Morning Coffee Cake with Chopped Apple, Pear and Sliced Banana

This cake is exactly what the name suggests: morning coffee cake. It’s just perfect, soft, light, moistened by the fruit allowing it to be enjoyed fully for a bit longer than just when freshly baked.

A generous addition of freshly grated orange zest pairs so well with a strong black moka coffee on a sunny morning.

The recipe comes from Marcella Hazan’s „Marcella Cucina” cook book which I’ve adapted ever so slightly to my preferences (less sugar and flour).

You will need:

• 3 medium eggs
• 250 g of sugar (use less, about 200g if you do not have a particularly sweet tooth)
• a pinch of salt
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 300 g of plain flour, sifted
• 2 flat teaspoons of baking powder, sifted
• grated peel of two oranges (non waxed)
• a large pear
• one crisp juicy apple
• 1 banana
• 2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice
• some butter for greasing the tin

Grease a round baking tin, 24 cm in diameter, with butter and lay with a sheet of baking parchment.

Preheat the oven to 190 C- static.

Whisk in the bowl of a standing mixer the eggs with the sugar until the mixture turns foamy, pale in colour and  triples in volume.

Add the salt, olive oil and grated orange peel and whisk again.

Peel and core the apple and pear. Remove the cores and cut the fruit into smaller pieces. Peel and thinly slice the banana. Put the fruit into a small bowl, pour in the lemon juice and toss gently.

Combine the flour and baking powder and mix them gently into the beaten egg mixture making sure there are no lumps. Add the fruit to the bowl with the cake batter and stir well to distribute the the fruit evenly.

Pour the cake batter into the prepared tin, even out the surface and bake in the preheated oven for 50-55 minutes, until the top of the cake turns lightly golden.

Once the cake is baked take it out of the oven and allow to cool down before turning it out onto a serving plate.

Decorate with icing sugar and enjoy!