Eggless Stone Fruit & Cream Vanilla Tea Cake. A ‘wacky’ vanilla cake topped with a delicately flavoured cream, then loads of fresh apricots, plums and cherries. With undertones of vanilla bean, cherry and almond, this tea cake topped with my favourite fruit turned out luxurious!
It’s summer in India, and the stone fruit season has to be my favourite season, my greatest fruit love! When summer meets the rainy season, everything screams monsoons in India. While the heat and high humidity is absolutely sapping, the fruit are another story!
The unbearable heat, the high humidity, then the ripe, luscious beautiful fruit all come together in a heady balance, one compensating for the other!
That balance of nature, where the Earth almost punishes you with temperatures over 40C and 85% humidity, then placates you with the best local produce ever! At times like these, stone fruit desserts bring endless joy. I made this Eggless Stone Fruit & Cream Vanilla Tea Cake that was most delicious, a version of the Depression or Wacky Cake!
If you haven’t heard of the simplest cake to make ever, it’s time to Google! Depression Cake, Crazy Cake or Wacky Cake gained fame in the Great Depression of the 1930’s. Eggless, milkless and butterless, frugal ingredients still gave you cake. Also known as War Cake, it has several versions, the chocolate one being most famous.
Came about quite effortlessly. I ran out of ingredients that morning, still wanted to bake something. I had loads of great stone fruit on hand, one thing led to another and we had the most delicious tea cake. A wacky Eggless Stone Fruit & Cream Vanilla Tea Cake, as pretty as it was tasty!
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Stone Fruit & Cream Vanilla Tea Cake
Ingredients
Vanilla Almond Cake
- Dry Mix
- 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup vanilla sugar {or plain}
- 1/2 tsp baking soda {meetha soda}
- 1/4 tsp salt
- Wet
- 1/2 tsp white vinegar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp almond extract
- 2,5 tbsp neutral oil
- 1/2 cup Water
Vanilla Almond Cherry Cream
- 400 g Amul Fresh cream, 20% fat
- 50 g boora/raw or powdered sugar
- 1 tsp agar agar
- 8-10 cherries {optional}
- 1/2 vanilla bean, scraped
- 1/4 tsp almond extract
To top
- Fresh seasonal fruit and mint to top
Instructions
Vanilla Almond Cake
- Preheat the oven to 180C. Line the sides and base of a 7" round tin with parchment paper.
- LiStir together all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
- Add the vinegar, vanilla extract, almond extract and oil.
- Stir quickly to mix.
- Pour in the water and stir to mix to a smooth batter.
- Transfer to prepared tin and bake for approximately 25 minutes, until the tester comes out clean.
- Cool in tin for 10 minutes, then cool on rack
Vanilla Almond Cherry Cream
- Heat the cream, sugar, agar agar, cherries and vanilla bean in a heavy bottom saucepan, stirring constantly.
- Simmer for 5-7 minutes.
- Strain into a bowl, pushing through the cherries for colour.
- Stir in the almond extract.
Assemble
- Place the vanilla almond cake on a platter and place an adjustable dessert ring around it. I lined the dessert ring with an acetate collar.
- Pour in the vanilla almond cream.
- Leave to set for 6-8 hours/overnight.
- Gently remove the dessert ring/acetate collar.
- Top with cut stone fruit, sprigs of mint etc. and serve.