Cinnamon and Plum Cake

madnad

Despite the colder turn the weather has taken, my garden is still producing. I picked some Victoria plums last week while they were still green and under ripe. The reason is, if I wait for them to ripen on the branch, then the bugs and birds will have had a nibble. Picking them under ripe, and ripening indoors (I did this by popping them in a box with a ripe banana). This meant that this weekend, I had a bunch of plums that needed something doing with them. I still have a bunch of plum jam from last year, and I have a some pie filling from the blackberries I picked last week. So, I decided to add them to a cake.

I made a simple cake batter (in my new Kenwood Chef XL), popped it in the tin and placed the halved and stoned plums on the top. I had made some cinnamon sugar recently for another recipe, so decided to sprinkle this on the top. As I suspected would happen, the plums sank during cooking, some all the way to the bottom. However, what I hadn’t predicted, was that the cinnamon sugar would be dragged behind them, weaving trails of cinnamon loveliness throughout the sponge. A beautiful, happy accident.

CINNAMON AND PLUM CAKE

A vanilla sponge studded with spiced ripe plums

COURSE: Dessert
Keyword: plums
AUTHOR: www.mutherfudger.co.uk
INGREDIENTS
  • 225 grams Caster Sugar
  • 225 grams Butter
  • 225 grams Plain Flour
  • teaspoon Baking Powder
  • pinch Salt
  • 3 Large Free Range Egg
  • 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
  • 12-18 Plums pitted and halved
  • 2 tablespoons Cinnamon Sugar
INSTRUCTIONS
  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC / 350ºF / Gas Mark 4
  2. In a mixer, or with a hand whisk, cream together the butter and sugar until it is pale and fluffy
  3. Lightly beat the eggs together with the vanilla, and add a third while the mixer is turning. Wait for it to be fully incorporated before adding the next third, and then again with the final third
  4. Sift the flour, salt and baking powder together. Add it to the mixture while on a slow speed. Once all the flour is in, turn the speed up for a couple of minutes to ensure everything is well mixed
  5. Grease a 10"/26cm spring form or loose bottomed cake tin. Place a disk of greaseproof on the bottom, then pour in the mixture
  6. Arrange the plums, cut side down, on the surface of the cake - they will sink a little during cooking, possibly all the way to the bottom
  7. Sprinkle the top of the cake with the cinnamon sugar, then bake for 40-50 minutes on a low shelf, or until a skewer comes out clean
  8. Allow to cool a little before serving with ice cream or crème anglaise, or wait until its cooled to room temperature and have on its own with a lovely cup of tea
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