Little cakes with fruit

A few days ago there were piles of lovely looking blackberries at the 99. Since I had to do snack for my daughter's hula class, I thought I could use them for something. Doing snack for hula is usually pretty fun -- the snacks parents bring range from a full on dinner with birthday cake and pasta salad to a simple offering of caffeinated Coke and Cheetos. I do try to bring snack that adds up to something relatively healthful, or if not that, at least home made.

The little cakes I made are based on a great cake recipe found by an old family friend in the New York Times, a traditional Italian Plum Cake. Apparently, so the story goes, for years people would write in asking for this recipe (which is insanely easy and delicious) and the NYT would spit and moan and say, 'hey everybody this is the last time we are printing this recipe!" I can say quite literally that every single time I have made this cake and fed it to people, I get lots of compliments. And there's never any left over.

Normally it's made in a 8" springform pan, but this time I made it in cupcake tins because I thought that would be a bit neater for the kids. It worked out well because I'm a person who likes the crusty bits of any baked thing.

This cake, or these cakelets, are good with just about any kind of fresh fruit and many kinds of frozen or canned fruit. I've done it with fresh apples, canned cherries, fresh pears, frozen bags of mixed berries. All of them good.

The recipe.
Heat oven to 350. Grease and flour your pan very very very generously. (You might even want to line the bottom with waxed paper or parchment if you're feeling fancy. Put the pan on top of the paper, trace around the pan's bottom, cut out the circle, stick it in the bottom of the pan. Good activity for a child who wants to be helpful and who you don't want to get messy.)

Ingredients
1 stick butter (8 tablespoons)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
1teaspoon baking powder
1 dash cinnamon (optional)
fruit -- enough to cover the top of the cake generously (1 can of cherry pie filling; two ripe pears or apples; 1 pint fresh raspberries or blackberries, you get the idea)


Cream the butter with the sugar, add the vanilla and beat in the eggs. Get the mixture all nice and light and fluffy. Add the flour, baking powder and cinnamon. The dough is wonderfully sticky and thick which means there's plenty to lick off the beaters unless you are OCD about cleaning the beaters off with a spatula. (But why would you clean the beaters with a spatula when you, your kid or your dog can lick them clean perfectly well? After that, of course, I do suggest a wash in hot soapy water.)

Plop the batter into the pan, spread it pretty much to the sides, toss or lay the fruit on top depending on your mood and/or schedule. Sprinkle a little more sugar on the top and a squeeze of lemon if you've got it.

For the cupcakes, it makes exactly a dozen. Don't fill the cups up too high!

Bake about 1 hour. Sides should be nice and brown and slightly pulling away from the pan. It is nearly impossible to overcook this cake but do try to avoid it. Let cool before trying to remove from baking container. If you cannot wait or won't wait, be prepared for a falling apart cake that still tastes awfully good.