Crumbly Plum Cake

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We love plums, but despite this being a bumper year for fruit, I've only managed to find 3 lots of British plums. Victoria's are my favourite and I wish we had the room for a tree in our small garden.
I succumbed to a BOGOF offer in the supermarket and bought some Italian plums. I decided to make a cake, one with a crumbly topping and use them as a layer in the cake. The idea for the recipe came from this recipe on the Good Food site, but I used bits from several recipes in my folder to make the final cake.

If the plums aren't very ripe, I like to roast them first to add to their flavour.

Put 450g of plums cut side up in a tin, sprinkle with 2 tsbps of granulated sugar and bake them in oven 180C/gas4 for about 20 mins till they've become soft. Take out, but leave the oven on.

You need a 20cm springform tin lined with baking paper.

It's an all in one cake, so put 175g soft brown sugar. 175g butter or margarine, 175g sr flour, 2 eggs, 1/2 tspn baking powder and 1 tspn vanilla extract in a bowl and beat together till nice and creamy.
Pour the batter into the tin, then put the plums in a layer on top and pour in the juice [shouldn't be much].

Make the topping by melting 50g butter, then take it off the hob and add 50g flour, 1 tspn cinnamon, 25g oats and 25g flaked almonds. Stir them together, then sprinkle over to cover the plums.
Bake 180C/gas4 for about an hour or so till the top is nice and golden.



The idea was a crumble topped cake, but when the cake was cooked, a lot of the topping had sunk down into the cake, and the cake itself had a flapjack type of taste with a nice chewy top. You could use apples, or any fruit of choice instead of the plums. A good versatile recipe for a dessert or a cake for tea.







Comments

Phil in the Kitchen said…
I've wondered about the plum situation. The plum trees at the local PYO were groaning with Victoria plums but there seemed to be very few in the supermarkets. Maybe British plums have an image problem. At the PYO crowds descend on the strawberries, cherries and raspberries but picking gooseberries and plums (two wonderful fruits) can be a lonely business. Anyway, this is a fine cake and an excellent use the poor old plum.
23/11/13 3:16 pm
Snowy said…
Phil, a farmer said on HFW's fruit programme that he'd had his plums picked and stored ready for the supermarket to collect, but had got a phone call saying they were shortening the season for British plums so didn't need his, and he just got rid of them. Must have before 2013. What a waste.
24/11/13 6:20 am
thecelticcookinshanghai said…
Masses of plums here in Shanghai, although guessing they are not Victorias. They cook down a treat and this looks a very nice way of using them. Will give it a go,
25/11/13 8:42 pm
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