This Fruit Cake was always present on the menu during summer in our house in Bucharest. My mother and grandmother used to make this fluffy and easy cake, and I think it was a must-do recipe for every family in Romania. Because the main ingredients are the fresh fruits, it’s a summer cake recipe, even though we used to make it with preserved fruits as well during the winter months. (Fruit preserving was a big deal in Romania during the communist period, and I think it still is!)

Depending on what fruits my mother would find at the market, the cake was made with sour cherries (my favorite), apricots, peaches, or plums. But you can let your imagination fly and improvise with other fruits too. 

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Ingredients:

♦ 1,5 / 2 pounds fresh fruits

♦ 10 large eggs

♦ 10 tablespoons all-purpose flour 

♦ 12 tablespoons sugar 

♦ 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

♦ 1 pinch of salt

♦ Powdered sugar for decorating

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Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F and line a large baking pan with parchment paper.

2. Wash, pit (if necessary), and cut the fruits. For bigger fruits, you can cut them in quarters. Set aside.

3. Put the egg whites and a pinch of salt in a large bowl. Using a mixer, beat them together at low speed, adding the sugar, spoon by spoon. Continue mixing at high speed until the mixture is stiff and has a meringue consistency.

4. Add the egg yolks, the vanilla extract, and the sifted flour (easily one by one, not everything together) and gently stir with a spatula. Don’t use the mixer! Stir from the bottom to top only; the batter should keep its air bubbles.

5. Put the mixture evenly into the baking pan. Add the fruits on top.

6. Bake in preheated oven for approximately 30 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

7. Let it cool in the baking pan. Cut into squares and powder with the powdered sugar.

You can store this cake at room temperature for up to 3 days or freeze it for up to 3 months.

Pofta buna! (Bon appetite!)

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