Plum Cake {recipe}

Recently, we bought a big bowl of beautiful {huge} plums. I'm not a big fan of them generally, but we're tying to branch out and have more than just bananas, apples & blueberries all the time. Since we were all skeptics and they were not getting eaten though, Anton & I decided to get on Pinterest to find something to bake with them as our inspiration!

This is the recipe Anton chose. Simple enough for the boys and I to do, and the perfect fall dessert.

Unfortunately...mine fell. on the floor.

Luckily our floor happened to be clean that evening {with 3 boys & a dog, that's rarely the case} so we enjoyed it anyway. Thankfully, Ben was there to encourage me {and clean it up}, 'cuz I was pretty bummed {and truthfully, a bit mad}.

Here's the recipe, hopefully you won't burn your hand and drop it as you take it out of the oven, like I did!

{this is how it was supposed to look. yum! thank you design sponge}

{everything is laid out so it's easy for the kids to help}

{these were the largest plums i've ever seen. gorgeous}

{anton is an excellent egg cracker & is proud that he rarely gets any shells in the bowl}

{i'm so glad my mom was the type that let me lick off the spoon. it's the best part. now my kids think so too}

I know what you're thinking. Foil? Somehow our wax/parchment paper got used up & wasn't put on the grocery list. So this was what I had to make do with. It was my 1st sign that things wouldn't end well. 

{this is my pretty version. post fall. still tasted fantastic}

{Recipe}

Plumb Cake

   10–12 medium-sized plums - sounds like a lot, but they cook down {i used less because mine were so large}

    11 tablespoons {150g} butter, melted

    3 eggs

   1 tsp vanilla

   3/4 cup {150g} sugar plus 2 tbsp for sprinkling on top of the cake

   2 cups {250g} plain flour

   1 1/2 tsp baking powder

   1/2 cup {120ml} milk

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF/180ºC. Grease an 8″ {20cm} pan with a removable bottom and then line with parchment paper. Greasing helps the paper stick.

2. Wash the plums, cut them into halves and remove the pits.

3. Whip the eggs in a bowl with the vanilla and the 3/4 cup of sugar until they are pale and fluffy. Add the flour and baking powder and mix. Whisk in the melted butter and the milk. You can do this all in a stand mixer — just don’t overmix it.

4. Put half the plums on the bottom of the pan in a nice ring, skin side down — just use as many as you need to cover the bottom — but not too tightly, as you want the cake batter to get between them and form the base of the cake.

5. Scoop all the batter on top of the plums. You can dump the rest of the plums on top of the batter, or you can arrange them neatly in slices — it’s up to you. Some will sink into the batter, but most will stay near the top and be visible once it has cooked. The plums shrink a lot, so it’s okay to err on the side of more rather than less on top.

6. Sprinkle the top with the rest of the sugar. This gives the top a yummy, crispy quality.

7. Place the cake tin on a baking sheet and then put it in the oven. Bake for an hour or until it’s a lovely golden color and a skewer comes out clean. The plums will also have caramelised a bit.

8. Take it out of the oven but let it cool for a few minutes in the tin before you remove it, and be careful of any syrupy liquid that may have formed.

{The blog I got this recipe from says to serve it with a little whip or ice cream. But since the kids were going to bed reasonably soon after eating, they didn't need that extra sugar. It was great without!}