Crema de Fruta

Cake week, Day 3: Crema de Fruta. One more day and you will all know what are we celebrating for. Crema de Fruta is a Filipino dessert made out of sponge cake, custard, fruits, and gelatine. A very popular dessert in Philippines which is commonly served in big festive occasions. This is complicated and time-consuming process to make (to me at least), but trust me it’s all worth the hard work. Thanks to my wife who made the sponge cake ready for me which made it less time-consuming of course. Just imagine the flavours in this dessert: the mixture of the soft cake drenched in fruit syrup mixed with custard, fruits and cream; it’s just simply magical. I’m pretty sure this will be hard to resist.

For this recipe I will be deviating a bit from the original recipe that usually used canned fruit cocktail. For my version I used: peaches, pineapples and preserved cherries that brought different colours and shapes.

Ingredients (Sponge Cake)

I used the same ingredients as the mamon

Ingredients (Custard)

3 1/2 cups full cream milk
5 egg yolks
3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
4 tbsp flour

Ingredients (Gelatine)

1 1/2 cups pineapple juice
2 tbsp unflavoured gelatine
1 cup water
6 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice

Ingredients (Others)

1 can sliced peaches
1 can sliced pineapples
dozen preserved cherries

Method (Sponge Cake)

I used the same method as the mamon but instead of using individual moulds use 2 x 9in round pans.  You might need to add 5-10 minutes on the cooking time depending on how thick your base will be.

Method (Custard)

1. Combine all custard ingredients in a saucepan, constantly stir in low heat until mixture thickens. Once it turns to custard remove from heat and let it cool.

Method (Gelatine)

1. Combine all gelatine ingredients in a saucepan, constantly stir in low heat until the gelatine dissolves. Remove from heat then set it aside.

Method (Crema de Fruta)

1. Get your sponge cake then place it in a serving pan; spread the custard filling on top and arrange the fruits on top.
2. Place the second sponge cake on top of the first layer; spread the custard filling on top and arrange the fruits on top.
3. Pour gelatine on top, and then chill in fridge until set.