Michelle Darmody: How to bake summer fruit loaf

It is best to have both the rhubarb and strawberries at room temperature before adding them to the batter

This is a dense loaf filled with oats, vanilla and early summer fruit. It holds its shape well when sliced so is a good portable snack.

Vanilla is one of the most popular flavours in the world and brings out the sweetness of other ingredients.

It has a direct effect on our brains, changing how we perceive tastes and flavours creating a more intense culinary experience.

The long black pod, or as is sometimes called bean, is the cured fruit of the vanilla orchid plant. You can use a fresh vanilla pod in this loaf cake instead of extract if you wish.

Vanilla extract is created using these real vanilla pods and technically must contain a specific amount of vanilla before it is allowed to be labeled as an extract. I tend to steer away from vanilla essence as it is made synthetically and you can generally taste the difference.

To use a pod in this recipe, slice it lengthways and scrape the sticky seeds from the long black casing. Stir these into the lightly beaten eggs.

You can then use the pod casing to make vanilla sugar or your own extract. The only thing is you will need to wait a few months for the extract to mature.

I use vodka to make mine, but you can also use brandy. I find the vodka gives a cleaner flavour.

I put four pods into a naggin-sized bottle and leave the bottle to sit at the back of a cupboard for a month or so. It will not go off, so you can use it for months to come, the alcohol will burn off during baking leaving the vanilla flavour behind.

Strawberry rhubarb pie

recipe by:Michelle Darmody

This is a dense loaf filled with oats, vanilla and early summer fruit. It holds its shape well when sliced so is a good portable snack.

Servings

10

Preparation Time

 25 mins

Cooking Time

 50 mins

Total Time

 1 hours 15 mins

Course

 Baking

Ingredients

• 190g butter

• 170g golden caster sugar

• 2 tsp vanilla extract

• 3 eggs, lightly beaten

• 100g plain flour

• 40g spelt flour

• 50g porridge oats

• 100g rhubarb

• 100g strawberries

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Method

1. 1. Line a two-pound loaf tin with parchment.

2. 2. Preheat your oven to 170ºC/gas mark 3.

3. 3. Beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.

4. 4. Stir the vanilla and eggs together.

5. 5. Add the egg mixture and one tablespoon of the plain flour to the butter and sugar until combined.

6. 6. Sieve the rest of the plain flour with the spelt flour.

7. 7. Stir the sieved flour and oats into the mixture.

8. 8. Scoop into the prepared tin.

9. 9. Place the fruit on top, it will sink as the cake rises.

10. 10. Bake for about 50 minutes until a skewer comes out of the sponge clean.

11. 11. Allow to cool in the tin until cool enough to handle, then gently remove and place onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Baker's tips

You can buy loaf tin liners that are very handy. I often use them for cakes like this to save cutting and measuring parchment. They also work for loaves of bread. You can often find them in large grocery shops or in specialist baking shops.

Stirring the vanilla into the eggs allows it to combine throughout the batter. If you add it to the batter on its own it may end up in one section of the cake and not disperse properly.

Raw rhubarb softens perfectly while baking. It will become tender and juicy in the oven as the sponge bakes. Pre-cooking it beforehand would result in it being too mushy. It is best to slice the rhubarb into thin pieces at a slight angle. The angle stops them becoming stringy and helps them soften. Rhubarb can be very tart, and also it can contain a lot of water. You can toss the chopped rhubarb in a tablespoon of caster sugar and let it sit for ten minutes to draw out liquid and sweeten it slightly if you feel it necessary.

It is best to have both the rhubarb and strawberries at room temperature before adding them to the batter. The same goes for the eggs. The egg will blend with the other ingredients with more ease. A general rule of thumb is to have all of your ingredients at this temperature unless otherwise stated.

You do not need to overmix the flour into the batter; just gently combine it. Spelt flour has a less robust form of gluten than plain flour so overmixing it will break this down and can result in an overly dense and flat cake.

The cake will keep for two days in a cool place in an airtight container but the fruit will soften the cake over time.

Three delicious variations

Chocolate and orange loaf

Omit the strawberries and rhubarb and instead add the zest of three oranges into the batter and stir in 200g of dark chocolate chips towards the end before it is scooped into the prepared tin.

Ginger and rhubarb

If you like a bit of extra flavour, add a half a tablespoon of diced stem ginger to the batter and omit the strawberries. Ginger and rhubarb are a very good combination. I also like to add the zest of an orange to this batter.

Cherry and slivered almond

Cherries always improve a recipe, in my book. Sunken cherries add glamour and flavour to the cake and I love them when topped with slivered almonds which toast as the cake bakes.

In place of the rhubarb and strawberries, add 200g of fresh, de-stoned cherries to the top of the cake. Sprinkle these with 50g of slivered almonds and press them into the batter slightly.