Fruit sponge...

My mum's just emailed me the fruit sponge recipe I mentioned in my last post - so here it is in all its glory! It's really easy and absolutely delicious. As it's microwaved, and therefore only has a short cooking time, I wouldn't recommend using raw fruit like apples or pears - on Sunday we cooked some apples down into a compote and used that, or if you wanted the recipe to be seriously easy you could just use a tinned fruit pie filling or something! Fresh raspberries might work, but I've never tried it!

Fruit Sponge

1 1/4 cups plain flour

3/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup butter or margarine

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup milk

Fruit compote or pie filling of your choice

1. Place flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, butter, egg, milk and vanilla in a mixing bowl. Beat for 3 minutes on lowest speed, scraping the bowl to make sure everything is incorporated.

2. Place fruit in a microwave-safe serving dish and carefully spread the sponge mixture over the fruit.

3. Microwave for 9-12 minutes. When the cake is done, a toothpick will come out clean. 

4. You can then either invert the cake onto a warm plate, for an upside-down pudding effect, or just spoon it into bowls. Serve warm with cream, ice-cream or custard.