# Sinking fruit...?



## aquabelinda (Aug 26, 2008)

Hello!

I'm having a bit of trouble with sinking fruit when baking! I sometimes put sultanas in my cinnamon madeira cake, but they always seem to sink to the bottom when they come out the oven. Any idea how i can prevent this whilst keeping the cake relatively light?

Thanks!

AquaBelinda


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## amazingrace (Jul 28, 2006)

Have you tried powdering the fruit lightly with flour? Not sure why this works, but it does with fresh and dried fruits, as well as with nuts. You can also dust frozen fruit as long as you do it while it is still frozen, and introduce it still frozen into the batter. (that is, of couse, fruit that is not frozen in one large chunk).

With some recipes, in order to maintain the integrity of the batter, some of the flour from the total recipe is used to dust the fruit, rather than introducing addition flour via the dusting process.


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## siduri (Aug 13, 2006)

I've tried the dusting with flour business, and i find it doesn't do much, esp if the batter is very light. I think you might cut up your raisins to be smaller (they'd weigh less) though that decreases some of the pleasure in biting into them. You might not soak them, because that makes them heavier. Sometimes i put them on top and just spread them around with a spoon so they're slightly covered in batter, works a little, not always. I'd like to hear a tried and true method, though, since i never really solved this one. The heavier the batter, the more they stay up. Maybe there is no solution.


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## aquabelinda (Aug 26, 2008)

Thanks guys, i'll give both those a go!

Maybe I should write to Mr Kipling and see what he does with manor house cake... haha!


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## madbakerwoman (Jul 14, 2008)

Dusting the fruit with flour always works great for me.


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