Friday 9 May 2014

International Blog Swap Time!!


Today I have a very special (and first ever!) guest on the blog. Her name is Ali, she's from the UK and she has a wonderfully warm blog called Over a Cuppa. A visit to Ali's blog is like calling into a close friend's place for afternoon tea, so I urge you to drop in and say hi. I have been partnered with Ali for International Blog Swap Day, a joint initiative from our own Digital Parents group and Tots 100 in the UK. Ali and I decided our blogs had recipes and family in common so we have decided on a good old-fashioned family recipe swap. I am sure you will be reaching for the fruit bowl to try this recipe out - I know I will be :)


Hi, I am Ali and I blog at Over a Cuppa where I write about things I chat about to my friends over a cuppa at my kitchen table, hence the name Over a Cuppa! I write how I chat so I feel whoever is reading, well I am talking to them, and that is you right now!

I love to try out new recipes and always add an Over a Cuppa twist. Some of my recipes just pop into my head like the one I am going to share with you today. Family food and baking that gets results but does not tie you all day to the kitchen is top on my list. Taking time to enjoy the small things in life to see a better bigger picture is something I like to regularly slip in, to make sure I remember to do just that!

And a smile, if I can provide a smile as you read, or a smile when you taste one of my recipes then I have done my job as a blogger!


So as promised a recipe. Now this recipe I came up with when yet again I was faced with a few sad looking bits of fruit left in the fruit bowl! Why is it, if an apple has a bruise it get’s left behind in the fruit bowl? Or is that just my children? The apples usually end up getting cut up with the bruise of course cut out! But on this day, the over ripe banana, a slightly soft orange and apples that were asking for more than just the one bruise to be taken out all were crying out to be made into something!

I love making a banana loaf, I have a lovely and very easy recipe for Banoffee Loaf on my blog but on that day I fancied a change so my ‘Left Over fruit Bowl Cake’ was made.

It is very easy and made lighter and dare I say healthier with sunflower oil or similar rather than butter and the addition of natural yoghurt to make it lighter too! The taste of the cake reminds me of childhood fruit salads here in the U.K. I am sure you have far more exotic fruit salads but our homemade fruit salad as a child was based on apples, oranges and banana’s with maybe some grapes or strawberries if we were lucky!

So now to the recipe!


To make this Left over Fruit Bowl Cake you will need:

190g Plain Flour

2 teaspoons of Baking Powder

½ teaspoon salt

130g Castor Sugar

2 Eggs

125ml Sunflower Oil

180ml Natural Yoghurt

2 tablespoons of Honey

1 Ripe Banana

3-4 Apples

1 Orange zest and the juice

To make you simply need to:

  • Pre-heat the oven to 180ÂșC

  • Lightly grease 2 x 1lb loaf tins. You can use one but you will need to adjust the timings. I find baking two smaller ones means more even baking and I am more likely to slice one of them and put it in the freezer!

  • Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl. Then add the salt and stir in the sugar.

  • In a separate large bowl crack the eggs, add the oil, honey and yoghurt then whisk together until thoroughly mixed together.

  • Peel and finely chop the apples and add to the wet mix.

  • Mash the banana and also add to the wet mix, finally adding in the orange juice and zest.

  • Fold your dry ingredients into the wet until mix together. Avoid over mixing just gently fold them together.

  • Pour the mixture into your prepared tins and bake for 30-35 minutes or until springy to touch. Test to see if it is fully baked throughout by putting a skewer in the middle, if it comes out clean it is ready!

  • Leave to cool in the tins for a few minutes then turn out onto a cooling rack.

You can freeze this cake for up to 2 months. I usually slice mine up and wrap then in baking parchment then put into a freezer bag.

I have made mine gluten-free so my photos will look a bit more dense to when you use regular flour. If you are making it gluten-free swap the flour for gluten-free flour and add 1 extra egg.

I do hope you enjoy this recipe!


I would like to thank Tanya for hosting this post on Flood-Proof Mum and I am looking forward to hosting Tanya’s post on Over a Cuppa!  





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