Festive Celebration Cake
The most delicious and juicy one you’ve ever tried! A beautiful festive cake lifts your mood: from the start, the kitchen fills with the aroma of juicy fruit, later joined by a light scent of cinnamon batter. It’s very easy to make, yet the bake turns out incredibly appetizing!
Updated : 29 January, 2026
Easy
About 30 min.
Ingredients
Dough
180 grams
Wheat flour
100 grams
Butter
100 grams
Sugar
2
Eggs
2 tablespoon
Sour cream
1 teaspoon
Cinnamon
1 teaspoon
Baking powder
Filling
40 grams
Butter
30 grams
Sugar
5
Fruits
Table
Table of volume measurements:
- teaspoon - 5 ml
- dessert spoon - 10 ml
- tablespoon - 20 ml
- glass - 200 ml
Preparation
Step 1
How do you make a beautiful cake for a festive table? First, prepare all the ingredients. Use any fruit or berries, fresh or frozen: oranges, apples, pears, blueberries, etc. I’m using mandarins - sweet and fragrant. If you use them too, make sure the peel fits tightly to the flesh; that’s very important. In general, choose fruit that holds its shape and doesn’t fall apart.
Step 2
Wash and dry the fruit thoroughly. Cut one of them in half and squeeze out the juice. Apples, pears, and similar fruit can simply be sliced into rounds without squeezing juice.
Step 3
Slice the remaining fruit into not-too-thin rounds, leaving the peel on. Berries don’t need slicing unless it’s large strawberries. If using bananas, peel them.
Step 4
Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat.
Step 5
Add the sugar.
Step 6
Add the fruit slices, pour in the squeezed juice, and cook everything together, stirring, for about 2-5 minutes. You can sauté without juice. Or you can skip this simmering step entirely and place fresh fruit slices in the pan. But some fruit becomes softer and tastier when gently cooked.
Step 7
Transfer the fruit slices into a baking pan lined with parchment and greased with butter. My pan is 18 cm (about 7 inches), but you can also use 20-22 cm (8-9 inches). Keep in mind: the thinner the batter layer, the more likely the top will brown quickly while the inside stays underbaked - especially where it touches the fruit. You can use the leftover juice in the skillet as a sauce for pancakes/fritters, or add it to the batter.
Step 8
Now make the fragrant batter. The butter should be at room temperature, so take it out of the fridge in advance. Use sour cream with 20-25% fat.
Step 9
In a bowl, combine the softened butter and sugar. Beat with a mixer on high speed until the sugar dissolves. At this stage, if you like, you can mix in the cooled aromatic fruit mixture left after simmering the fruit.
Step 10
Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.
Step 11
Add the sifted flour, baking powder, and ground cinnamon, and mix on low speed. If you add juice from the skillet, increase the flour by 1-2 Tbsp. Watch the batter consistency - your flour amount may be a bit more or less than mine.
Step 12
Add the sour cream and mix again.
Step 13
You’ll get a thick, fragrant, tender batter. Note that this is a cake-style batter with a good amount of butter, so the finished cake will be slightly moist with a delicate, velvety crumb.
Step 14
Spread the batter evenly over the fruit and smooth with a spatula. Bake in an oven preheated to about 180°C (356°F) for 30-45 minutes, until nicely browned. To prevent juice from dripping onto the oven floor, place a piece of foil or parchment under the pan. Depending on your pan diameter, the batter layer will be thicker or thinner, and the baking time will change: the thinner the layer, the faster it bakes. So don’t leave the cake unattended.
Step 15
You can let the cake sit in the cooling oven for another 10 minutes. Let the baked cake cool slightly, then invert it onto a serving plate so the fruit ends up on top.
Step 16
Before serving, decorate as you like. I additionally decorated with fresh mandarin slices, pomegranate seeds, mint leaves, and a little powdered sugar.
Step 17
This is what the festive birthday cake looks like when sliced. The crumb near the fruit may be a bit more moist - that’s how it should be, because fruit releases juice while baking. When slicing, some fruit may release juice that lightly soaks the cake as well. Thanks to this, your cake will be very tender in both flavor and texture. Enjoy!
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