Peach, strawberry, blueberry & pecan cake

Tonight we're going for a pot luck dinner at my vegan friend Ellie and Ru's new house.  I wanted to make a vegan cake and decided to make a round cake version of my peach and pecan bread - this time with tinned peaches, which worked just as well.  We'd got a small punnet of blueberries and some strawberries in the kitchen so I added them to the mixture, and made a cinnamon icing drizzle using the tinned peach juice, lemon and apple juice.  A lovely, dairy-free way to warm a new home (and it made ours smell wonderful too)!

Ingredients

2 x 250g tins of peaches

85ml sunflower oil

8 oz caster sugar

1 tsp almond extract

9 oz self-raising flour

3 oz ground almonds

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp cinnamon

Pinch of salt
3 oz pecans, chopped

150g blueberries

150g strawberries, diced

A good sprinkle of vanilla sugar

For the icing

Icing sugar

¼ tsp cinnamon

Juice of half a lemon

2 tbsp apple juice

To decorate

Strawberries, sliced

A handful of pecans

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.  Oil a 7 inch round, 4 inch deep cake tin, then line and oil the base and sides with baking paper. 
2. Strain the juice from the tins of peaches and set aside.
3. Place the peaches in a blender and blitz until smooth.
4. In a large bowl, mix together the peach purée, oil, caster sugar and almond extract and beat well.
5. Weigh the flour, ground almonds, baking powder, cinnamon and salt and stir well in the bowl of scales.  Mix the blueberries in the flour to coat them well. 
6. Sift the flour mixture into the peach mixture, and use a metal spoon to fold together until loosely combined.
7. Fold in the blueberries, strawberries and chopped pecans.
8. Pour the mixture into the cake tin and sprinkle with vanilla sugar.
9. Bake until a cake tester comes out clean (about 45-55 mins). 
10. Leave to cool on a wire rack for about 10 mins before removing from tin, then cool completely.
11. Meanwhile, make the icing by sifting the icing sugar and cinnamon into a bowl, and adding small amounts of the reserved peach juice, lemon and apple juice until you have a pouring consistency.  Cover with clingfilm and place in the fridge to firm up.
12. Once the cake is cool, drizzle with the icing.  Decorate with sliced strawberries and pecans.