Gram's Fruit Cake

My mom has been making this cake for as long as I can remember‚ especially in summer. When I copied down the recipe, it was for "Gram's Fruit Cake." I don't know who's gram it's from, but I'm sure she's been making the rounds because this is such an easy and versatile cake. It's one of those desserts you can so easily throw together for last minute company or running out the door to a picnic or potluck. You almost certainly have the ingredients in your pantry as long as you can scrounge up one paltry piece of fruit. The original called for one McIntosh apple, but you can substitute just about any fruit you'd like: peaches, pears, blueberries, strawberries, etc. That's the beauty of it — that, and it tastes great! This weekend I made it with my all-time favorite fruit combination: peaches and blueberries.

Gram's Fruit Cake
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
2 Tb butter, melted
1 McIntosh apple or equivalent other fruits (use as much as you'd like)
cinnamon
1 tsp sugar

Preheat oven to 400ºF.
Grease an 8x8-inch baking pan.
Sift together flour, sugar and baking powder.
Beat together egg and milk and add to dry ingredients.
Pour into prepared pan.
Cut fruit and place on top of batter. Sprinkle with cinnamon and about 1 tsp sugar.
Bake 25-30 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

As you can see, I get all crazy about placing the fruit — kind of like meticulously filling in every single holes on a waffle with syrup. This is completely unnecessary as the cake bakes up around and over the fruit, so you won't see the pattern. But I still find it very satisfying. Do as you will…