but other fruit possible too)

250g butter or 250 ml canola oil

1 cup of sugar (200g)

4 eggs

2 cups flour (280g)

1 bag baking powder (2 teaspoons)

Zest from 1 lemon (optional)

1 bag of vanilla sugar or 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

For fruit topping

1 package jelly (apricot works well with all fruit but possible to use other flavours too)

400ml boiling water

Method

Heat the oven to 180°C.

Mix all the cake ingredients, except for the tinned fruit, in the bowl of mixer.

Butter a square or oblong baking dish and place the batter in the dish, flattening the surface.  Arrange the canned fruit on top.

Bake for approximately 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out dry.

For a super-moist dessert cake, prepare the jelly according to the package instructions and pour over the cake while it is still hot.

If you would like a layer of jelly on top of the cake, and thus a less moist cake, prepare the jelly when the cake is already cool and pour on top of the cold cake.

In hot weather, it is advised to keep the cake in the fridge.