Plum Cake

Thanks a lot weather for turning cold on me. Just because it is autumn doesn't mean it has to be wet and cold. Okay so we have had a few sunny days and I have to admit that I've been away to Melbourne and then spent an entire 2 weeks in my garden doing a big renovation project. 

I'm dreaming of some fab warm sunny days, sipping tea on the verandah and watching the glorious leaves changing colour. So damn and blast I just have to make a cake, even though I 'm trying to give up sugar.

Plums are on their last legs and we will just have to be content with apples and pears and citrus fruit until the whole darn weather recycles itself and comes back to spring.

Fabulous time of year (if it stops peeing with rain). I've done a quick scout of my neighbourhood and I've brought you the best of the autumn show.

Here are some Fabulous Facts about Deciduous Trees.

 - Leaves fall off trees in winter because a layer of cork grows across the leaf stalk gradually cutting off its water supply.

-  Physiological changes in the leaf produce outstanding autumn colours.  Short, warm days and cool nights produce pigments which develop into the wonderful autumn colours. Carotenoid pigment gives yellow, orange and brown and bright reds and purples are from anthocyanin pigments. 

- Red and purple leaves are actually caused by the presence of sugars from sap that is trapped inside of the leaves.

- If you live very close to the Equator, you will not experience autumnal colours.

- Plums are an autumnal fruit and you should find the last of them in the shops now.

So dash out and buy a few because this may be your last chance this season to make this cake.

PLUM CAKE

Ingredients

1/4 cup (60g) caster sugar
115g butter
1 cup (125g) plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 eggs
4 plums, pitted and quartered
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons Rice Malt Syrup
pinch salt
1 - 2 teaspoons caster sugar

Preheat oven to 170º fan forced.

Beat sugar and butter together until nice and creamy.

Beat in eggs one at a time until combined.

Mix flour, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl and gently incorporate into the creamed mixture.

Pour batter into a greased springform cake tin, approx 20 cms in size.

Place the quartered plums, cut side up into the batter, pressing down slightly.
Sprinkle  the plums with a mixture of cinnamon and sugar.

Bake in a preheated oven for 40 - 50 minutes.

Cool for 5 to 10 minutes then take out of the tin and cool completely on a cake rack or serve warm with yoghurt.

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Rhubarb Cake with Almonds

Let me preface this recipe with a word of warning! 
This will be my last cake recipe (for a while) because once I make cake,I eat cake and eating cake is not a good idea when you are trying to control your waistline. There I have said it!

Commitment folks! That is what it is! A New Years resolution I am trying to stick to. 

This was brought home to me again after watching another of Dr Michael Moseley's "Trust Me I am a Doctor" series on TV. (Michael is the guy that brought us the 5:2 Intermittent Fasting Plan). The program looked at the best way of losing belly fat. Reduction in the amount of food eaten versus exercise. While the exercised toned - reducing overall portion sizes had the greatest effect. Check out the above link for more information.

With that in mind, my portion sizes are now getting smaller! But with cake, it's impossible to eat it alone so you add cream, ice cream or sour cream. Point taken! No more cake, enjoy this last recipe for a few months until I can report on a reduction of my waist line - way before winter arrives and I start to crave comfort food.

So lets concentrate on this last rhubarb cake recipe, enjoy it, tuck it away and don't look at it any longer than you have to. 

I have a lot of rhubarb in my garden and I tend to use it for desserts only, but I have recently read about how rhubarb makes a great pickle. Now I have made rhubarb chutney, but rhubarb pickled by itself is a whole other story. Keep watching, I may get time to try some soon.

RHUBARB CAKE WITH ALMONDS

       Ingredients

     1 1/2 cups of plain flour
     1 1/4 cup caster sugar
     1 tsp baking powder
     1/2 tsp baking soda
     1/2 tsp ground cardamom
     1/4 tsp almond extract
     1/2 cup almond meal
     1 tsp vanilla extract
     1 tbl icing sugar
     zest of an orange
     1/3 cup flaked almonds
     1/2 cup unsalted butter
     1 cup Greek yoghurt
     1 extra tbs caster sugar
     pinch of salt

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• Pre-heat your oven to 170 degrees fan forced.  Line the bottom of a 23 cm springform pan with a round of baking paper. Then generously coat the paper and the sides of the springform pan with butter.  Set aside.

• In a bowl beat 1 cup of the sugar and the butter on medium speed until light and creamy. Add the eggs in one at a time, mixing after each addition. Then beat in the yogurt, orange zest and the extracts.

• Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cardamom and salt in a small bowl. Add these dry ingredients to the cake batter, adding in about one-third at a time, mixing on low speed until all is mixed in thoroughly. You can do this by hand if you don't have a mixer.

• Trim the ends from the rhubarb - discarding the leaves. If the rhubarb stalks are thick, slice them in half lengthwise. Then cut the rhubarb stalks into pieces about 3 - 4 cms in length.

• Spread about half of the thick cake batter into an even layer on the bottom of your prepared springform pan. Place about half of the rhubarb on top in an even layer. Then spread the remaining cake batter over the rhubarb. Arrange the remaining rhubarb pieces on top and sprinkle the flaked almonds and the remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar over the top of the cake. This will give a nice caramel crunch to the cake.

• Transfer the cake to your pre-heated oven and bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. 

• Remove the cake form the oven and set it on a wire rack to cool. Once cooled remove cake from the tin, dust with icing sugar and cut into slices. 

Serves 8

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Inspired By Plenty - Peach, Brazil Nut and Lavender Cake

Thank you Yotam Ottolenghi for your wonderful books 'Plenty' and 'Plenty More'. I have been very inspired by them.

'Plenty More' has an incredible array of vegetarian food, an exciting mix of ingredients and I have stolen a few ideas to try later. I was particularly interested in trying recipes for pomegranates and figs, basically because they go so beautifully together in taste and colour. I have absolutely fallen in love with Yottam's 'Smoked Beetroot with Yoghurt and Caramelised Macadamias'.

The Spiced Stuffed Potatoes Cakes were wonderful although I did cheat a little and use sweet potato mixed in with waxy potatoes. The herb stuffing inside these gave a nice little kick to the potato and teemed beautifully with the tamarind dip. I can see these ending up in my favourites file.

I've also made the Alphonso Mango and Curried Chick Pea Salad, an intoxicating blend of spicy cauliflower and sweet mango.

I am so loving trying this huge variety of vegeatables and I strongly urge you to get your hands on a copy of the book, you wont be disappointed.

However, it was the photo of the Apricot, Walnut and Lavender Cake that drew me in. I wanted to take a bite right out of the book. 

And as peaches were in abundance at the market, I decided to use Yoti's idea and make my own version of his cake, using ingredients I had in the pantry.

If you are a walnut lover, then check out the original recipe, I am sure the taste will be sensational. But as I can't eat walnuts I substituted brazil nuts. These have a little more oil in them and so the cake was very moist. 

I baked the cake to share with friends at our annual Australian Day celebrations. I think everyone enjoyed it.

Here's the recipe I used:

170g unsalted butter softened
2 tablespoons sunflower oil
200g caster sugar
150g ground almonds
3 eggs beaten
80g brazil nuts blitzed to a coarse powder 
90g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
grated zest of a lemon
1½ teaspoons culinary lavender
6 peaches, stoned and quartered
salt

For the icing;

50g sifted icing sugar
lemon juice

• Place butter, sugar, oil and ground almonds in a bowl and beat together until soft and creamy. Add beaten eggs a little at a time until all are completely mixed in. 
• Fold in sifted flour, brazil nuts, vanilla and lemon zest.
• Add 1 teaspoon of lavender and a pinch of salt.
• Line the base and sides of a 20 -23 cm cake tin, with removable base, with baking paper.
• Pour in the cake mixture and level the top for the peaches.

• Lay quarters of the peaches side by side, touching if possible, around the cake starting at the very edge.
• Bake in a preheated oven 180º/170º fan forced/gas mark 5 for approximately 60 minutes. If the peaches brown too quickly, cover with foil. Cake is cooked when a skewer comes out clean.
• Leave to rest for 5 -10 minutes before turning out.
• The icing can be made by adding lemon juice to the icing sugar to get a pourable consistency.  Brush this over the cake using a pastry brush and finish with a sprinkling of lavender.
• Served warm, the cake is delicious.

Almond and Raspberry Cake - Gluten and Dairy Free

At the end of September I will find myself in Paris for just a few days. How exciting! That will be my reward for walking The Thames Path, over 250 kilometres. What's on my shopping list? - you might well ask! Handbags, shoes, leather gloves? Not at all! I have a list of the most wonderful food shops, markets and patisseries that I am hoping to visit.

A fabulous food safari to immerse myself in deliciousness (is that a word) and a huge amount of interesting new food combinations. Maybe some truffles, cheese, baguettes and of course pastries and macarons. But until then, it's back to planning and packing and wishing and dreaming.

I have had a request for a gluten and dairy free cake. One that tastes amazing, simple to make yet ticks all the boxes. So here is my recipe. It can be made using frozen or fresh raspberries or blueberries and teems very nicely with vanilla ice cream. 

In this recipe you can use butter instead of the dairy free spread if you wish.

Almond and Coconut Cake with Raspberries
Dairy-Free and Gluten-Free

1 1/2 cups (170g) almond meal
1 1/4 cups (275g) caster sugar
3/4 cup (70g) desiccated coconut
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
200g Nuttelex (or any dairy-free spread), melted and cooled slightly
3/4 cup fresh or frozen raspberries (frozen works perfectly well)

• Preheat oven to 170°C fan forced (350°F), lightly grease a 24cm springform pan and line base and sides with baking paper.

• In a large bowl, stir together almond meal, sugar, and coconut.

• In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs and vanilla extract until combined. Stir in the melted butter.

• Next add the butter mixture into the almond mixture, stirring until smooth. Don't over stir, just until everything is combined.

• Pour batter into the prepared pan, then dot the raspberries on the top, pushing them slightly into the batter.

• Bake 45 - 50 minutes, until the cake is golden and the top springs back   when you press it lightly.

• Cool in pan for 5 minutes, transfer the cake to a wire rack to cool completely. Dust with icing sugar.

This should make 8 servings

Sticky, Syrupy Cumquat Upside Down Cake

I am so happy to be living in this town. There is a sense of community, so many nice things happening and so many lovely people making them happen.

Just in the last few days I have been offered for free a whole range of different fruits and vegetable by people that just have too much for their own use. 

If you are one of my locals (you know who you are)  and you are reading this - THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Having managed to score more Cumquats - thanks - more jam that's for sure because the last lot I made has almost gone, and I have decided to try a Cumquat Cake. I want something syrupy and gooey and squishy - you know what I mean and I believe I have an idea on how to achieve this.

After much searching I found an old recipe for a syrupy pineapple upside down cake. With a few adjustments I was able to get just what I wanted. I think a combination of bitterness with the cumquats and sweetness of a syrup makes a wonderful combination.

My daughter in London tells me that cumquats are very much in right now, being offered in cakes, sauces, salads. Amazingly, it just happens to be the season for them here in Adelaide. We are so trendy here in the Adelaide Hills!

Enjoy!

Sticky, Syrupy Cumquat Upside Down Cake

240g unsalted butter

200g caster sugar

150g cumquats washed

4 tbls demerara sugar

4 tbls orange marmalade

4 eggs

210g SR Flour

juice and grated zest of an orange

60g almond meal

1. Grease and line a 23-25cm solid-bottomed cake tin, about 9cm deep, with non-stick baking paper. The cake tin must be solid or all that lovely sticky sweetness will seep away.
2. Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan160°C.
3. Using your fingers spread about 20g of the butter over the base of the cake tin and sprinkle the demerara sugar over the top.
4. Take the washed cumquats and slice them thickly, remove all the pips and lay them in a nice circular pattern around the base of the tin on the sugar and butter.

 

1. Cream the remaining butter and caster sugar until light and fluffy. Fold in the marmalade and the beaten eggs, a little at a time. Add a few spoons of flour with the last of the eggs to prevent curdling. Fold in the remaining sifted flour, a pinch of salt, ground almonds and orange zest. 
2. Add enough orange juice to make a dropping consistency.
3. Spoon the mixture into the cake tin, spreading it over the cumquats. 
4. Level the mixture using a spatula, making a slight depression in the centre. Bake in the middle of the oven for 50-60 minutes or until the top is springy and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.It should be a nice golden colour. 
5. Let the cake cool in the tin and then invert it onto a serving plate.
6. Serve with cream, yoghurt or sour cream.

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