Cake with white grapes

September, the month Greeks really enjoy grapes in their season! Not only are they great as a fruit but out of them we get products like the grape must (and out of it the grape molasses "petimezi") which we use in various sweets and desserts. This is a tasty and refreshing cake with fresh seedless grapes (the popular white "stafida" variety) which can be served plain or along with some ice cream

Recipe of Elias Demirtzoglou

from the "Cook Book" magazine of "ETHNOS" newspaper

Ingredients (for 8 people):
250gr. of sweet white, seedless grapes (cut in half)
300gr. of a sweet muscat wine
280gr. of granulated sugar
150gr. of butter or margarine
4 eggs
1 lemon, the zest (unwaxed)
1 orange, the zest (unwaxed)
1 lime, the zest (unwaxed)
200ml of olive oil
400gr. of all-purpose flour
2 tsp of baking powder
50gr. of brown sugar

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Put the wine in a saucepan and boil for about 10 minutes on medium heat until it is reduced to half of its original amount. Take off the heat and leave aside.

In a large bowl put the butter and the sugar and beat with a hand mixer until they become fluffy and creamy. Add the eggs, one by one, and then the zest of all the citrus while continue beating.

Mix the olive oil into the saucepan with the boiled wine.

Alternately, add into the butter/egg mixture the flour, the baking powder and the wine/oil mixture while mixing well. In the end add the halved grapes.

Brush with some butter a round cake tin of 30cm (or a bundt cake tin) and sprinkle the bottom with the brown sugar to cover.

Empty the cake mixture into the tin and put in the oven. Bake for about 35-40 minutes.