Easy Plum Cake
| This is a loose interpretation of the plum kuchen enjoyed by my friend Anna during a six-month stay in Frankfurt. It could be made with other stone fruit, although they will not produce the same dramatic effect as plums, which leave deep-purple juice oozing into the cake. This is a cake to make and eat on the same day. The texture is not as irresistible if the cake has been refrigerated, and the quantity of the oozing fruit makes it very vulnerable to spoilage if left at room temperature for more than a day. If your serving plate is ovenproof you can loosely cover the cake with foil and reheat it at 180°C for about 10 minutes to serve as a warm dessert. Individual portions can also be reheated in this way. |
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Ingredients
90g butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
1 cup plain flour
1 tsp cream of tartar
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
a pinch salt
1 free-range egg
2-3 tbsp buttermilk or milk
65g caster sugar
6-8 large ripe plums (preferably purple-fleshed, such as a blood plum), halved, stoned and cut into 2-3 pieces
2 tsp pure icing sugar (optional)
double cream, to serve
STREUSEL MIXTURE
30g soft brown sugar
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp ground cinnamon
¹⁄³ cup plain flour
30g unsalted butter, chopped
Method
Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease an 18 cm-square cake tin and line base with baking paper, leaving some
overhanging to help ease cake out (it can’t be inverted onto a cake cooling rack). Otherwise, grease a
20cm springform cake tin.
To make the streusel mixture, mix sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and flour in a bowl. Rub in butter so
mixture is a bit crumbly and lumpy. Set aside.
Sift flour, cream of tartar, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a bowl. Whisk egg with 2 tablespoons of the
buttermilk or milk. Cream butter and sugar until pale and thick in a food processor. Tip in flour mixture
and pulse to mix quickly. Add egg/buttermilk mixture and process just until you have a smooth batter;
it should be a dropping consistency. If it is quite stiff, mix in remaining buttermilk (this will depend on
size of egg used).
Scrape butter into prepared tin and smooth the top. Press plum into batter in rows or circles. Scatter
over streusel mixture. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the edges comes out clean
(it will still test soft in the middle where plum juice has oozed into cake batter). Cool cake in tin on a
cake cooling rack until just warm. Lift cake out using overhanging baking paper to assist, then transfer
to a plate. Carefully lift base of cake with wide spatula and ease paper out. Dust cake with icing sugar,
if desired, and serve with double cream.
Serves 6-8
Recipe from Stephanie Alexander’s Kitchen Garden Companion, Lantern, RRP $125, 2
