Plum cake
Plum cake is a deliciously simple bake perfect for the autumn season. It’s a great way of using up plums from your garden and as it is so easy to make it’s a ideal bake for kids.
Plum cake is a deliciously simple bake, perfect for autumn. It’s a light and fluffy sponge filled with juicy plums but best of all, is really easy to make.
If you or your neighbours have plum trees in their garden, then this is the perfect dish for using some up. It’s the ultimate autumnal bake, although that doesn’t stop you making it at any time of year, as long as you can find plums in the shop. Or why not freeze some in the autumn to use at different time of year.
Rather than making this in a round cake tin, we’ve made it as a plum traybake. I thought the plums lent themselves to be arranged in a traybake tin and served in square portions although you can use a round tin if you prefer.
How can kids help to make this plum cake?
This is a fun autumn bake for kids to help with, even starting with collecting the plums for it if you have your own plum tree in your garden!
If you have older children, they can start by helping to prepare the plums – they need to be halved and have their stones removed so it’s a relatively simple job if your kids can use a sharp knife safely.
Once you’ve prepared the plums children of all ages can help to make the cake batter. This uses an easy ‘all in one’ method which mixes everything together in one bowl so it really couldn’t be simpler. Kids will be able to help measure and mix everything for the cake batter together and even help practice their egg cracking skills.
Once you’ve prepared the cake batter and the plums, your kids can help assemble the cake. First they can add the batter to you cake tin before arranging the plums on top. It’s a fun and easy job children of all ages can help with. Young children in particular can enjoy arranging the plums.
What sort of plums should I use?
It doesn’t really matter what variety of plums you use – you can fill it with whatever you or your neighbours grow in your gardens. You do want to make sure you use plums which are still quite firm however. If perfectly soft and ready to eat you might find it difficult to get the stone out without it falling apart so choose plums which are still a bit on the hard side.
The cake works best with slightly smaller plums as larger ones are more likely to sink down into the cake. If your plums are quite large try quartering them rather than halving them before you add them on top.
How long does the plum cake keep?
This cake is at its best on the day it’s made, particularly if it’s still a little bit warm from the oven. If you have some left over though, you can still enjoy it the following day. You can pop it in the oven for five minutes or so to warm it again if you like. Because of the fresh fruit it won’t keep for much longer than a day or so and you might find the bits of cake around the fruit becomes a little soggy as the juice from the fruit seeps out over time.
If you want to keep the cake for longer, you can freeze it for up to 3 months, if you wrap it well in cling film / glad wrap and pop it in a freezer bag. Make sure you defrost it fully and perhaps warm it in the oven before serving it.
What can I use instead of self raising flour?
Self raising flour is easy to buy in the UK, but if you don’t have any in your cupboard or can’t find it in your local supermarket, you can swap it for an equal amount of plain or all purpose flour. Self raising flour comes with baking powder already added, so you’ll need to add your own if you use plain flour. For this recipe add 2 extra teaspoons of baking powder and a pinch of salt.
What is baking spread / baking margarine?
Baking spread, (here in the UK you should easily find Stork in the supermarket for example) is just a non dairy margarine that’s great for baking. As well as being vegan (double check the label) it can make sponges lighter and fluffier, which makes it a great, cheaper alternative to butter in a bake like this.
Can you cook this in a round cake tin?
Absolutely! If you’d rather have serve this plum cake as a round cake, rather than cooking it in a traybake tin, you can bake it in a 20cm round, loose bottomed cake tin. Check the cake after about 40 minutes in the oven.
Other autumnal recipes
If you liked this plum cake why not try one of these autumnal recipes:
Plum crumble
Blueberry and apple muffins
Apple pinwheels
Apple cake
Plum and apple crumble
Apple crumble
Pumpkin pie
Caramel apple crumble
Apple cinnamon muffins
Caramel apple bread
Pear cake
Apple and blackberry crumble
Plum and apple crumble
Apple scones
Pear crumble
Apple flapjacks
Or why not try one of these cake and traybake recipes
Sultana cake
Ginger cake (Mary Berry)
Millionaires shortbread
School cake
Banana and chocolate chip bars
Iced lemon traybake
Useful equipment
You might need the following baking tools/gadgets to make this plum cake:
Digital scales
Freestanding mixer
Mixing bowl
Hand held mixer
Measuring cups
Measuring spoons
Spatula
Offset spatula
23 x 30cm baking tin
Wire rack
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.. You will not be charged anything extra for this. Please refer to my Privacy Policy Page for more details.
Ingredients
9 Plums (approximately)
300g (2 ½ cups) self raising flour*
2 teaspoons baking powder
225g (1 1/8 cup) soft brown sugar
4 eggs
225g (1 cup) butter or baking margarine
1 tablespoon milk
How to make a plum cake
Preheat your oven to 180C / 160C / 350F then grease and line a 23x33cm (9 x 13 inch) baking tin with baking or parchment paper.
I find the easiest way of lining a baking tin is to cut a strip the width of the tin and lay it in, then lay another strip in the other direction. If you leave some paper over hanging the edges, it’ll make it easier to remove it from the tin later.
We always grease the tin before putting the baking paper in. It will help prevent the cake from sticking as well helping to keep the baking paper in place when you add the cake batter.
Prepare the plums
If you kids are old enough, get them to help half or quarter and de-stone the plums. Set them aside for now.
Make the plum cake batter
Get your kids to measure all the cake ingredients out and add them to a large mixing bowl or a free-standing mixer. It doesn’t really matter what order you do this because it all get mixed in together at once but if you follow along with the order they’re listed you’re less likely to miss anything out.
Start with the dry ingredients: the flour, baking powder, and sugar. When your kids are adding the baking powder, make sure they use their finger to level the teaspoon so that you add just the right amount.
Next get your kids to add the the wet ingredients: crack the eggs into a small bowl, before adding them to your mixing bowl. We never add them straight in to our mixing bowl just in case any rogue shell goes in. When/if it does, simply fish it out with a larger piece of shell or a teaspoon. It’ll stick to that better than it will your finger and be a lot less messy.
Add the butter, or baking margarine if you’re using it. Butter needs to be soft enough to mix in, so if yours isn’t try cutting it into pieces before popping it in the microwave for 10 seconds or so. Make sure you do it long enough to soften it but not so long that it melts.
Finally, add the tablespoon of milk.
Using the k-paddle of your free-standing mixer, a hand held mixer or even wooden spoons mix everything together. Mix it for a minute or two until the batter looks lovely and light and smooth. Get your kids to scrape down the edges of the bowl with a spatula to make sure all the ingredients are incorporated and there’s no lumps of flour hiding at the bottom.
Make the plum cake
Get your kids to help spoon or pour the cake batter into your prepared baking tin. Spread it to the edges and level the top with a little spatula.
Then, get your kids to arrange the plum halves/quarters on top, pressing them in very gently. You don’t need to press them in too much as they will sink down a bit while it bakes (although don’t worry too much if that happens.)
Bake the plum cake
Bake the plum cake for 50-60 minutes. It’s ready when it’s turned golden brown, and is starting to come away from the edges of your tin and the plums are nice and soft.
You can double check it’s ready by inserting a cocktail stick, skewer or sharp knife in the centre of the cake. It should should come out clean if it’s fully baked. If there’s wet cake batter on the stick put it back in the oven for a few more minutes.
If it is browning too much on top you can cover it in foil for the last ten minutes or so.
Take the traybake out of the oven and leave it in the tin for 10 minutes to start cooling.
Remove the traybake from the tin, peel off the baking paper and leave it to cool on a wire rack.
Once cooled, slice it into pieces with a sharp knife.
If you like you can sprinkle over some icing sugar just before you serve it. And then add a dollop of custard, crème fraiche or ice cream, and enjoy.
Plum cake
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Preheat your oven to 180C / 160C / 350F then grease and line a 23x33cm (9 x 13 inch) baking tin with baking or parchment paper.
- Half and de-stone the plums (or quarter them if they are quite large). Set them aside for now.
- Measure all the cake ingredients out and add them to a large mixing bowl or a free-standing mixer. It doesn't really matter what order you do this because it all get mixed in together at once but if you follow along with the order they're listed you're less likely to miss anything out.
- Start with the dry ingredients: the flour, baking powder, and sugar. When you add the baking powder, make sure you use your finger to level the teaspoon so that you add just the right amount.
- Next add the the wet ingredients: crack the eggs into a small bowl, before adding them to your mixing bowl. Add the butter, or baking margarine if you're using it. Butter needs to be soft enough to mix in, so if yours isn't try cutting it into pieces before popping it in the microwave to soften it.Finally, add the tablespoon of milk.
- Using the k-paddle of your free-standing mixer, a hand held mixer or even wooden spoons mix everything together. Mix it for a minute or two until the batter looks lovely and light and smooth.
- Spoon or pour the cake batter into your prepared baking tin. Spread it to the edges and level the top with a little spatula.Then, arrange the plum halves on top, pressing them in very gently.
- Bake the plum cake for 50-60 minutes. It's ready when it's turned golden brown, and is starting to come away from the edges of your tin and the plums are nice and soft.You can double check it's ready by inserting a cocktail stick, skewer or sharp knife in the centre of the cake. It should should come out clean if it's fully baked. If there's wet cake batter on the stick put it back in the oven for a few more minutes.If it is browning too much on top you can cover it in foil for the last ten minutes or so.
- Take the traybake out of the oven and leave it in the tin for 10 minutes to start cooling.Remove the traybake from the tin, peel off the baking paper and leave it to cool on a wire rack. Once cooled, slice it into pieces with a sharp knife.
Pin it for later
Similar recipes
If you liked this plum cake you’ll love our other delicious cakes as well as our favourite easy bakes for kids.
Leave a Reply