Plum & Vanilla Cake

Just spent a lovely afternoon at a friends place for lunch, champagne, wine, fine food & good company on a sunny afternoon, what more could a girl ask for? My contribution was this amazing plum cake. After last weekends success I thought I would stick to the same theme & try another one, this being a vanilla version. The recipe came from Bills Food, which I am finding is full of the most gorgeous sweet things. I would be hard pressed to pick a favourite between the 2 which were very similar, yet very different at the same time. This cake was very moist from all of the syrupy plum juice seeping into the cake as it was cooking & with a dollop of cream just divine. I used ruby red plums this time & the main difference in the cakes was white sugar rather than brown & the cocoa of course, cooking & prep methods pretty much the same.

Plum & Vanilla Cake

Topping

90g (3/4 cup) plain flour
100g (3 ½ cup) unsalted butter, chopped into small pieces
90g (1/3 cup) caster sugar

Cake

180g (6oz) unsalted butter, softened
250g (1 cup) caster sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tspn vanilla extract
185g (1 ½ cups) plain flour
2 tspns baking powder
500g fresh plums, halved & seeded or 825g canned plums, seeded

Preheat oven to 180c (350f/Gas4 ). To make the topping, place the flour, butter, sugar in a bowl & rub with your fingertips until crumbly.

To make the cake, cream the butter & sugar until light & fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in the vanilla. Sift the flour & baking powder into the bowl & fold into the mixture. Spread into a 24cm (9 inch) greased or non stick springform cake tin. Top with halved plums with the cur side up. Sprinkle with the topping & bake for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Remove form the oven & allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes. Delicious served with pouring cream.