Grape Harvest Cake
Serves 8
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Baking time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- 3/4 cup caster or superfine sugar
- 2 eggs at room temperature
- 1/4 cup lime or lemon olive oil (unflavoured olive oil works too)
- 60g/2ozs butter, melted
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Finely grated zest of 1 orange
- Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
- 1 1/4 cup plain flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 600g/21 ozs. grapes (seeds in or out, I don't bother removing the seeds) taken off the stems
- 2 tablespoons icing or confectioners sugar to sieve
Step 1 - Preheat oven to 160C/320F. Grease and line a 20cm cake tin. Whisk the sugar and eggs in an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment for 5 minutes or so until thick, pale and fluffy. In a jug, mix the olive oil, melted butter, milk, vanilla and two zests together and in another jug or bowl whisk the flour, baking powder and salt. Add half the wet mix into the egg and then half the flour mix and fold gently. Repeat with the remaining half of the wet mix and dry mix. Then fold in three quarters of the grapes.
**Step 2 - ** Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and then place the remaining grapes on top of the cake and bake for a further 60 minutes until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tin and then sprinkle over with icing or confectioners sugar.