Nevermind that it was the hottest day of the year, we were invited for dinner and all I could think of was plum cake. Had it been August I might have made a slim fruit tarte, but it is September, I wanted cake.
Most of the cakes I bake are a riff on either a quatre quart or yogurt cake. The rules are simple, I don’t need a recipe, it is as close as I can get to baking improvisation.
This one is from the quatre quart family. Same weight of eggs, butter, sugar, and flour. Tradition enjoins first weighing the eggs, but here it began with 250g of butter. As usual I reduced the amount of sugar, slightly. I scrambled the flours — white spelt, ground almonds, a touch of dark rye. The intention was a soft, moist crumb heavily packed with fruit. The result was right.
RECIPE
250g butter (a bit more for the tin)
210g sugar, a mix of 120g soft brown sugar and 90g golden caster sugar
250g-ish eggs (5 eggs)
250g flours, a mix of 130g white spelt, 40g dark rye, 80g almond flour (a bit more spelt to dust the fruit)
2 tsp baking powder
Zest from one lemon
4 figs
5 or 6 Italian plums
Leave the butter to soften at room temperature.
Preheat the oven to 200C (400F). Line a 28-cm (11-inch) cake tin with parchment paper and butter generously.
Beat the softened butter and sugar until they become creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, incorporating each before adding the next. Mix in the flours, baking powder, and lemon zest.
Wash the figs and plums. Cut them in half and each half into thin wedges. Mix 2/3rd of the fruit gently with a dusting of flour, then fold this into the batter (it helps the fruit not fall to the bottom of the cake). Scrape the batter with the fruit into the cake tin and use the rest of the fruit pieces to decorate the top of the cake (they will sink a bit).
Place the cake in the oven, lower the temperature immediately to 175C (350F) and bake for 45 minutes to an hour, checking towards the end that a knife inserted into the cake comes out with just a few crumbs but no liquid batter attached!
Let cool completely and serve with a ribbon of heavy cream.
Bookmarked this recipe. I love a fresh fruit cake. My aunt made a gorgeous apple one.
I love the idea of just swapping out the flours. I am going to do that more when I make cakes as I have a cupboard full.