Hi Zabby, Is this the one you are looking for? It is very good and easy too. Originally posted by jojoco on the cooking forum. This is, without question, one of my all time favorite recipes. It is also one of the easiest recipes I've ever made. It originally was printed in the New York Times on Labor Day, in 1981. For many years it would run on that same day and always heralded the end of summer. One year, in the '90's, the recipe was accompanied by a plea from the NYT to clip and save as it would not be run again in the paper. Thank goodness for the internet. It is not too sweet and freezes beautifully. Summer Torte by Marion Burros 1 stick butter, softened (I always use unsalted) 3/4 cup sugar 1 cup flour; sifted 1 tsp baking powder 2 eggs pinch of salt fruit of choice; sliced into wedges (I used about 7 plums. Peaches, nectarines,strawberries all work great and in combination) cinnamon sugar for top Preheat oven to 350. Cream butter and add sugar. Beat well. Add eggs and beat. Mix together flour, baking powder and salt. Add to batter. Mix. Spoon globs to greased 9 or 10 inch springform. Use a knife to spread batter to cover entire pan. Arrange fruit on top. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar (amount depends on the sweetness of the fruit). Bake for 45 min.

If you're just making a 2-layer, filled cake: 1) bottom cake layer 2) THIN layer of icing (kind of a crumb-coat, just to seal the cake) 3) filling 4) second cake layer 5) ice sides/top as desired Preserves/fillings are a personal thing - I love a tart citrus filling made with fresh citrus (sorry, I think the canned lemon filling is pretty bad, although Solo raspberry is OK - again, just my own opinion) Don't worry about the cake not being sweet enough with a not-so-sweet-filling . . . between the cake and the frosting, believe me, it'll be sweet enough. If you go with a soft filling, make sure not to use too much or it will squish out the edges once you put the top layer on - that's where the 'dam' helps.

It's not worth getting bogged down on words which may refer to many things. Pavlova, which comes from Colleen's part of the world, is usually classed as a type of meringue. When bakers say that, they're using the word meringue to refer to the whole class of sweetened whipped eggwhite confections. There are also at least three ways to make classic meringue: French, Italian and Swiss, which differ by which bits are heated when. The point for Cookie8's layers is that Pavlova is crisp on the outside and chewy inside, whereas, as Linda said, a lot of American pies and other desserts have a layer of French meringue which is often torched or baked high just to brown the top, but is soft and fluffy from the outside all the way through. Which is different from meringues, the piped or quenelled and baked until crisp all the way through "cookies".

Meta Givens has a pretty good fruit cake recipe. It used the candied fruits, golden raisins, nuts, regular dark raisins, molasses, etc. You bake it, then douse it with some fruit flavored brandy and then decorate it if desired, and you can also put a glaze over it as well. Using the brandy or other choice alcohol helps set it and ripen it, and it freezes well, but you have to let it ripen for 4 weeks first. If you would like the recipe, I would be happy to give it to you. The recipe is pretty large, but I could certainly cut it down for you, or you could do that yourself if you wanted to. Oh heck, I'm going to just give you the recipe. I was trying to get away without having to type it all out because I'm really tired from being up all night baking this fruit cake of all things as well as some cheesecakes. lol. OLD FASHIONED FRUITCAKE: original recipe divided by 4, all ingredients should be at room temperature. Soak Fruit overnight in ½ cup of medium syrup, about 24 hours to soften fruit: recipe at bottom. Fruit mix: 3 ¼ -oz. seedless raisins = ¼ box 15 oz. seedless raisins 7 ½-oz. Golden raisins = ½ box golden raisins 1 6 – 8 oz. pkg pitted dates, cut into slices ½ lbs. candied citron = 8 oz. ¼ lbs. candied pineapple = 4 oz. 1 oz. candied orange peel 1 oz. candied lemon peel 2 oz. candied cherries 2 oz. blanched almonds slices Mix dry ingredients together: 1 ½ cups flour, sifted ½ tsp baking soda ½ tsp salt less a pinch ½ tsp cinnamon ¼ tsp allspice 2 shakes of ground cloves, the original amount is ½ tsp 2 shakes of ground nutmeg, the original amount is ½ tsp 2 shakes of mace, the original amount is ½ tsp Cream together: ½ stick of butter or 4 TBSP ¼ cup Brown sugar plus 2 tsp, packed 1 egg 2 oz. currant jelly, but apple jelly or other jelly may be substituted. ¼ cup light molasses 3 oz. buttermilk alternating with dry ingredients Add wet ingredients to dry and mix in candied fruits. To make syrup, heat ¼ cup sugar and ½ cups water to boiling, then simmer 5 minutes. Add 2 ½ tsp white corn syrup. The full recipe makes 2 large fruit cakes loaf pans plus 7 of the half-sized loaf pans. This is enough batter to make a large tube pan cake. Prepare your pans by lining them with parchment paper or take a brown grocery sack and cut it to the shape of your pan, or use brown wrapping paper and cut it to shape of pans covering all sides and leave 1 inch over top edge to help get cake out of pan if using loaf pans. Butter inside of pans to help adhere paper liner to them. Brush on a little whole milk on top, to help keep cakes from browning on top too much and to help give it a nice shine. Bake fruitcake between 275˟F. and 325˟F. for about 1 hour, or until done depending on the size of your baking pan, but do not go higher than 325˟F. Put a pan of hot water on bottom rack of oven when baking fruit cake. If they start to get too brown, add a piece of foil over them or parchment paper. *Note! It is much easier to just get one of the small containers of chopped mix fruit to use in recipe plus the dates and raisins added extra. I always make the full recipe, plus I add the dates and raisins, plus about 1/3 of a container of candied red cherries as the fruit mix already has red and green candied cherries. I use the rest to decorate the cake after I glaze it. I use apricot brandy to drizzle on top of the fruitcake, then make an apricot glaze to add on top, then add my halved candied cherries on top and or whole pecans to decorate the fruit cakes. Wrap them in plastic wrap and let them ripen in a cool dark place. After 4 weeks you can wrap freezer paper around them or heavy-duty foil and freeze them. We’ve had fruitcake last in the fridge for a full year due to the brandy and sugar content. They were perfectly fine, and I’ve also frozen them. Either way is fine. Apricot Glaze: ½ cup cold water 1 cup white sugar 2 oz. chopped apricots Boil for about 5 minutes the add ¼ cup white corn syrup and cook for another 1 minute. I add a little apricot brandy to it once it’s cooled down slightly for more flavor.