2. plum and almond cake
an ode to the delightful summer fruit, lé plum!
In case you missed the last Kitchen Diaries post, you can check it out here.
Late-summer plums lend themselves to an array of recipes and every year the farmers markets are packed to the brim with fresh plums of different varieties. Plums tend to come in a bountiful bunches, and because of it, they are enjoyed in many different ways - fresh or baked, with yogurt or ice cream, perhaps made into pie, crumble and jams.
I’ve opted for a cake this week, one with a bit of a nutty taste to it - a Plum and Almond cake. Simple, not-to-sweet, but fully moist and best enjoyed with an afternoon cup of tea.
Plum and Almond cake
Ingredients
5 small plums
1 tablespoon caster sugar
125 grams (4 oz) unsalted butter
100 grams (½ cup) caster sugar
1 tsp grated lemon rind
2 eggs
1 cup self raising flour
½ tsp baking powder
¼ cup (35 g) finely ground whole almonds
60 mls (¼ cup) milk or plain yoghurt
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Grease and line the base and sides of a 16 cm springform tin with baking paper.
Cut the plums in half and remove the pits. Slice each plum half into quarters and sprinkle a tablespoon of caster sugar over the plums. Set aside.
To make the cake, cream the butter, sugar and lemon rind together in a bowl until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and mix until combined well. Sift the flour and baking powder together and stir through the ground almonds.
Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk to make a soft batter. You may not need to use all the milk.
Spoon the batter into the lined tin. Decoratively arrange the plum slices over the top of the cake, gently pressing the plums down into the batter.
Bake the cake for 50 minutes to 1 hour or until the cake tests cooked when a skewer is inserted into it.
Cool the cake in the tin for about 15 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool
If you have any cookbook or recipe suggestions? My DMs are always open @natcrx or let’s chat in the comments below!
Yum- I can almost taste this with a cup of coffee ☕️ I find that I’m pretty horrible at choosing plums, or maybe the selection here is just hit or miss. But I picked up some earlier in the week (figs are gone here and I’m trying to be okay with it haha) and they were perfect. I’m thinking I need to go back and grab some more of them for a plum almond cake baking adventure this weekend!