Frozen fruit in cakes

[spangle Profile]

Hi all

Can any experienced bakers advise on this - sometimes I see tempting recipes for cakes, muffins, brownies etc. that use fruit within the cake batter, e.g. raspberries, blueberries, cherries.

I often have bags of these fruits in the freezer and wonder whether I could use them, and if so, whether to thaw them first. I assume when a recipe states 'raspberries' it means fresh ones, and frozen ones tend to be soggier than fresh when thawed.

Has anyone tried using frozen instead of fresh and how did it turn out? Do you make any tweaks, e.g. use less liquid than the recipe states, drain the thawed fruit? (A Google search gave mixed opinions.)

Thanks.

[Earthmaiden Profile]

At cookery classes we were encouraged to add frozen fruit as it didn't go quite so mushy during cooking (whatever you use needs to be separated but not thawed). I have done so many times since.

It was also suggested that if you wanted fruit to show invitingly at the top that you kept some back and pressed it into the cake attractively when it was halfway through cooking. It worked there but I'm usually a bit dubious about opening the oven door halfway through the cooking of a sponge-type cake!

[smitch Profile]

I've used frozen raspberries in blondies and they worked well. However, the batter was thicker than cake mixture and the recipe specifically asked for frozen.

[spangle Profile]

Thanks both, sounds worth giving it a go. I like the tip about poking some of the fruit into the top halfway through cooking.