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  • Serves 8
  • Makes 1
  • 49 minutes
  • Difficulty Easy
  • 4 Ingredients

68 Comment

I have just made the easiest three-ingredient fruit sponge cake ever. It’s a recipe that has been floating around the internet for a little while, and enjoyed a resurgence when a mum posted her creation in an Aldi’s mums facebook group.

I first saw the recipe on the foodie blog, Love, Shoes and Cupcakes which combines a simple vanilla cake mix with a drained tin of fruit. The Aldi mum upped the ante, by adding a layer of custard in the centre of the cake – transforming a simple cake into a sublime dessert.

I used a Greens Vanilla butter cake mix for the base – but you can really use any kind of plain vanilla cake mix. I had a tin of pears in fruit juice in the cupboard so I used this as the fruit ingredient. You can really use any kind of fruit you want. Apple works beautifully, but you can even experiment with fruit salad or pineapple.

fruit sponge cake

No need for any butter, oil, milk, sugar, flour or anything else. This recipe is as simple as draining the tinned fruit really well and then mixing the fruit with the cake mix in a bowl. I added a dash of cinnamon to the mix, as I just love cinnamon with anything.

Add Custard For An Extra Treat

The custard is actually optional and the original recipe simply mixed the fruit and cake mix and then added this to a cake tin and baked. However, we’re big custard fans in our house and we often have a big bowl of homemade custard in the fridge (I use my thermomix to make my never-fail custard but you can just buy a thickened custard from the shops). I added half the cake and fruit mixture to the greased baking tin, then a layer of custard, followed by the rest of the cake mixture.

fruit sponge cake with custard and cinnamon

The only issue I found was that there wasn’t enough cake mix leftover to cover the cake so the finished result was more like a crumble rather than a fruit sponge cake. But it was still absolutely delicious – moist, custardy, cakey, fruity – just YUM!

Perhaps next time, I would use two boxes of cake mix instead, if I wanted to produce a more authentic fruit sponge cake.


Ingredients (serves 8 | makes 1 Cake)

  • 1 Box Vanilla or Butter Cake Mix
  • 1 Tin fruit, drained well
  • 1/2 Cup Vanilla Custard
  • Optional: Cinnamon

Method

  1. Chop and drain the tinned fruit (I used pear), and add some cinnamon to the fruit
  2. Fold fruit into cake mix
  3. Prepare a cake tin with baking spray. Add half the cake and fruit mix to the tin.
  4. Dollop a layer of custard on top.
  5. Add the rest of the batter on top. Sprinkle cinnamon on top.
  6. Bake at 160C (fan-forced oven) for 40 minutes.

  • I used a large tin and it was amazing just about to have our second one now, we used tin peaches, my sons are keen on a chocolate apricot one,

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  • Couldn’t be simpler, lovely with the cinnamon too.

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  • Great idea. Sounds like I will need to keep the fruit ratio low though

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  • Made this after seeing it here yesterday! I made it with Vanilla cake mix and had the same problem with the mixture not being enough so I just mixed the custard in when I realised the cake batter wasn’t enough to cover it. I think the Vanilla mix made it a little too sweet and Im thinking it’ll taste even better with fresh fruit.

    cake wait to expirement. Otherwise it was a moist (leaning towards wet) kinda cake, easy and delicious with custard on top!

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  • I’m going to get the kids to try this one this coming weekend. If it’s a win – it’s an easy one for school lunch boxes

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  • Everything is worth a shot once

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  • Ooh, my hubby would love an apple version of this. And funny enough, I have a vanilla cake mix and canned apple in the pantry, and leftover custard in the fridge!!

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  • Seems so easy

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  • Seems easy enough and looks delicious

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  • I love this recipe. Might have to make it for the ladies at the hospital

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  • oh wow what a clever idea – thank you for sharing – I cannot wait to test this out

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  • It does look like a yummy crumble rather than cake – but looks delicious.


    • These cake mixes are super easy to use!

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  • I’m afraid I don’t like using instant cake mixes but thanx for sharing.

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  • Love this! defs need to give it a go

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  • Ooo very impressive, love easy yummy recipes

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  • Yummm i thought it was fried chicken at 1st

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  • I love a recipe with a few ingredients and it seems so easy to make.

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  • I generally don’t buy those cake mix, but it seems very convenient indeed!

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  • How easy for those who don’t want to use egg

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  • Will surely try looking super cool

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