Simple Fruit Cake

How to prepare simple fruit cake

1. If necessary, remove pits from the fruits (sour cherries, apricots). The rest just needs to be washed and then placed in a sieve. Taste the fruits and if they're tart, add sugar (for sour cherries or currants, I add 2 tablespoons of sugar; for apricots or plums I don't add any). Let the fruits drain until you need them.
2. Separate the eggs. Sift the flour with the baking powder and salt.
3. Beat the egg yolks with 100g of sugar using a mixer until you get a pale yellow, fluffy cream in which you can barely feel the sugar (about 3 minutes).
4. While mixing, add the oil in a thin stream. Then add the milk, at first in a thin stream, but when the mixture thins out you can add it all at once.
5. Add the flour in 3-4 batches, mixing with a whisk only until traces of flour are barely visible. When you've finished adding all the flour, set this mixture aside.
6. Beat the egg whites until the foam is white and fluffy. Start adding the remaining sugar, one teaspoon at a time, and continue mixing. When you've finished adding the sugar, you should have a glossy, dense foam that holds on the whisk. If it doesn't hold, mix more.
8. Add the foam to the batter in 3 batches, gently folding with the whisk.
9. Pour the mixture into a pan (20 x 32 cm) lined with parchment paper. Level with the back of a spoon, especially in the center, so there isn't too much batter there and the cake doesn't dome.
10. For juicy fruits (sour cherries, currants, raspberries for example), add cornstarch and mix gently. Apricots or plums don't need cornstarch.
11. Arrange the fruits on the batter (sour cherries side by side; small fruits like currants are sprinkled in an even layer; apricot or plum halves are placed 1 cm apart from each other).
12. Bake the cake at 180°C (or 160°C with fan), for 45-50 minutes.

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