Summer, and another two plum trees laden
with fruit. Somehow, despite best
efforts, I always manage to dribble the dark stain down my front. Plum tree number one you can do that with;
the fruit is sweet enough to pluck straight from the tree. The fruit from the other tree ripens a little
later and needs the most help with sugar.
Though the flesh is just sweet, the skin retains a sourness that makes
it less edible than its early bird neighbour.
As in previous years, I’ve taken the plums
and bottled plum & vanilla jam in little jars (and dropped teaspoonfuls
straight into my mouth). I’ve showered
friends and neighbours with bags of the fruit and I still have some left on the
tree. Time is running out but I have plans to poach them, sprinkle a streusel mix
on top, bake them and freeze so I can recall this long summer when it is chilly.
Let’s hope life quietens down just
enough to allow me to do this.
For now though, I’m kind of smitten with
this cake. I love the texture and taste of
ground almonds in cakes. There’s a dense
richness that’s not heavy but seems to complement the weight of the plums
suspended in the batter.
The plums do drop down into the cake during
cooking, so I just I flip the cake over when it is baked and use the bottom as
the top. It shows off the plums nicely
with a smooth, flat surface
I made this for our first book club of the
year (and this year I hope to share with you our exciting reading months ahead)
and promised I would post it. A little
late but here it is.
 |
| Captured taking a shot with my little point & shoot |
Plum, almond and orange cake
200g butter, softened
200g caster sugar
25g vanilla sugar*
4 eggs
150 self-raising flour
70g ground almonds
zest of 1 orange
2 tbsp milk, at room temperature
approximately 5-6 plums, sliced (enough to
cover the top of the cake)
*If
you don’t have vanilla sugar to hand, just use a total of 225g caster sugar
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease and line a 21cm
cake tin.
Cream the butter and sugar until pale and
fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time
(beat well before adding the next one).
One of the tips my dad gave me was to add a tablespoon of flour (from
the ingredients list) to the mix if it looks like it may separate at this stage.
Sift in the remaining flour and fold in
with a large metal spoon. Gently mix in
the ground almonds, orange zest and milk until just incorporated.
Place the sliced plums on the top of the
cake. Don’t worry too much about their appearance
as the plums will sink and it will be a total waste of your efforts. As I said above, for a more attractive cake, turn
the finished cake bottom side up where most of the plums will have plunged.
Bake for approximately 1 hour. A skewer inserted in the middle should come
out clean and the cake should spring back when you push lightly with your
fingertips. If the top of the cake
browns too much during cooking time, cover with tin foil (don’t put it directly
on cake, make a small dome shape over the cake tin).
Leave to cool in the tin for 15 minutes
then carefully remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
Serve dusted with icing sugar and cream or
yoghurt.
Recipe adapted from Julie Buiso's Plum & Almond Cake from Sweet Feast.
I'm submitting this to Sweet New Zealand, hosted in February by Michelle at Greedybread.
I'm submitting this to Sweet New Zealand, hosted in February by Michelle at Greedybread.
