11 Sept 2013

the best (autumnal) plum and polenta cake.


Damson Cake 2

Something about the weather cooling off makes me hanker for days spent in the kitchen.  Perhaps I am subconsciously preparing food for the winter?  Or just greedy..?  I don't know.  What I do know is, after the horrors of moving, I am having a baggy-leggings-wearing-tea-drinking-and-baking-hiding-from-unpacking-more-boxes day today!

Damson Cake 3

This is one of the best cake recipes ever.   The polenta and walnuts make it dense and moist but never sludgy and it is perfect made with all types of late summer/autumnal fruits - I used damsons here, but plums, blackberries, blackberry and apple, pretty much anything goes.  It is so good straight from the oven with ice cream yet it still holds its shape and texture well enough to make perfect, lunch-box sized slabs for days afterwards.
I do love cake.

Damson Cake 4

Ingredients

150g butter
150g unrefined golden caster sugar
~20 plums or damsons or enough blackberries to scatter over the surface
75g plain flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
100g polenta (or semolina if you don't have polenta)
50g of shelled walnuts

Damson Cake 5

Put the oven onto 180'C and line a cake tin with baking paper (the tin I used was 20cm by 20cm).
Beat the butter and the eggs together until pale and fluffy.  
Crack the eggs into another bowl and lightly beat together then beat them slowly into the butter and sugar.
Sift the flour and baking powder together and then fold them gently into the mixture.
Fold in the polenta.
Crush the walnuts down (I did this by hand, I am a messy cook but you can chop then up or put them in a sandwich bag and bash them with a rolling pin if you prefer).
Pour and scrape the mixture into the baking tin.
If using plums or damsons, wash, halve and stone them.
Scatter the fruit on top of the cake mixture then push slightly into the surface (the fruit tends to sink towards the bottom of the tin during cooking).
Cook for about 40-45 minutes, test with a clean skewer (push into the cake, if it comes out clean without any wet mix on, then your cake is done, if not give it another few minutes).
Once cooked allow it to cool in the cake tin before popping it out.
Eat with lots of vanilla ice cream.

Damson Cake 8

1 comment:

  1. yum, this cake sounds amazing! i would love to start baking with plums more, i always forget about them!

    lindsey louise

    hellomrrabbitblog.com

    ReplyDelete