Bake-a-Mania: Fresh Fruit Gateaux

I have been procrastinating writing my posts for a long time!! I really wonder why? Do I have what most writers call a "writers- block" or maybe its just a plain case of sheer laziness. Come winters and time passes by so quickly in-between having endless cups of 'chai' and burrowing yourself deep in the warmth of your comforter, which strangely refuses to let go of you, time becomes absolutely irrelevant and your mind loses the urgency to complete even the most mundane of task.

For me too, things have gone by in a real rush the past month. Many a events have gone by, celebrated and reveled - our 19th Wedding Anniversary, a dream vacation in Kovalam, New years and then my hubby's birthday two weeks ago. Lots of recipes were tried, tested relished and not to forget documented - in fact, I even managed to compress the pictures I had taken, all ready to put them on my blog and shoot out my post but somehow time got the better of me.

So now, before I waste any more time contemplating and thinking, I am all ready to pull up my socks and get back into action.

I made this cake for my husbands birthday inspired by Eric Lanlard's Genoise sponge cake. Its a lovely soft sponge cake filled with fresh fruit and covered with whipped cream. Tempted by the lovely fruits flooding the market I chose some sumptuous red strawberries, kiwis and grapes for filling the cake and, as an afterthought, to add some more color and taste picked up a tin of fruit cocktail too.

Eric's recipe for the Genoise sponge held true to its promise. The cake turned out extremely soft, light and fluffy - almost melt in the mouth kinds. The light texture of the cake was perfect for making the fresh fruit gateaux. The entire cake was a breeze to make, right from baking the cake-to assembling - to decorating and, of course combined with the fresh fruits, it turned out to be mind - blowingly delicious!!

Ingredients:
For the Genoise sponge:
50 g unsalted butter, melted plus extra for serving
250 g plain flour
250 g golden caster sugar
8 eggs

For the Filling:
Kiwi fruit - 2
Strawberries - 12 to14
Black grapes - 10 to12
Fruit cocktail tin - 1/2 small
Fruit juice - 1/2 cup (you can use either fresh fruit juice or the juice leftover from the fruit cocktail tin)
Fresh cream whipped - 2 cups.

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 C.
Grease a 9 inch tin with the extra melted butter and dust with flour.
Put the sugar and eggs in a large heat proof bowl and set the bowl over a pan of half filled hot simmering water.(Make sure that the base of the bowl does not touch the hot water)
Using an electric whisk, beat the eggs continuously for about ten minutes. The mixture will double in volume and create a ribbon effect.
Remove the bowl from the pan of hot water.
Sift the measured flour on to the egg mixture and fold it in very gently with a large metal spoon, followed by the melted butter.
Be careful not to overmix.
Pour the mixture into the prepared tin, smooth the top and bake in the pre - heated oven for about 25 minutes until golden in color or until a metal skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
Keep aside to cool completely.

Halve the sponge cake horizontally.
Pour a little juice reserved from the fruit cocktail tin over both the halves till slightly moistened.
Peel the kiwis, halve them and then slice them horizontally.
Halve the strawberries and thinly slice them. Keep aside some strawberries and Kiwis to decorate the top of the cake.
Quarter the black grapes. Mix them in a bowl with rest of the tinned fruits. Add a little whipped cream to the fruits and mix.
Take the lower half of the sliced cake and put on a serving plate with the cut surface facing upward.
Generously spread the whipped cream mixture on the cake.
Cover the cream with a layer of sliced strawberries