Author Notes: Inspired from the cookbook by Cory Schreiber and Julie Richardson called Rustic Fruit Desserts. Though this tea cake originally used only stone fruits, I added some blueberries and loved the beautiful contrast and flavor it provided. Since I love to use almond meal in my baked goods I chose to substitute some of the white flour with some almond meal. To bring out the almond flavor, I added some almond extract as well. After making the adjustments, I felt the final cake was a winner. Feel free to use just plums. You can serve it with a drizzle of almond flavored icing, a dollop of sweetened whipped cream, or even some vanilla ice cream. —Ellie36
Serves: 10-12
Ingredients
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1 3/4
cups all purpose flour
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1/2
cup almond flour/meal
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1/4
teaspoon salt
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1
teaspoon baking powder
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1
cup superfine sugar
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3/4
cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
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3
eggs
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1
teaspoon almond extract
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1
teaspoon vanilla extract
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3
red plums, chopped
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3
apricots, chopped
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1/2
cup fresh blueberries
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1
tablespoon butter, for greasing pan
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1
tablespoon raw sugar, optional
Directions
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl and set aside.
- Cream the sugar and butter together on medium-high speed for 3 to 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. If you don’t have superfine sugar, just blend your sugar in a blender for a few seconds…it should do the job.
- Add the eggs one at a time. Scrape down the sides of the bowl after each addition.
- Stir in the extracts.
- Add the flour mixture and fold it in just until smooth dough forms.
- Divide dough in 2 pieces, one piece a bit larger than the other.
- Place one dough on a piece of plastic wrap and add a second piece of plastic wrap on top.
- Flatten the dough into a 1-inch thick circle. Do the same with the second dough piece. Place in freezer and freeze for about 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter a shallow 10 inch round tart pan with removable bottom.
- Pat the larger piece of dough evenly onto the bottom of the prepared tart pan and up the sides.
- Spread most of the fruit over the dough, reserving about a handful.
- Break the remainder of the dough into tablespoon-sized pieces and add it on top the fruit.
- Sprinkle the reserved fruit over the dough. If desired, sprinkle 1 tablespoon of raw sugar evenly over the top of the cake.
- Bake for 30-40 minutes or until nicely golden brown and and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cover lightly with aluminum foil the last few minutes if the crust is over browning.
- Cool for half hour before serving.