Long weekends call for cake in our household. I’ve whipped up this simple one with beautiful week-old plums from the Grey Lynn Farmers market.
This light, fresh Plum & Almond Cake is ideal for a picnic in the sunshine or stashing in a lunchbox as an extra special treat.
The plums get all deliciously jammy as they bake which meant it didn’t last long! x
1 cup plain flour
½ cup ground almonds
1½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon sea salt
125g butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 large free range eggs
Zest of an orange
1 tsp vanilla extract or paste
6 Black Doris plums (or any other red plums), halved, seeded and thinly sliced
2 Tbsp raw sugar
Preheat oven to 180°. Line and grease the sides of a 25cm tin.
Whisk flour, almond meal, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Using an electric mixer beat butter, sugar, vanilla and orange zest in a large bowl until pale and creamy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition, about 3 minutes in total. Reduce speed to low and gradually add dry ingredients; beat just until smooth and no lumps remain, about 30 seconds.
Scrape batter into prepared pan and arrange plums, cut side down, on top of batter, taking care not to push the plums into the batter (the batter will rise as it bakes, slightly submerging them). Sprinkle raw sugar over and bake cake until top is golden and a tester inserted into the centre comes out clean, 50–60 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cake cool in pan at least 30 minutes. Run a sharp knife around sides of pan to loosen cake. Dust with icing sugar just before serving.
Gretchen Lowe, Food Stylist Auckland
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