plum tosca cake

plum tosca cake

1 Feb 2025

Every year when plums are in season, I make plum cake. My dear friend Liane, who passed away 2 years ago, loved plum cake so I now make a plum cake every year in her honour. Sometimes it's my usual recipe and sometimes I'll try another recipe. 

This year while searching for recipes I came across a recipe for a Plum Tosca Cake by Rachel Khoo. It looked enticing so I decided to make a version with my own plum cake recipe as the base topped with the almond toffee mixture.

My cake almost overflowed in the tin while it baked, so I made a second cake which I baked in an 8 inch tin. I needed more plums and more topping, but that's not a bad thing. I usually make my cake batter quite soft so the plums sink to the bottom during the bake but it was clear from the photos the plums stayed on the surface so I reduced the liquid in my recipe accordingly. Rachel also suggests using apricots or cherries or other soft fruit to top the cake, so next time I make a tosca cake I might use blackberries. 

Here's the recipe for you which makes a 20cm cake although the photographs are of the 17cm cake I made. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C. 

Plum Tosca Cake inspired by a Rachel Khoo recipe.

Ingredients
8-9 plums, halved and stoned then quartered and topped with 1 tbs sugar

100g caster sugar

the grated zest of 1 lemon
100g room temperature unsalted butter
2 eggs
1 1/4  tsp baking powder
a pinch of fine sea salt
150g plain flour
1 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup milk or yoghurt

Topping
50g butter
50g caster sugar
100g flaked almonds
3 tsp rum (optional)
2 tbs plain flour
45 mls cream
a pinch of sea salt

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C, conventional. Line a 20cm springform cake tin with baking paper.

Half the plums, then remove the stones. You can use plum halves but I used plum quarters so I could squeeze in more plums. Top the cut side of the plums with 1 tablespoon of caster sugar and set to one side.

For the cake, in the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the sugar and lemon rind until the sugar is fragrant. Add the butter and mix until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add one egg at a time, beating to incorporate.

Sift the baking powder, salt and flour into a separate bowl. Fold the dry ingredients into the egg mixture, along with the vanilla extract and the milk. You should have a thick soft batter.

Spoon the batter into the prepared cake tin. Level the mixture with a palette knife, then lay the plum quarters on top of the cake. If you're using plum halves, place them skin side down. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the cake is still slightly wobbly in the middle. While the cake is baking, make the cake topping by first melting the butter. Once melted, take off the heat and mix with all the other ingredients until combined.

Take the cake out of the oven and turn the oven up to 200°C conventional. Spread the topping evenly over the cake and bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden and crisp. Immediately loosen the cake with a knife when it comes out of the oven to prevent the topping from welding itself to the tin. Cool for 10-20 minutes before unmoulding from the tin then let the cake completely cool on a wire rack before serving. 

The cake will keep for a few days in an airtight container but is best served the day it's baked as the topping will still be crisp. Even with a soft topping, the cake is still very good a few days later. 

I recently went to Melbourne for a family wedding and as I was staying in St Kilda, I visited the Monarch Cake Shop where I bought a slice of their famous plum cake. I carefully transported the cake back to my accommodation where I enjoyed my slice with a nice cup of tea.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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