WTSIM - Baked Raspberry and Nectarine (pan)cake

Oh hello there. I bet you're wondering which hole I just crawled out from? ;) I must be a very rare species to be coming out of hibernation so late in the northern hemisphere summer.

Please, allow me to introduce myself. I am from the 'lost my blogging mojo' species. Have you ever heard of us? We hide behinds our (notebook/pc) screens daily, pondering on what we should post on, while stalking everyone elses blog for inspiration. What do you mean you've never heard of us? You mean I'm the only one of a kind????? ........

Hmm.. it is rather pathetic isn't it? Can't believe it's been over 2 months since I blogged and I even missed my own blog anniversary - 2nd one too, I might add. My only saving grace is that I have been planning a big long post about what I've been up to. However, that isn't quite ready to be published yet. So you'll have to be content with this for now...

I also realised that I've not participated in any blog events since Menu for Hope, Peabody's House Warming Party and WTSIM back in November when I arrived in London. Not sure I could even call this a food blog anymore. :P

I think that it's only fair that my first post in a while be something that is food related. After all, it's been a freakin long time since any food related posts graced this blog. So, for now, please accept my humble offering of an adaptation from Bill Granger's latest cook book, Holiday.

Bill made a Baked Apple Cake by caramalising some apples with butter and brown sugar in a oven proof pan and then adding the batter onto the pan and baking the whole thing (fruit/cake/pan and all!) in the oven.

I didn't have any apples around but had some pretty ripe nectarines and threw in some rapsberries for a good measure. I also didn't have an oven proof pan so this went in an oven proof dish instead.

Baked Raspberry and Nectarine (pan)cake
adapted from Bill Granger's Holiday

Ingredients:

1 large knob of butter
2 tbsp of brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 nectarines, cut into 1/8th
1 punnet of raspberries
1 tbsp flour (for dusting)

3 eggs
3/4 cup of milk
3/4 cup of flour
1 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
1 tbsp of caster sugar

1. Preheat oven to 180 deg C.
2. Sift baking powder, salt and flour together into a large mixing bowl.
3. Add in the caster sugar.
4. Using a whisk, slowly mix in milk and one egg at a time until the mixture is just combined (do not over mix). Once combined. Set aside.
   
5. Melt butter and brown sugar in an oven proof pan.
6. Once butter is melted, add in the the nectarines and cook for approximately 5 minutes.
7. Add in 1/3 of the raspberries towards the end of the cooking time and turn off the flame.
8. Toss the remainder of the raspberries in the flour.
9. At this stage, if you are using an oven proof pan; scatter the remainder of the raspberries into the pan and pour the batter on top of the fruits. If using oven proof dish, transfer the nectarines and berries into the dish before pouring in the batter.
   
10. Bake in the oven for 15 - 20mins until set.
11. Serve with vanilla ice cream or for a breakfast/healthy option, serve with greek yoghurt drizzled with honey.
    

The verdict:

For various reasons, this didn't come out the way I thought it was going to/should taste:-

1. Perhaps the oven dish didn't conduct the heat as well, because I ended up having to increase the cooking time as the middle of the cake wasn't quite cooked.
   
2. I didn't have enough nectarines so it ended up being a bit on the tart side because of the raspberries.
   
3. At first it tasted almost pudding like, but later on the batter tasted like a thick gooey pancake - not very nice...
4. It looks heaps better than it tasted.
   

Overall, the berries and nectarines tasted really good and both fruit and cake went well with vanilla ice cream but I must admit I was a little disappointed. Bill's recipes are generally well liked (by this household) and usually turn out quite well so I am quite surprised at the outcome of this. I must try this again to make up for the disappointment....

perhaps.. the failure was just my own self justification for being out of practise in the kitchen.... ?

For a late entry to Waiter, there's something in my berries... this month hosted by the up and coming media star - Cooksister, Jeanne.