Fruit for Fantasy

Torta Sofficissima alla Frutta

Fluffy, Fruity Scoop Cake

Sunday morning, breakfast time and I have blueberries in the house- hurrah! What next?!?

Struggling to come up with anything a little more ingenious than blueberry pancakes (yum!), I finally decided to make a simple clafoutis- basically just a pancake mix, poured over fruit and baked in the oven. Well at least that was how this whole thing started...

I decided to add the kiwi and the cumquats for extra flavor- best make use of those fruits while you have them, right? You can add almost any fruit to a clafoutis and that iswhat is so cool about it. Also, if you intending to make a clafoutis, you could possibly stick to your regular pancake batter and not ad-lib it like I did today! This turned out like a clafoutis on steroids! But no complaints from my side! This was much, much better- believe me!

Basically, there are two simple details that makes this different to a clafoutis- 1.) that I added a little more flour to the batter and 2.) that I whipped the egg-whites separately before adding them. There was no baking powder or yeast added here and the result was so fluffy it was unbelievable! 

So, I made my batter by separating 2 eggs and whisking the whites to a fluffy snow with a pinch of salt and a half teaspoon of Stevia, but you can use sugar if you wish.I added 4 tablespoons of flour to the egg yolks, along with a splash of milk, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, 2 teaspoons of Stevia, a little vanilla essence and a splash of Cointreau - obviously optional if you are preparing this for children! I whisked the egg yolk batter together until it was nice and smooth and then folded it gently into the fluffy egg white. And apart from peeling and slicing my kiwi and slicing the cumquats and discarding the pips- that was all there was too it! Almost too easy!

I poured half of the mixture into my baking dish and distributed half of the berries and cumquats equally over the whole surface, then spooned the rest on top. I then popped it into a pre-heated oven for 5 minutes at 350°F and waited for the outer surface to start to become a little firmer. Then I took it back out of the oven and added the kiwi slices and the remaining fruit on top- gently pressing them in. I did this because if I had added everything at the beginning, they would have sunk down and not looked so pretty... no other reason... but you eyes are invited to this feast too after all!

Back into the oven it went for a further 10 minutes... after which time it came back out again to  have a nice drizzle of honey added. This is important to protect the kiwi a little, so that it does not dry out too much, and also to give a nice, golden glaze to the whole thing. Back into the oven it went for a final 10 minutes and breakfast was ready! Yum! The consistency was similar to a soft, fluffy, lightly sweetened "eggy" bread- and the combination of these 3 fruits along with the cinnamon made this into a wonderful treat! One that you will love too!