So finally, I got sometime off to come back to blog, right when I am between jobs, having no day job for another couple of days to come. Life had been pretty busy all these past days. Juggling between a family outing followed by a couple of farewells and parties at home for seeing off friends at workplace followed by family coming over for a week, I couldn’t catch my breath. Though I have been enjoying every bit of it, sans the farewell part. …
Olive Oil Wholewheat Stone Fruit Cake
This excessive heat has slowed down the things and the scorching sun seems to be frying us all day and night. When I pick my camera and think of shooting all the glorious food out there and the summer bounty the nature has to offer right now, I first feel very excited.But as soon as I start onto it, I feel exhausted and all drained out, left with no new thoughts to work on. The heat has started taking the toll. And because of all this, everything else start seem to be meaningless. As if, it isn’t making any difference to anyone’s life.
But this dangerous state has to pass over. I just can’t let myself be in the situation for long. The heart and the mind both retaliate, recollecting whatever creativity has left within. I know, it will not be forever, but to be back in action is the need of the hour. After all, identifying the meaningless and mundane things in life, bringing them all together and giving them one particular shape or form is what creativity is all about.
One has to just realize that and move on. Stone fruit has been calling my name! It’s in abundance now, at least the summer has something to offer to compensate for all this grilling heat. I started with Wholegrain Cherry Brownies last week. They came out fab! All because of the seasonal produce. This time also, continuing the theme, which is stone fruit of course, I baked this wonderful super moist Olive Oil Wholewheat Stone Fruit Cake. Not just, it sounds like a mouthful but actually it is.
This version of bundt cake is relatively lighter because of olive oil used instead of butter. And it is also wholesome owing to great amount of wholewheat flour and almond meal. So you see, on the brighter side, it is full of goodness of seasonal fruits, olive oil, wholewheat flour and almond meal. And it tasted super awesome, the next day!


- 200 ml light olive oil {don't use extra virgin}
- 2 cups sugar
- 6 eggs
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups wholewheat flour
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup almond meal
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup yogurt
- 3 cups diced stone fruit (mix of peaches, cherries, apricots)
- Confectioners' sugar, to dust
- Preheat the oven at 180 degree C. Grease and flour a tube/bundt cake pan and set aside.
- In a bowl, sift together both the flours, almond meal, baking soda and salt and set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix the sugar and olive oil. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Beat in the vanilla extract. Fold in the flour mixture. Fold in the diced stone fruit.
- Pour into the prepared pan and bake for around 60 minutes, until a tester inserted near the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Cool for 10 minutes before removing from the pan to let cool completely on the wire rack.
- Dust with confectioner's sugar, before serving.
Cherry & Plum Crumb Bars
These crumb cookies bars are definitely going to be your best friends. They come with no frills attached and would truly prove to be your friend in need. When you are hard pressed for time and have to feed a crowd and want a simple no-fuss quick bars, these crumb bars save you a day. Crumbly buttery shortbread bars with a vibrant tart fruit filling sandwiched within.
These fruity bars are so incredible that they’ll remind you of your best pies and crumbles, but without any sloppy serving of unmanageable serving on a dessert plate. The whole thing is like a breeze. Through in some good ingredients, pop them into oven, cut into squares and voila! Isn’t that sound simple enough?
And the best thing is you could add any of your favorite fruit to these bars. As this is the season of stone fruit, my obvious yet favorite choice was these vibrant cherries and plums. Cherries accentuated the color of the fruit filling while plums added to the tartness, which paired well with the buttery and sweet vanilla shortbread.
These are good enough to be served in breakfast or to be packed in your lunch box to be enjoyed in afternoon snack or to be relished in dessert alongside a generous scoop of very good vanilla ice cream.
I took them to my family and they were polished real quick. Kids liked them a lot, I couldn’t believe that they accepted a fruit bake so peacefully!
Recipe adapted from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook
Ingredients
Crumb
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
90 gm unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
1/2 of a beaten egg
seeds of 1/2 vanilla bean
1/8 tsp salt
Filling
Zest and juice of one lime
1 1/2 cup fresh cherries and plums, pitted and chopped
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp cornstarch
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius and line 8 x 8 inch square baking pan with parchment paper, with some extra paper hanging off the two opposite sides of the pan.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, vanilla seeds. With a pastry blender or fork, work the chilled butter and the egg into the flour mixture until mixture resembles a coarse meal.
- Pat half the crumb base into the bottom of the prepared pan.
- In a bowl of a food processor, briefly pulse the fruit filling ingredients until the fruit is coarsely chopped but not pureed.
- Spread the filling over crumb base and sprinkle the remaining crumbs evenly over the fruit.
- Bake cookies for 35-40 minutes, until lightly brown on top. Cool completely before cutting into squares.