I was kindly given some plums from a colleague’s garden this week. Being one of my husband’s favourite fruits and deciding a few brownie points were in order, I decided to make a cake; just for him! (Well, ok, we’ll all eat it too, but it’s the though that counts, isn’t it?). I love plums and almonds together and having recently been sent a range of Bottle Green cordials to try, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to combine them both with a twist in the topping, so here’s what I made:
10 plums (or enough to arrange in the base of your tin)
Syrup:
10ml Bottle Green Ginger and Lemongrass cordial
10ml Water
10ml Muscovado sugar
Cake:
200g Butter
200g Muscovado sugar
4 Eggs
10ml Almond Extract
100g Plain Flour
10ml Baking Powder
100g Ground Almonds
1. Preheat your oven to 180C.
2. Line a 20cm/8″ spring form tin with baking parchment (or use a cake tin liner, as I’ve done).
3. Cut your plums in half and remove the stones.
4. Arrange in the bottom of your cake tin, cut side down.
5. In a small saucepan combine the Bottle Green Ginger and Lemongrass cordial, the water and the Muscovado sugar.
6. Bring to the boil and boil for 3-5 minutes until reduced in volume and syrup-like.
7. Pour evenly over the plums then set aside to cool while you make your cake batter.
8. In a large bowl, add the butter, Muscovado sugar, eggs, almond extract, vanilla paste, flour, baking powder and ground almonds.
9. Cream together thoroughly for a few minutes until light in texture.
10. Spoon the cake batter over the plums and level the top.
11. Bake for 50-60 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
12. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes.
13. Invert the cake onto a plate and remove the parchment liner.
14. This cake can be served warm with custard, ice cream, clotted cream or cream. Alternatively allow to cool before serving.
The plums were a gift from a colleague’s garden. I often buy Bottle Green cordials personally, but was sent a box of 3 bottles to try, including Elderflower, Strawberry and the Ginger & Lemongrass cordial that I used in this cake. I was under no obligation to develop a recipe using the Bottle Green cordials sent to me.
