September Plum Cake

September is plum season here in the UK and I was totally inspired to make the Plum Cake from Lotte’s Country Kitchen cookbook when my good friend/neighbour gave me some home-grown plums. I’ve never baked with plums, shocking right? But there’s a first time for everything. This cake was everything I imagined it would be and more, wonderfully moist, juicy, fluffy, full of flavour and totally scrummy. Hubby arrived back from Dubai on Monday and must have missed my baked goodies, there isn’t a crumb left! We are off to the lodge tomorrow for the weekend and I’ve been busy baking Mincemeat Buns and a Chocolate Banana Bread to bring. Have a lovely weekend everyone and see you soon. x

September Plum Cake

Makes one 23cm/9 inch cake

Ingredients
butter, for greasing
8 plums, halved and stoned
225g/8oz butter, softened
225g/8oz soft light brown sugar
grated zest of ½ orange
4 large eggs
175g/6oz self-raising flour, sieved
½ tsp baking powder
50g/2oz ground almonds

Preheat the oven to 180oC/fan oven 160oC/gas mark 4.

Grease the line a 23cm/9 inch springform cake tin.

Place the plum halved, skin side down, on the bottom of the prepared cake tin.

Cream the butter, sugar and orange zest together in a medium mixing bowl, using a wooden spoon or free-standing mixer, until pale and fluffy.

Beat the eggs into the creamed mixture, one at a time. Add 1 tsp of flour to the mixture between each addition. This is quite a runny cake mixture so don’t worry. It might even look a bit curdled, but it’s absolutely fine. The large eggs make for a lovely moist eggy cake that tastes delicious.

Using a metal spoon, fold in the rest of the flour, the baking powder and the ground almonds and pour the mixture over the plums in the cake tin.

Spread the mixture evenly in the tin with the back of a metal spoon and bake for 30 minutes. Then remove, cover loosely with foil and continue to cook for another 30 minutes.

Remove the cake from the oven and leave it to cool for 5 minutes in the tin and then turn it out onto a wire rack.

Banana Cake

Can’t believe it’s been 3 weeks since my last blog post but after my hubby’s business trip to Singapore we have been spending some quality and much needed time together. I’m still on my health kick and doing pretty well and my body loves me for it. I’ve lost over 8lbs and I can already notice the difference in my clothing, which feels good and motivates me to continue. Hubby and I spent a couple of days in the south coast during which time I was less strict on myself and we enjoyed a lovely meal al fresco on the seafront at a family run Italian restaurant. I feel it’s important to still enjoy the odd treat while losing weight to maintain a healthy balance. Now I’m feeling better about myself having lost this initial weight and the weather has cooled down somewhat I will be hitting the gym once again, which I know from past experience will help me drop the weight quicker. OK enough of me and my weight issues and onto my new cookbook purchase and this lush Banana Cake.

I’ve been eagerly awaiting the arrival of Lotte’s Country Kitchen by Lotte Duncan. She is a lady after my own heart with her girly pink kitchen and love of glitter and sparkle, which is reminiscent of my own kitchen and love of all things glittery. Her book is beautifully illustrated with an array of wonderful recipes for every month of the year. I was drooling whilst reading and browsing the book and couldn’t wait to get stuck in and decided the Banana Cake was a great one to start on, seeing as there is always a plentiful supply of ripe bananas in my fruit bowl.

Lotte describes this cake as the “very best banana cake in the whole wide world if not the universe and beyond” and I have to agree with her but my only disappointment was I didn’t have any preserved stem ginger in syrup in the house, so my cake was lacking this. Apart from that this cake is full of flavour and gorgeously fluffy. I will definitely be making this again but next time I’ll be sure to include the stem ginger!

Banana Cake

Ingredients
2 over-ripe bananas
juice of ½ lemon
110g/4oz butter, softened
110g/4oz soft brown sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
225g/8oz self-raising flour, sieved
50g/2oz sultanas
1 piece of preserved stem ginger in syrup, drained and finely chopped
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
½ baking powder

Grease and line a 900g/2lb loaf tin.

Preheat the oven to 180oC/fan oven 160oC/gas mark 4.

Place the bananas and lemon juice in a medium mixing bowl, mash them together using a fork and set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar together in your mixer or with a wooden spoon until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs a little at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the mashed banana and beat well.

Using a metal spoon, gently fold in the flour, sultanas, ginger, spices and baking powder and turn the mixture into the loaf tin. Spread it out evenly and give the mixture a little tap to settle it down in the tin.

Bake for 35-45 minutes until golden brown and firm to the touch. Remove from the oven, leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack.

Serve sliced and spread with lashings of softened creamy butter!

Madison also loves my new cookbook!!