BAKING

A PLUM OF A CAKE…FRESH PLUMS & PISTACHIO NUTS

2008/07/21 / 21 Comments
“Do not be afraid to go out on a limb. . .That’s where the fruit is.”
Anonymous

IMG 0186+wr

Fresh Plum Spice Cake

Blogging is greatly inspiring. It’s opens the mind to new ideas & makes you look at everything differently. Food blogging for foodies like me goes even a step further. A fruit means more than just a chomp now; it eggs me on to try & widen my horizons!

IMG 0257…am still on a fruit trail

Cherries have all but disappeared from the market; they show up for a very short period in summer. Peaches, plums & mangoes still rule the roost, with mangoes creating a sort of flood. I’m in a hurry to try out something fruitfully plummy because plums are gonna disappear soon too. Until now, a plum was a mere juicy fruit to dig your teeth into & get splattered with juice ; also a connection to a beautiful colour. Googling opened new vistas & I set forth to try & experiment with a fresh plum cake. Would have thrown some ground almonds in too, but almonds being expensive, didn’t have the heart to take a chance. As an after thought, they may well have tasted wonderful. *Sigh*…next time maybe, but I am rapidly turning into a ‘try everything at least once’ sort of a person…& ‘the everything at least once list’ is rapidly expanding towards infinity; at the best of times is quite daunting! Also, have to balance calories, the bane of our existence!! What a challenging thing life is!!

IMG 0270

Serving up a slice of happiness…

Ingredients:
Plums – 8 ; pitted & quartered
Pistachio nuts – ½ cup ; roughly chopped
Butter – ½ cup
Sugar – 1 cup
Eggs – 2
Vanilla Extract – 1 tsp
Almond Extract – 1 tsp
Flour – 1 cup
Cinnamon powder – 1 tbsp
Baking powder – 1 tsp
Salt – ¼ tsp
Topping :
Sugar – 2 tbsps
Cinnamon powder – 1 tsp

collage

Method:

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees c. Grease & line bottom of a non-stick Victoria sandwich tin.

  • Sift flour + cinnamon + baking powder + salt. Keep aside
  • Sprinkle ¼ cup chopped pistachios on base of tin (over the lining). Top evenly with chopped plums.
  • Cream butter + sugar till fluffy.Add eggs + both extracts & beat well.
  • Mix in the flour mix well. Pour this batter evenly over the plums & pistachios.
  • Mix the cinnamon & sugar for the topping in a small bowl.
  • Sprinkle over the top evenly & bake for 35-40 minutes.
  • Allow to cool in the pan for 20 minutes.
  • Then turn out onto rack & gently peel off the lining off the top, scraping back any fruit that might cling on to the lining.IMG 0157
  • Give it a generous sprinkling of powdered sugar & the remaining chopped pistachios. Can dust with powdered sugar before serving again. Serve warm with a drizzle of whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.

    • IMG 0208… in the plum of things & loving it!!
    IMG 0338.psdThat’s the verdict!!

    Posted by Deeba @ PAB

    About me: I am a freelance food writer, recipe developer and photographer. Food is my passion - baking, cooking, developing recipes, making recipes healthier, using fresh seasonal produce and local products, keeping a check on my carbon footprint and being a responsible foodie! I enjoy food styling, food photography, recipe development and product reviews. I express this through my food photographs which I style and the recipes I blog. My strength lies in 'Doing Food From Scratch'; it must taste as good as it looks, and be healthy too. Baking in India, often my biggest challenge is the non-availability of baking ingredients, and this has now become a platform to get creative on. I enjoy cooking immensely as well.

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    21 Comments

    • none

      2008/07/22 at 12:28 am Reply

      the kids saying very yummy are lucky to have such a mummy 🙂

      And healthy brownies? that sounds like an oxymoron but they still extremely indulgent!

    • Nags

      2008/07/22 at 4:10 am Reply

      its really a pleasure to come here and see your lovely cakes 🙂 plums.. hmm. they are available here all year round I think but expensive!

    • Manggy

      2008/07/22 at 9:00 am Reply

      Calories only count when you eat that something over and over and in excess, hee 🙂
      What a coincidence! I just posted my plum dessert too! Yours looks delicious!

    • Ivy

      2008/07/22 at 12:04 pm Reply

      Deeba your cake looks so wonderful I want to rush and get some plums. I don’t buy plums more than once as I prefer other summer fruit like cherries, apricots and peaches. Must try this.

    • Bharti

      2008/07/23 at 3:00 am Reply

      Nice fruity cake Deeba and beautiful kids. Knock on wood.
      I agree about trying everything once and the balancing of calories. As far as I’m concerned, we might as well avoid all the junk out there and indulge in these yummy treats! This stuff is just plain old good for the soul!;-)

    • Zita

      2008/07/23 at 9:31 am Reply

      Ooh with food critics like that, I completely belive that it is really yummy, the colour are so beautiful too 🙂

    • ovenhaven

      2008/07/23 at 11:30 am Reply

      Gorgeous cake, Deeba! The green pistachios add such a lovely colour to the plums. Kinda reminds me of Christmas! 😀

    • Aparna

      2008/07/23 at 11:56 am Reply

      Very colourful cake. Though plums are not a favourite, pistachios are!
      I’ve not got the details, Deeba. Still waiting.:(

    • familiabencomo

      2008/07/23 at 2:19 pm Reply

      I love it! You’re right we must try everything once…. with food, I really can’t commit to parachuting or anything like that. Your cake looks like heaven. I love the combination of colors. AND, your children are too adorable. I wish you all could drop by for an afternoon together either at the pool or on one of our nature hikes through the Santa Cruz Mountains. We would have to pack a lunch, of course, with this cake as our little treat.

      Tanti baci, bella,
      Amy

    • Susan from Food Blogga

      2008/07/25 at 12:43 am Reply

      I love those brilliant pieces of moist plum that are tucked into that cake, Deeba. It’s beautiful. Are those your children? They’re much more beautiful!

    • azcookbook

      2008/07/25 at 2:38 am Reply

      your cake looks so delicious! I love pistachio nuts a lot! in fact, i made a loaf bread with pistachios this morning:)

    Thank you so much for stopping by. I'd love to hear from you.

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