Sunk Fruit Sponge Cake

I know the name sounds a bit wierd but that's how it is. In baking you skip a single step, however unimportant it may seem like, and you can see the difference that step brings to the dish. After my cooking extravaganza on Saturday, I was idling on the couch when suddenly I had some craving for a fruit cake. Too tired as I was, my craving also seemed to be simple enough to be dealt with. I quickly got the ingredients together, whipped, and baked all within 1 hour from start to finish. Everything was done in a jiffy and I was quite happy with my "little effort, great results" simple sponge cake until I turned it over on the cooling rack. Darn! I did not flour the fruit pieces before adding to the batter! As a result, I had a beautiful soft and moist sponge cake sitting on a bed of cherries and raisins. On second thoughts, I did not mind it actually as it is easier to feed this cake to my baby who otherwise does not like tid- bits in her cake. So it's a fruit cake for me and a plain cake for her! Do give this simple cake a shot, with or without flouring the fruit pieces, and enjoy a soft and moist spongy bliss with your cuppa.

                                    

Ingredients

1 cup all purpose flour

1 scant cup oil

4 eggs

2 tsp vanila essence

1 tsp lemon zest

1 scant cup sugar (I used half brown, half white)

1 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp custard powder

1/3 cup dried fruit bits (add more or less as per your liking)

A pinch of salt

Direction

In a bowl, take the eggs and with an electric beater whip till smooth and creamy. Add the oil and beat further. Add vanila and sugar and beat till fluffy. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, salt, baking powder, and custard powder. Add this mixture little at a time to the egg mixture and beat. Reserve little flour and mix the fruit pieces in that (this is the step I skipped). Fold this fruit flour mixture to the batter and mix with a spatula. 

Pre-heat the oven at 180 degree celsius. Grease a medium sized or 2 small sized  loaf tins and pour the batter into it. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool on wire racks completely before storing in air tight containers.