Winemakers Cake

It wasn't until last year that I realised that grapes are actually meant to taste like...well..grapes! I always assumed that Welch's added fake grape taste to their juice as I had never tasted a grape with that flavour. Last year, about this time, I bought some Okanagan grown grapes at the Strathcona Farmer's Market and was blown away. They weren't the same vaguely sweet and watery tasting grapes that I had known all my life. They were packed full of crazy mouthwatering grapey flavour. I ate the whole carton inside of a day. I went back to the market the following week, but they were gone.

I pined for those grapes and wondered if I would ever have the experience again.

I'm happy to report that in the last two weeks I've had the pleasure of eating 3 more cartons of these grapes and, even better, they are available at regular grocery stores! So I am not restricted to a window of 6 hours on a Saturday to procure the week's supply!

I love these grapes so much I wanted them to be the central feature for our dessert when we had dinner guests last week. I pondered at great length about the appropriate treatment for them and finally settled on this recipe from Epicurious.com, which I have reproduced below for convenience, along with my changes (more grapes!!!).

This is not an overly sweet cake, which suite the grapes well and suits my maturing palate quite well too. I find I prefer my deserts to be less cloying and sweet than I did when I was younger.

Try to use grapes that are seedless or which have very small seeds. I've managed to purchase both seeded and unseeded varieties, so you night want to double check in the grocery store before you purchase.

This recipe would work equally well with cherries or berries of one kind or another. It's kind of like a clafouti but it's more cakey than custardy. Maybe closer to a coffee cake in texture, and incredibly moist.

• Butter and flour for greasing the cake pan
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 135 g (2/3 cup) white sugar
• 60 g (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted
• 60 ml (1/4 cup) light olive oil
• 80 ml (1/3 cup) light cream 
• 5 ml (1 teaspoon) pure vanilla extract
• 15 ml (1Tablespoon) Cointreau or Grand Marnier
• 200 g (1 1/2 cups) unbleached all-purpose flour
• 5 ml (1 teaspoon) baking powder
• A pinch of sea salt
• Grated zest of 1 lemon
• 500 g (2 to 2.5 cups) small purple or blue grapes
• whipped cream for garnish

Preheat oven to 350°F/175°C.

Butter and flour a 9"/23cm springform pan.

Using an electric whisk or mixer, whisk eggs and sugar until thick and pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the butter, oil, milk, vanilla extract,and cointreau and mix until blended.

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and lemon zest in a large bowl. Spoon the mixture into the bowl of batter and stir with a wooden spoon until thoroughly blended.

Stir about 3/4 of the grapes into the batter. Spoon the batter into the prepared cake pan and smooth out the top with a spatula.

Place the pan in the centre of the oven. Bake for 15 minutes, then sprinkle the top of the cake with remaining grapes. Bake until the top is a deep golden brown and the cake feels quite firm when pressed with a fingertip, about 40 minutes more, for a total baking time of 55 minutes. Remove to rack to cool. Run a knife along the sides of the pan to loosen. Release and remove the side of the springform pan, leaving the cake on the pan base. Serve at room temperature, cut into thin slices and topped with gently sweetened whipped heavy cream.

Comments

[Ellie]

Looks sensational - especially those bits of the cake stained with grape juice!

[Alanna]

My cousin and her husband grow some of those Okanagan grapes! I've been enjoying Missouri Concord grapes this year, none made it past the colander, however!

[connie]

beautiful images. now im pining for those grapes!

[paula]

I read your post this morning and I couldn't stop thinking about the grapes all day. I grew up with a grape vine in the backyard, but we mainly used the vine for the leaves. The grapes were always too bitter but I loved them anyway. I went shopping this afternoon and was very surprised to find baskets of Concord grapes at the Superstore. Well, I've been eating them since I got home, they are to die for.
So thanks for your post and for bringing attention to these little gems.

[Lydia]

Once again, your photos are mouthwatering. Oh, those grapes.....!

[rhonda]

Made this cake a couple days ago. Very tasty. I have lots of those little grapes left. Have you tried freezing this cake? I think it should be o.k. or do you think the grapes would make it too mushy?

[Scott at RealEpicurean]

On a related subject...

In my local store, Blueberries from Poland are selling at £2.50 for 100g (a ridiculous price).

On my recent holiday in Poland, we bought a carrier bag full, for 50p.

How does that work? That much in England would cost me more then £100!

[Karina]

Oh my. Swooning here [in New Mexico].

[tara]

so *that's* what those grapes are called! I'm so excited to read this. I stumbled across some AMAZING grapes a year ago and didn't know what they were called. I'm now almost positive they were Okinagan grapes.

I commend you for having enough restraint to actually use them in a recipe. Mine never made it that far. :)

[James]

My mouth is watering i love anything sweet and grapes. Thanks for the recipe i will be making it for when the family comes over. Beautiful images.