We only have one Plum tree in the garden but it is prolific and year after year it produces an abundance of juicy red Victoria Plums. They don't last too long, the season is short, and the wasps and the dog are keen to get them before I do!
Although I love to bite into the juicy ripe fruit you can only eat so many. I always freeze some to use in a crumble when we can't remember what summer felt like in the dark January days. I stew some with cinnamon to eat with yogurt for breakfast and I make a mean plum cake!
I recently posted a short reel on Instagram of a plum cake that I made last week and many of you asked for the recipe, so here it is.... It is a really old recipe, hand written and is stuck into my cook book with a scrap of yellowing Sellotape. The quantities are all in lbs and oz, but I have put the metric ones alongside. I also have a 4 door Aga, so I am not very good at oven temperatures but I have looked up what I think is about the right temperature for a 'moderate' oven.
12 oz (350g) Self Raising Flour
Pinch of salt
Pinch of cinnamon
6 oz (175g) soft Butter
3 oz (75g) Demerara Sugar
4 oz (100g) Sultanas or raisins
10 plums, cut in half
6 tbsp Golden Syrup
3 large eggs
Method:
Sift the flour, salt and cinnamon into a bowl or mixer, add the butter and mix. Next add the Sugar and sultanas and gently mix together.
Put the golden syrup and the eggs in a separate bowl and whisk together then add them to the mixture and mix.
In a lined 8" cake tin place a dollop of the cake mixture and gently spread out then place about 8 half plums on top the mixture. Cover with the rest of the cake mix and then gently push the rest of the plums on the top.
Place in the middle of the oven (baking oven in the Aga) at about 160 and bake for about 35/40 minutes until pale golden and firm to touch. Let it cool for a bit and then turn out onto a cooling rack.
This cake works equally well served as a pudding, slightly warm, with Crème Fraiche or cream as well as with a cup of tea. It wont last long, but it freezes well too.
I am no professional cook and as I say this recipe is an old one and so I hope it works as well for you as it does for me, but I take no responsibility for the outcome. All I can say is that I make it a couple of times every year and will continue to do so as long as the plum tree keeps producing plums!