Eye spy... a taste of summer

I'm making time to catch up on some Eye Spy posts, hosted by Cindy.

Summer for me always means delicious summer fruits: nectarines, peaches, plums, pineapple, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and watermelon. My mouth is watering just thinking about them.

by adwriter

Over the weekend I whipped up a fruit slice of nectarine and strawberries. There were only a couple of friends visiting, but the slice was gone in no time. Unfortunately I can't find the cable for my phone and so can't download the photo (my camera was misplaced at the time). But just pretend that it looked very pretty! This is my version:

Beth's most awesome nectarine and strawberry slice
Adapted from this recipe here.

Ingredients

• Spray oil or melted butter, for greasing the pan
  
• 3 ripe nectaines, cut into 6 pieces. You can blance them and remove the skin, but I left skin on and they tasted fine, and added colour to it.
  
• 1/2 punnet strawberries, tops removed and sliced in half.
  
• 100g butter, cubed, at room temperature
• 110g (1/2 cup) caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 2 eggs
• 75g self-raising flour
• 75g plain flour
• 100g ground almonds
• Icing sugar, to serve

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Brush a 16.5 x 26cm slab pan with melted butter to lightly grease. Line the pan with non-stick baking paper to cover the base and extend over the long sides.
2. Beat the butter, caster sugar and vanilla essence in a medium sized mixing bowl until pale and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, until combined.
3. Sift the self-raising and plain flours over the butter mixture. Add the ground almonds and use a large metal spoon to fold the dry ingredients into the butter mixture. Spoon into prepared pan and smooth the surface. The mixture will be quite stiff so you must hold the paper in place.
4. Arrange the nectarine and strawberry slices on top of the batter and press down gently so they are slightly embedded. Bake in oven for 35-45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the slice comes out clean. Leave in the pan for 5 minutes before lifting out.
5. Serve at room temperature as a slice, cut into 12-15 portions, depending on how much you're looking after your waistline. Or, cut into 8 portions and serve warm for dessert accompanied by cream or ice-cream, if you're ignoring your waistline. Dust with icing sugar just before serving.