Fruit Streusel Mini-cakes
As anyone who knows me or reads my posts knows, I do not like to waste food. So recently, when I overcooked some rhubarb, I wasn’t about to trash it. Because —anyone who bakes knows — fruit sauce (applesauce, peach sauce, even mashed avocado, etc.) is very useful for making muffins, quickbreads and cake.
I decided to make muffins, but rather than use a basic muffin recipe, I tinkered with an old recipe for applesauce cake and decided to go with that. Even though they look like muffins and they’re baked in muffin tins, I call them mini-cakes because the texture is more cake-like than muffiny.
I guess that means you can eat them for breakfast but also serve them for dessert (an ice cream accompaniment would be good).
If you prefer cake, use a 9” cake tin.
Fruit Streusel Mini-cakes
Streusel:
1/3 cup quick cooking oats
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
3 tablespoons butter cut into chunks
Mini-cakes:
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup stewed fruit puree
1/3 cup plain Greek style yogurt (or use sour cream)
1 large egg, beaten
1-1/2 teaspoons freshly grated orange zest
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons orange juice
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Make the streusel: Combine the oats, flour and sugar in a bowl and mix the ingredients together. Add the butter. Using fingers or a pastry blender (or a food processor on pulse), work the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture is crumbly. Set it aside.
The mini-cakes: Lightly grease 9 muffin tin cups. Beat the sugar and butter together with a hand mixer or electric mixer set at medium speed for 2-3 minutes or until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Add the stewed fruit puree, yogurt, egg and orange zest and beat the ingredients for 2-3 minutes or until smooth. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Add half the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and beat until well blended. Add half the juice and beat until well blended. Repeat with the remaining ingredients. Pour equal amounts of the batter into the muffin tins. Sprinkle equal amounts of the streusel on top of the muffins. Bake for 22-25 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the middle comes out clean.
Makes 9
