It's plum season here so I thought it was about time to make a plum cake, but this time I decided to try a new recipe. I'd read lots of rave reviews for Nigel Slater's plum and walnut cake, so I thought I'd try it for myself. Firstly I had to buy some plums. Secondly I had to find another copy of the recipe online because the quantity of baking powder was missing from the Guardian's online version (1 1/2 teaspoons by the way). Thirdly, I had to increase the quantity of the cake batter to fit the only spring form tin I had which was 23 cm.
Now you know me well enough by now to know I did adapt the recipe slightly. Plums go so well with cinnamon it felt churlish not to add some to the mix, so I did.
Toasted walnuts taste better than the raw version, so I toasted the nuts before adding them to the mix.
Plums can be quite tart, so I sugared the plums before covering the batter.
When I turned the cake out nearly all the plums had sunk to the bottom (as warned) so I decided to serve the cake upside down because I thought it looked much prettier that way.
Here's my version of Nigel Slater's Plum and Walnut Cake
Moist Plum Cake (makes a 23 cm cake) printable recipe
Ingredients
200 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature
200 grams caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 eggs
100 grams plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
135 grams almond meal
65 grams toasted walnuts
10 - 12 small plums, ripe but still firm
1 - 2 tablespoons extra sugar
Method
Preheat oven to 180ºC (350ºF). Lightly grease and flour a 23cm spring form cake tin and line the base with baking paper.
Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Pit the plums and cut into quarters. Sprinkle plums with the extra 1 - 2 tablespoons sugar and set aside.
Finely chop the toasted walnuts and reserve. Add the eggs to the butter mixture, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula in between additions. Sift the flour, baking powder and cinnamon. Fold into the butter mixture. Fold in the almond meal and the chopped walnuts.
Spoon the batter into the tin. Place the quartered plums in concentric circles, without overlapping, on top of the batter. (The plums will sink to the bottom of the tin whilst baking.) Bake for about 1 hour or until a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool completely in the pan before turning out onto a cooling rack.
Soon after the cake came out of the oven we shared the first slice. The plums were tart and the cake mixture moist and fragrant. Definitely a winner and I can tell I'll be making it again in various guises.
See you all again on Wednesday.
Until then,
Jillian
Each month the Delicious magazine arrives at work and I look through it for recipes to try. I saw this recipe for a spiced zucchini and pecan cake and as I was about to go to Dungog for the weekend I knew it would be the perfect thing to make.
I visited the girls and gathered a few eggs to use in the cake.
I'd just bought a large bag of walnuts so I decided to use those instead of pecans.
The recipe made a huge quantity of lime sour cream icing so I didn't use all of it, but it tasted very yummy.
Here is the original recipe though I did slightly adapt it to my taste. I used a 24 cm springform pan because that's all I own. Apart from swapping walnuts for the pecans, I also reduced the oil content and left out the sultanas. There wasn't any nutmeg in the cupboard in Dungog so that was omitted but no-one seemed to notice it's absence...
SPICED ZUCCHINI AND PECAN CAKE
2 cups (300g) plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
300g caster sugar
1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped
3 eggs
1 cup (250ml) sunflower oil
2 cups (300g) grated zucchini
100g sultanas
1 cup (140g) pecans toasted, chopped
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease and line a 22 cm springform cake tin.
Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and nutmeg into a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk the sugar, vanilla, oil and eggs together. Fold the egg mixture, zucchini, sultanas and 1 cup pecans into the flour mixture.
Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 1-1¼ hours until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Transfer the cake to a wire rack to cool completely. Remove cake from the pan when cooled. I placed the cake in the fridge before icing.
Sour cream and lime icing
1½ cups (225g) pure icing sugar, sifted
1½ cups (360g) sour cream at room temperature
Finely grated zest of 1 lime
½ cup (70g) pecans toasted, chopped
For the icing beat the icing sugar, zest and sour cream together until smooth. Remove cake from the fridge and decorate with the icing and the reserved pecans.
The light was just gorgeous that day, so I couldn't help but take a few more photos than usual.
I'll be back again on Wednesday with a shopshoot, so until then,
Jillian
