Versatile Fruit Blitz Cake Recipe: Gluten Free, Vegan, and Refined Sugar Free Options

Versatile fruit blitz cake made with gluten free flour mix, apples and pears, flax seed egg replacement, and sweetened with date syrup

For this recipe, I'll have to credit my bestie, Michelle, who originally got it from a cookbook by author Marci Goldman. However, the original recipe, called "Cherry Blitz Cake", because it is a cake that can be made in a cinch, has been changed so much, first by Michelle, and then by me, that it barely is similar to the original cake.

So first of all, while the original cake is cherry cake, this cake can be made with whatever fruit you like that cooks well. The ones I make most are with apples and pears, but consider using any of the following: apples, cherries, pears, peaches, plums, apricots, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, pineapple, etc. This is a great recipe to use up soft fruit/fruit that are on their last legs. I don't bother peeling my fruit for this, no need.

Second of all, the original recipe is with white flour, but based on lots of experimentation, it works just as well with spelt flour, whole wheat flour, gluten free flour mix, whatever floats your boat.
Third, while the original called for white sugar, this also works with liquid sweeteners like honey, date syrup, jaggery syrup, in addition to other granulated sweeteners like coconut sugar, brown sugar, etc... Even if you're afraid that they'll make it too liquidy, it won't. Even if the batter seems like it'll never get thick, it will. Feel free to use whatever sweetener you prefer to use, without adjusting the flour or other liquid amounts at all.

Fourth, while the original recipe calls for orange juice, you can use any juice for this or even water.
Fifth change is making it vegan. You'd think that a recipe that calls for four eggs wouldn't easily be converted to egg free, but this works with flax seed egg replacement as well!
Lastly, there's a specific order you're supposed to put in the fruit and the batter but I don't bother with that!

This cake is just super awesome, and everyone who eats it enjoys it. It is a moist cake, and you can make it in a bundt pan, loaf pans, 9x13, cupcake tin, etc. My son, who eats gluten, told me that this was the best gluten free cake I ever made.

So with all that preamble, here's the recipe!

Versatile Fruit Blitz Cake Recipe: Gluten Free, Vegan, and Refined Sugar Free Options

Ingredients:
3 cups flour of choice (whatever you normally use, whether whole wheat, regular, spelt, or gluten free all purpose mix)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Scant 1 cup oil of choice
2 cups sweetener of choice, whether white sugar, honey, jaggery syrup, date syrup, coconut sugar, or brown sugar
4 eggs or 4 tablespoons ground flax seed and half a cup of water, or equivalent amount egg replacement of choice
2 teaspoons vanilla (optional)
1 cup juice of choice or water (if using a less sweet sweetener like date syrup, I suggest using juice)
1- 1 1/2 cups fruit of choice, chopped (see above for suggestions)

Instructions:
1. Mix all the ingredients together, other than the fruit. The order doesn't make a difference. You can even mix it into your 9x13 pan if you're using that, so you don't have to get another dish dirty. Mix until there are no clumps.

2. If you're not already mixing it in your baking pan, transfer your batter into your baking pans, whether a bundt pan, loaf pans, small pans, muffin tins, leaving at least some space left left at the top of the pan.

3. Scatter in your fruit so that each part of the batter has fruit in it. You can push it down into the cake if you want the fruit to be a surprise, or you can leave it at the top, makes no difference.

4. Bake at 350 until a knife inserted into the cake comes out clean. Depending on the size of the pan, this will be anywhere from 20 minutes to 55 minutes.

Enjoy!

What is your favorite type of cake? Do you ever make fruit cake? How do you make yours? Does this look like a type of recipe you'd make, and if so, with what permutation of it?