"The best approach to today’s great cake is to make it at night, preheat the oven to 200degC and when the cake is ready to cook place it in the oven turn it down to 180degC and put the auto bake on and leave in there for 50-60 minutes and then oven will turn itself off and next morning remove the cake from the oven. Superb"

Ingredients

125g butter
200g white sugar

2 eggs – No 6’s are fine

165g flour
2 tsp baking powder
⅓ tsp salt

30g ground almonds (1/2 packet)
225g sour cream
1 tsp almond essence (opt)

Approx 500gms Ripe Feijoa – skinned and cut in Half/thirds
1 heaped Tbsp Coarse-grained Sugar (Demerara is ideal.)
A pinch of ground ginger

Method

Pre-heat oven to 200ºdeg C.

Line the base of a 23cm cake tin with baking paper & anti-stick spray the paper plus the sides.
Cream together the butter & sugar very well.
Beat in eggs one at a time until well combined, then lastly the essence.
Sift dry ingredients over mixture & add at the same time the sour cream & almond meal.
Fold in carefully until well combined. (Mixture is quite thick.)
Spoon into prepared pan & very lightly press in the cut fruit (cut side up.)
The fruit should be quite crowded but in a single layer.
Sprinkle Demerara sugar/ginger evenly over fruit & put cake into oven & immediately set temperature to a reduced 180ºC.

Bake for 50 minutes, turn oven off & leave in oven for an hour or overnight.

Serve warm.

Cooks Tips

1. You can use other stoned fruit (Plums, Peaches, Apricots) instead of feijoa and if using fresh figs change the almond essence and use rose water instead. If making it an apple cake – add cinnamon to the Demerara sugar.
2. Freezes well. Cut into portions before freezing.
3. Serve with a “side” of some of the same fruit – poached & a dollop of either whipped cream or yoghurt.