Wednesday 17 August 2011

Dimply Plum Cake

Kitchen Play List:  Shakira ~ Good Stuff
                                      Destiny's Child ~ Lose My Breathe
                                      Melissa Etheridge ~ If I Wanted To
                                      The Gossip ~ Holy Water
                                      Mr. Buble ~ You'll Never Know
                                      Jave Everett ~ A Little Less Lonely

I have an plum mountain to work through. lol. Our very generous neighbours keep leaving bags of them in our porch and we had already bought quite a few from the 'reduced' bin at our local supermarket. I am by no means complaining...I'm maybe a little overwhelmed...lol. So I faced the battle head on and found a stack of recipes to try and I am working my way through them. 

The first recipe I've made it this Dimply Plum Cake..in fact the first one came out so nice...I went back into the kitchen and made two more...one for my sister and her little ones to take home..and one for our generous neighbours. The cake is easy to make and your kitchen is filled with the smell of grated orange zest and vanilla..heavenly. The batter is simple to make, the plum prep is the work of seconds and then quick as a flash it's baking away in your oven making the whole house smell delicious...you have to love baking days, eh? lol

I take no credit for the recipe as I found it posted on vegandiva.com and having tried this recipe I shall be visiting there again soon and trying out some other recipes. So thank you Vegan Diva for a great recipe. 

Dimply Plum Cake...to be enjoyed on its own with a cuppa, warm with custard or ice cream...or cold with cream..
Dimply Plum Cake Makes one 8" sq cake
(Recipe from the VeganDiva.com)

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
Scant 1/4 tsp ground cardamon 
5 tbsp vegan marg, at room temp
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
Egg replacer equiv to 2 eggs plus water to mix
1/2 cup sunflower/canola/safflower oil
grated zest of 1 orange
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Plums, halved and pitted (I used 3 large )

Pre-heat the oven to 350'F/180'C/Gas Mark 4 and ready a 8" square baking tin. Either line with parchment paper or grease with marg and then coat with flour and shake out the excess. 

In a med bowl whisk the flour, baking powder, salt and cardamon together and set aside.

In a large bowl add the vegan marg and with a hand held whisk beat the marg until it is soft and has peaks. Add the sugar and beat on a med setting until the sugar is incorporated into the marg and the mixture is smooth. 

In a small bowl whisk together the egg replacer  powder with the water until frothy and then add it to the marg/sugar mix. Beat until the mixture is light and silky. Now add the oil, orange zest and vanilla extract and beat until the mixture is once again smooth and satiny. 

Add the dry ingredients into the marg mix and on a low setting whisk together until the two are 'just' incorporated.

Run a spatula around the bowl to make sure there are no dry patches in the mixture. Then pour into the prepared baking dish and level off the mix. Take your pitted and halved plums and push them down into the batter. 

Bake for about 35-40 minutes or until the top is honey brown and puffed around the plums. A thin knife inserted into the centre of the cake will come out clean. Transfer the cake to a rack and cool for 15 minutes during which time the juice of the plums will return to the fruit...then run a knife around the sides of the pan and unmold the cake. Invert the cake and cool right side up. (I didn't need to invert) 

Enjoy! 
~R~