Fruit Crumble Cake

I was getting stiff bored with the cakes which I've been baking over and over again. Whenever I come across a well tested and proven  successful recipe, I am bound to repeat baking it repeatedly especially when I need to bake for my friends or relatives. Thinking I need to be a little more adventurous, I started browsing for some newer recipes and one finally caught my attention. The irony was I found the recipe in one blog which didn't even get me remotely close to think of baking it. Then I click on the link where she obtained the recipe from. It was the pictures of the cake in this blog that made me wanna bake the cake and bake it right away. This recipe needed blueberries and plums which are expensive imported fruits. I told myself I cannot fail. The cake turned out to be edible and that left me asking myself : how do I rate whether a cake has failed? Anyway, two days later, I found myself baking the same recipe again but this time, there weren't any kiwi left in my fridge but what I did have is rambutans. So, I diligently sliced the sweet juicy flesh of the fruits to be part of the fruit topping. The mistake I learnt from my 1st attempt was to reduce the baking time substantially and that was exactly what I did for my 2nd attempt. The cake turned out very much softer than the previous batch. The fruity taste from the fruits gave a nice sweet and sourish twist to the cake. I baked a square tin for myself  cum office consumption and another tiny round foil pan for cousin Soo. According to cousin Soo, both Latysha and Lashaeya enjoyed eating and cake and I do hope she wasn't just being polite to me by saying so :)

This pan above was the 1st attempt in which the fruits consisted of plums, blueberries and kiwi ( I wanted the color). In my 2nd attempt (1st picture shown above), I substituted the kiwi with rambutans. If I had strawberries in my fridge, I think it might just go well with it.

Ingredients :

3/4 cup/1 1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened ( or 115g butter)

1 1/3 cups sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 eggs
2 1/3 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
1/4 cup (60ml) whole milk
5 plums, stoned and thinly sliced
5 apricots, stoned and thinly sliced (I used plums & kiwi & rambutan)
1 tbsp sugar - for sprinkling

Crumble topping:
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1 ½ tablespoons caster sugar
2 ½ tablespoons (35g) cold unsalted butter, chopped

Method :
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Butter an 8” x 12” (I used 8” x 8” so the cake turns out much thicker than her) baking pan and line with baking paper – butter the paper as well.

2. Place the butter, sugar and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until light and creamy. Gradually add the eggs and beat well. Sift the flour and baking powder over the mixture, add the milk and beat in low speed until combined. Spoon the mixture onto prepared pan, arrange the fruit over the top and sprinkle with the extra sugar. (I omitted the sprinkling of sugar)

3. To make the crumble topping, place the flour, sugar and butter in a bowl and rub with your fingertips until fine crumbs form. Scatter over the fruit.

4. Bake for 50 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer. (I baked for 35 - 40 mins)