Recipe for French Nectarine and Crème Fraîche Cake

A while back I purchased a rather marvellous French cookery book called New Bistro, based on a review from The Beat That My Heart Skipped, one of my favourite design blogs. It includes lovely bistro recipes from various parts of France, and is kind of a cross between a recipe book and a French travel guide, with some wonderful photography. The first recipe I cooked from this book was a most delicious Nectarine and Crème Fraîche cake - here's how things went down.

You'll need 115g butter, 115g brown sugar, 2 eggs, 5 tbsp crème fraîche, 200g nectarines (apricots, cherries and peaches would also work well), 125g self raising flour, 1/4 tsp baking powder, and 1/2 tsp nutmeg:

Blend the butter and sugar together until evenly mixed. Add the eggs and beat enthusiastically. Then add the crème fraîche and mix well.

Chop the nectarines and add them to the batter:

Quickly fold in the flour and baking powder until smooth, and then transfer to an 8 inch cake tin:

Dust with nutmeg, and then bake in the oven at 180 degrees Celcius for 25-30 minutes. The cake will be ready when you can stick a fine skewer into the centre and it comes out clean.

The cake has a lovely dense, moist texture - and thanks to the crème fraîche it has a lovely sweet tang. Great with a mid-morning espresso or a late afternoon glass of Prosecco!

Have you tried any new recipes lately?