Baking Goodness

WARNING: Picture heavy. If you're on dial up, even if you're not in some cases, you might want to put the kettle on.

I occasionally try to eat fruit. I have no problem eating plenty of vegetables and salad but fruit, well, fruit's boring, unless it's in a fruit salad and I can't be bothered to chop it all and yes, I am too damn lazy to peel an orange. If we were meant to eat satsumas, clementines (or whatever the hell those little oranges are called), they wouldn't be full of all those pips. As for apples, they just leave me hungry and pears are either rock-solid or meltingly soft... i.e. dribbling juice down your chin and leaving your hands too sticky to answer the phone. Melons are just glorified water, pineapples are an endurance test, and as for nectarines, plums, and peaches - well, see pears, plus the fact that peaches are furry. Fur belongs on animals, not fruit.

Bananas are ok.

However, the best way to eat fruit is in jam or better still, in cakes.

In the fridge today were two old bananas, a small tub of newish blueberries, a large box of newish strawberries and five peaches just on the turn...

So, the old faithful bananas-and-chocolate muffin recipe was pulled out and blueberries were added to the ingredients. 2 fruits our of 4 dealt with. That left the peaches and strawberries to be dealt with... which meant a call for help to the Masked Woman of Mystery and Cakie Goodness - the Caked Crusader! Amid her myriad of recipes was this little stunner - Peach and Raspberry Traybake (http://thecakedcrusader.blogspot.com/search/label/peach) which I adapted.

It's a rich recipe - 250g butter melted as a starting point with three eggs, vanilla and sugar, creating a lovely gloopy mess, of a rather radioactive shade of yellow.



As well as substituting raspberries with strawberries, I also adapted the recipe, mixing the fruit into the batter rather than "resting" it near the surface.



The slice peaches are then carefully placed on the top - leaving it looking as though I've tipped some sliced potatoes onto it.



While it cooked, I poured out the muffin mix, but I ran out of cases...



...so, we'll just have to deal with larger muffins. It's a hard life.



And, then the tray bake was lifted out of the oven...



...sliced and, while still warm, placed on plates. It was so moist.



And, while it's hard to build on perfection (thank you, Caked Crusader!), a dollop of vanilla icecream, certainly helps.