I’ve been making this cake for nearly 30 years from a recipe published by Stephanie Alexander, which she calls Mieze’s Plum Cake after the friend who gave it to her. I have slightly adapted the method but the end result is the same.
The best plums to use are blood plums which have dark purple skins and flesh, but unfortunately they’re only in season for a very brief period. The recipe works well with any plums you can get, or peaches, apricots or, as you can see in the photo, with nectarines. You could also try making it with canned fruit if you’re housebound and that’s all you have.
I make this cake in a 22 cm (9 inch) square tin, so each serving has half a piece of fruit on top. This involves increasing all the ingredients in the original cake mix (but not the topping) to make a bigger cake which serves 16. For a smaller cake use the original recipe (see above link). I like to grind the nuts in a food processor and leave them slightly chunky, rather than buying ground nuts which are more like flour.
Serve with a cup of tea or as a dessert with a dollop of cream.
250g butter at room temp
250g sugar
200g plain flour
200g self-raising flour
pinch salt
3 eggs
½ cup milk
1 cup ground almonds or walnuts
8 blood plums, halved and stoned (or use apricots, peaches or nectarines)
Topping:
½ cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
60g butter
2 eggs
Preheat oven to 170°C. Process nuts coarsely in food processor then tip out. Process butter and sugar till fluffy, add eggs one at a time, sifted flours, salt, the nuts and then the milk, stopping to scrape down the mixture halfway through.
Spread into 9″ (22cm) square cake pan, greased and lined with paper. Arrange the plums, cut side up, over the cake and push them in a bit. The 16 halves should fit exactly. No need to wash the food processor before using it to mix all the topping ingredients. Pour topping evenly over the fruit. Bake in the centre of the oven for an hour, or until a skewer inserted in the middle (cake not fruit) comes out clean. If outsides are getting too brown, turn oven down a bit, but don’t overcook or the cake will be dry.
Variation: Use peeled and halved juicy pears instead of plums and add a tablespoon of fresh ginger to the topping.
Serves 12-16
Hello, Linda, I am contacting you for permission to re-post your excellent Spicy Eggplant and Tomato Soup recipe at the Armenian Mirror Spectator Newspaper (recipes section). I submit recipes each week, and thought our many national and international readers would be very interested in this soup that is similar to some Armenian soups. If this request meets with your approval, please contact me at: datian@cox.net. I would of course include the link to this recipe and to your website, and links to your other eggplant recipes and Middle Eastern recipes as well. Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.
Regards,
Christine Datian
datian@cox.net