TEATIME TREATS Fill your home with the smell of baking with these pretty-as-a-picture, Polish-inspired cakes and bakes from food writer Ren Behan – perfect for an afternoon treat or an Easter get-together

STONE FRUIT TRAYBAKE

Serves 12 Takes 1 hour 20 minutes

INGREDIENTS

• 240ml/83/4fl oz vegetable oil, plus extra for greasing

• 225g/8oz caster sugar

• 4 eggs, lightly beaten

• 2 tbsp natural yoghurt

• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste

• 1 tsp grated orange or lemon zest

• 250g/9oz self-raising flour

• 1 tsp baking powder

• 8-10 apricots (or other stone fruit, such as plums or greengages), halved and stoned

• 2 tsp icing sugar

1. Preheat your oven to 180°C, fan 160°C, gas 4. Grease and line a 30x23cm/12x9in baking tin with baking paper.

2. Put the oil, caster sugar, beaten eggs, yoghurt and vanilla bean paste into a stand mixer. Beat for 5 minutes until pale and fluffy, then add the orange or lemon zest and beat again. Stir in the flour and baking powder, gently folding with a metal spoon until all the flour is incorporated.

3. Pour the cake batter into the lined tin and gently press the halved fruit, cut-side up, into the batter. Bake in the preheated oven for 55 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Leave the cake to cool in the tin.

4. Before serving, remove the cake from the tin and dust with icing sugar. The cake will keep well in a tin for up to 3 days.

VARIATIONS

• To make an eggless sponge, replace the eggs with natural yoghurt by increasing the volume of yoghurt to 250ml/9fl oz and add 1 mashed ripe banana. (Use vegan or dairy-free yoghurt for a vegan version.) Alternatively, use 150ml/1/4pt of whipped aquafaba.

• To make a gluten-free version, replace the self-raising flour and baking powder with a gluten-free self-raising flour blend of your choice and gluten-free baking powder.