This is a great to have up your sleeve for when you need a pudding or cake to put on the table for family or friends. The cake freezes well. I like putting two of the small loaf versions in the freezer. One serves 4-6 with a dollop of yogurt and a drizzle of fruit purée and there is another one stored for later.
Apples or rhubarb can be substiituted for the plums and would be lovely flavoured with ginger. The original recipe os from the Waitrose website but I have tweaked it a bit. If you make it let me know how you get on. Joan
Ingredients
175g unsalted butter, softened
4 large plums (approx 300g), halved
150g caster sugar
3 eggs, beaten
1 tsp almond/vanilla extract
125g self-raising flour or 125g plain flour plus 1 level tsp baking powder
100g ground almonds
2 tbsp chopped or flaked nuts e.g. flaked almond, chopped pistachio or hazelnuts
flowers/herbs to decorate e.g violas, meadowsweet, flowering thyme
Method
Preheat the oven to 190C. Grease a 20cm cake tin and line the base with baking parchment. Or, to make two smaller cakes, grease two, 9cm x 14cm loaf tins and line with a strip of baking parchment placed along the length of each and over lapping the end of the loaf tin to help you lift the cake from the tin.
Roughly chop 200g of the plums (or other fruit), then slice the rest into thin wedges; set both aside separately.
Put the butter and sugar in a large bowl then, using electric beaters, cream together until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until combined, then beat in the almond/vanilla extract.
In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, ground almonds and a large pinch of salt, then fold into the egg mixture until just combined. Mix in the diced plums.
Either spoon the mixture into the circular cake tin or, divide the mixture between the two small loaf tins.
Arrange the plum wedges on top and scatter with chopped or flaked nuts. Bake the large cake for 50-60 minutes until risen, golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. The smaller cakes should be cooked for between 40-50 minutes.
Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then remove and put on a wire rack to cool completely. When ready to serve strewn with a few edible flowers or herbs.