Summer isn’t complete without this cake. Capture the sunshine with the July fruit cake.
Ingredients
Cake
- Eggs: 8 pieces
- Sugar: 400 ml
- Cake flour: about 500 ml
- Baking powder: 2 teaspoons
- Butter or margarine: 6 tablespoons
- Salt: 4 pinches
- Natural cocoa powder: 3 tablespoons
Cream:
- Heavy cream: 1 liter
- Cream stabilizer (for 250ml each): 4 packs
- Powdered sugar (to taste)
- Raspberries: about 200 grams
- Blueberries: about 10-15 grams
- Nectarines: 2 small, blanched and peeled
Soaking:
- 4 tea bags of black tea
- 1/2 liter of boiling water
- Juice from one lemon
- 4 tablespoons of sugar
Preparation
Cake – 4 eggs
- 200 ml of regular sugar
- 250 ml of cake flour
- 1 teaspoon of baking powder
- 3 tablespoons of melted butter or margarine
- 2 pinches of salt
Double the amounts for two sponge cakes, baking each separately. Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence to one and 3 tablespoons of natural cocoa to the other, but reduce the flour amount equally. Bake in a 22 cm diameter cake tin, greased with butter/margarine and sprinkled with a small amount of breadcrumbs.
Cream – 1 liter of heavy cream (36%)
- Whip the cream with cream stabilizers and powdered sugar to taste. Divide the cream into two parts:
- Mix one part with 5 tablespoons of sieved raspberries.
- Mix the other part with 3 tablespoons of sieved blueberries and chopped nectarines.
Soaking:
- Prepare a strong black tea infusion, add sugar and lemon juice, then let it cool.
Assembly:
- With a sharp knife, remove a thin layer from the top of both sponge cakes. Slice each cake horizontally into 2 layers. Stack them evenly, cut out rings. To do this, place a small plate on top, leaving about 2-3 cm of cake outside its edge, and cut around it vertically through all layers. Then place the bottom of the cake on top and repeat the process. Repeat for each layer to obtain 3 circles from each cake.
- Prepare the soaking syrup and cream fillings.
- Layer the cake: arrange the sponge cake layers alternately (e.g., cocoa, plain, cocoa) on a platter or large plate. Soak each layer with the syrup. Spread half of the raspberry cream thickly on the first layer and top with raspberries. Add the second layer (e.g., plain, cocoa, plain), soak, and spread the blueberry cream. Top with blueberries. Repeat with the remaining layers, ending with the final sponge cake layer. Coat the entire cake with the remaining raspberry cream. Sprinkle the sides with the crumbled top crust. Decorate with the remaining white cream and fruits.
- Refrigerate the cake for several hours to allow it to moisten and set. When sliced, it resembles a colorful checkerboard, and my guests were delighted. The taste is also superb, but you’ll have to try it yourself by making this wonder at home.
