Spiced plum loaf

Spiced plum loaf

spiced plum loaf baked

Do you have rituals / things you do that help you get through your week? I certainly do, and this week, I have felt a lot of gratitude for the Internet content creators that make my working week a little more enjoyable and, if I’m having a bad day, bearable. I thought that a blog post is a great place to say ‘thank you’ for what they contribute.

I try not to start my day without 15 minutes of yoga with the lovely Brett Larkin. This is the video that helps me get out of bed and ALMOST makes my morning coffee redundant. I’ve done it so many times now that I know it by heart, but it still never fails to push me a little bit more with every practice and I love how it makes me feel afterwards. I strive to do it 7 days a week, although in reality I only probably manage 5. Brett’s teaching style is great, it’s really down to earth and doesn’t make me feel like a ton of bricks. I highly recommend it, especially to those of you who, like me, aren’t natural yogis.

As I am by myself a lot of the time, I really like listening to podcasts while I work. I am a big fan of Rich Roll and the Guilty Feminist, but this week, I discovered a new podcast that got me hooked and I’m almost through all the episodes (that’s the trouble with binge listening 😛 ). The podcast is by Geoff Turner and it’s called On Drugs. It examines the nuanced history of brain stimulating substances (including coffee, my drug of choice, and alcohol) throughout time and from various perspectives, including drugs in relationship to race, gender and music. It’s really fascinating and very educational.

Speaking of drugs, it may be just me, but I reckon a Friday calls for a celebratory slice of cake and a mug of coffee, doesn’t it? Well, those of you who are people after my own heart will be happy to hear that today, I am bringing you an August inspired cake recipe for spiced plum cake. It’s easy to make, moist and delicious, fragrant with cinnamon, cardamom and vanilla.

It’s gorgeous on its own, with your favourite hot beverage, but it also goes insanely well with a dollop of thick coconut yoghurt (or whipped coconut cream) and some extra plum compote if you wanna make it into a fully-fledged dessert!

spiced plum loaf plum puree

spiced plum loaf cut

spiced plum loaf side on

spiced plum loaf cross section

spiced plum loaf slice

makes
2 lb / 1 kg
PREP
25 min
COOKING
50 min
makes
2 lb / 1 kg
PREPARATION
25 min
COOKING
50 min
INGREDIENTS
DRY INGREDIENTS

  • 180 g / 1½ cups all purpose white flour, GF flour mix or buckwheat flour, sifted
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • ¾ tsp baking soda
  • 1¼ tsp cinnamon
  • 6 green cardamom pods, seeds crushed (or ½ heaped tsp ground)

WET INGREDIENTS

  • 240 ml / 1 cup plum compote (about 550 g / 20 oz ripe plums + 150 g / 5 oz for decoration)*
  • 60 ml / ¼ cup mild tasting oil (I used mild olive oil)
  • 80 ml / 1/3 cup almond milk (or other thin plant milk)
  • 150 g / ¾ cup coconut sugar or demerara sugar**
  • 1½ tsp vanilla essence

OPTIONAL EXTRAS

METHOD
  1. Warm up the oven to 180° C / 355° F and line a 900 g / 2 lb cake tin with baking paper. Move the oven rack a notch down from the middle position.
  2. Set aside 3 plums for decoration. Remove the stones from the rest of the plums (you’ll need about 550 g / 20 oz for 1 cup of plum compote). Chop them up roughly and place them in a small pot that you have a lid for with a splash (about 60 ml / ¼ cup) of water. Cover and bring to the boil gently and allow the plums to simmer a little.
  3. Once the plums fall apart completely, take the lid off and simmer the mixture on a low heat to allow the excess water to cook out and for the mixture to thicken. Cool down before incorporating into the cake.
  4. Combine 240 ml / 1 cup of cool plum compote with oil, almond milk, sugar and vanilla essence in a large bowl. Mix very well.
  5. In a smaller bowl, combine the sifted flour and the remaining dry ingredients.
  6. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones in three batches, mixing well each time. Mix until there is no dry flour left, but do not overmix (that’s only important if you are using a flour containing gluten)!
  7. Transfer the cake batter into the prepared baking tin. It should be fairy thick. Decorate the cake with fanned plum slices.
  8. Bake for about 50 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out fairy clean (this cake should be moist). Remove from the oven and brush with with a little maple syrup while the cake is still hot.
  9. Let the cake cool down completely before removing it from the tin and slicing. Use a serrated knife to slice if you have one – I find that it produces neater looking slices. For an extra indulgent dessert, serve with the remaining plum compote and a dollop of thick coconut yoghurt or whipped coconut cream.

NOTES
*I tend to make a bit more plum compote (from about 700 g / 25 oz of fresh plums) to be able to serve it alongside the cake.

**If your plums are really sharp, you may want to use more sugar.

I used a 2lb / 900 g cake tin of the following dimensions: 18.5cm / 7″ x 8cm / 3″ x 6cm / 2.5″. (I used one like this).

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NUTRITIONAL INFO
calories
218
11%
sugars
16 g
17%
fats
6 g
8%
saturates
1 g
4%
proteins
2 g
4%
carbs
41 g
16%
*per slice
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5.0
5 reviews, 15 comments
REVIEWS & QUESTIONS
leona:
could I make this with "normal" flour and just swap gram for gram?
    Ania
    Ania:
    Yes, in fact the recipe lists all purpose wheat flour as one of the options...I assume that's what you mean by 'normal' flour. Hope you'll enjoy it. Ania
Lorna:
Really delicious cake, with an easy to follow recipe! It isn't too overwhelmingly sweet, which I like, and it was an excellent way to use up some of the many plums I had in the garden. I personally added in pecans, which I thought added some good crunch, so I'd recommend that if you fancy switching it up!
    Ania
    Ania:
    Thanks so much, Lorna! I'm so happy to hear that you enjoyed this plum cake and pecans do sound like a great add on. And thanks for taking the time to review, I really appreciate it. x Ania
Anna:
This cake was delicious. I didn't have enough compote so made up the difference with coconut yogurt and the cake was super moist :)
    Ania
    Ania:
    Thank you, Anna! I am delighted to hear that you enjoyed this cake and thanks so much for taking the time to review, I really appreciate it. x Ania
Suzy:
Absolutely delicious. Light and fluffy and loved by everyone.
    Ania
    Ania:
    Thanks Suzy, that's fabulous to hear! x Ania
Cassie:
A friend gifted me with some plums from her garden so I was able to make this last night and it's so delicious!! I actually ran out of sugar so I only put about 1/3 cup and it was plenty sweet! I am already looking for more plums to make this again! It's great because it's still definitely a late summer cake, but still very cozy.
    Ania
    Ania:
    Thanks, Cassie! That's lovely to hear, what a lovely friend you have! Yes, the amount of sugar is definitely up for debate, it very much depends on how tart the plums are. x Ania
Heather Leckie:
No worries Ania, wasn’t blaming you. I actually thought it was really, really funny, like how many of your readers are going to be interested in a product like that! It was such a silly product placement. Today’s advert is for online clothing, so it seems there is a loop of ads. And the adverts are so worth it if it means we can have access to blogs like yours. Keep up the good work, I’ve made many of your recipes.
    Ania
    Ania:
    Thanks Heather, I'm glad you understand. We have had quite a few people be very horrible about this, but advertising is something that allows me to run this blog so it's a necessity really. Thanks for you support! Ania
Silvi:
Hi Ania,
your multiseeds bread is in my oven, very excited!
From now on we will have amazing plum here in Italy and I would love to make this cake, I also have cardamom pods but it's not clear to me what I should do with them in this case, should I crash the pods keep the seeds and grind them, then add them to the dry ingredients?
Baci
Silvi
    Ania
    Ania:
    Hi Silvi,
    Hope the bread turned out well. As for the cardamom, what you do is simply open the pods, empty them into a pestle and mortar and grind the black seeds until you get fairly fine powder and add this powder directly to the cake. Hope that helps! Baci :) Ania
Heather Leckie:
Hi Ania, This looks like a great vegan cake, but did you know that the advert on this page is for Chief brand Grain-fed Beef protein snack bars! Ugh! Though it was a joke at first, but apparently they are also available in Lamb. Can’t imagine many of your readers will be interested in that particular product! ;-)
    Ania
    Ania:
    Hi Heather,
    I hear you, it is very frustrating to us, but we have very little control as to the advertising content shown. We've obviously stated we do not want any advertisements for meat, dairy, eggs, leather etc. but now and then one of these ads sneaks in and by the time we let the advertising broker know they rotate to a new ad anyway. I does not serve us, our readers or the advertisers either, but for the time being the software isn't clever enough to stop these things from happening now and again. Hope that makes sense and I'm sorry you've been exposed to that. Ania
Jane:
Why do the words 'Spiced Plum Loaf' make me want to make this NOW?! Alas, it's not plum season here, but I am going to save this for later! (I'm in Victoria, Australia). By the way, I'm just letting you know 2 little 'fairies ' have snuck into your recipe instructions! (Typos for 'fairly' I believe!!! :) )
Thanks for your lovely blog!
    Ania
    Ania:
    Thanks so much, Jane! I shall correct it now! No matter how many times we proofread the copy, there is always a 'fairy' that sneaks in :) Hope you'll enjoy the cake. Ania
Claudia:
Hi, great recipe. I have a question. Do you think I can substitute the olive oil with coconut oil? 💛
    Ania
    Ania:
    Hi Claudia,
    Thank you, hope you'll enjoy it! Sure thing, just make sure you melt it and then allow it to cool down or else it will melt the sugar. Hope that helps! Ania
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