Cakes
Plum pudding cake
This is a gorgeous, sweet and spicy plum cake– great as a pudding or with afternoon tea. If you’ve never tried making a cake, this would be a great place to start.
Ingredients
- 250g/8oz plain flour
- 1 lightly heaped tsp baking powder
- 1 level tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 lightly heaped tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 lightly heaped tsp ground ginger
- 200g/7oz golden syrup
- 2 heaped tbsp thick honey
- 125g/4oz butter
- 125g/4oz light muscovado sugar
- 350g/12oz plums
- 2 large free-range eggs
- 240ml/8fl oz milk
For the spicy plum jam topping
- 5 plums
- 1tbsp light muscovado sugar
- 1tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp syrup from a jar of stem ginger
- double cream, to serve
Method
-
Set the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Use baking parchment to line a 24cm/9½in square cake tin or baking dish.
-
Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and ginger into a bowl.
-
Warm the golden syrup, honey, butter and muscovado sugar very gently in a pan until the butter and sugar melt. Set aside and allow to cool slightly.
-
Halve the plums, or cut them into quarters if they are very large, and remove the stones.
-
Break the eggs into a bowl, pour in the milk and whisk lightly to mix.
-
Pour the golden syrup mixture into the flour and mix with a large, metal spoon. Pour in the egg and milk and continue stirring till you have a loose, almost sloppy batter without any traces of flour.
-
Tip the mixture into the lined cake tin, drop in the plums and bake for 30-35 minutes.
-
Now for the topping; halve and de-stone the plums and add to the same pan as you cooked the syrup and honey. Add the sugar, butter and the syrup from a jar of crystallised ginger. Cover and leave to cook down.
-
Serve the cake with a generous topping of the spicy plums and a dollop of cream.
Plum pudding cake