Mieze's plum cake

Name: Mieze's plum cake
Cook time: 1 h 30 min
Yield: 8-10
Ingredients: 180g softened butter; 150g castor sugar; 135g plain flour; 135g self-raising flour; pinch of salt; 2 large eggs, lightly beaten; 70ml milk; 1/2 cup ground almonds (or fresh breadcrumbs); 10-12 ripe blood plums, halved and stonedTopping; 60g butter; 1/2 cup castor sugar; 2 tsp ground cinnamon; 2 large eggs

Stephanie Alexander

October 18, 2011

Time:1-2 hoursServes:8-10

This particular cake is one of my favourites and I have baked it in all sorts of sizes, even in hamburger rings as an individual portion, in which case it is necessary to reduce the cooking time. It is named for a very charming Austrian woman who introduced the cake to our family more than 40 years ago. We have enjoyed this cake warm from the oven with cream and cold as a sort of variation on a muffin at breakfast-time.

Ingredients

180g softened butter
150g castor sugar
135g plain flour
135g self-raising flour
pinch of salt
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
70ml milk
1/2 cup ground almonds (or fresh breadcrumbs)
10-12 ripe blood plums, halved and stoned

Topping
60g butter
1/2 cup castor sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 large eggs

Method

Preheat oven to 200C and lightly grease a 26cm springform tin.
To make the topping
Melt butter and stir in sugar and cinnamon, then allow to cool a little. Whisk eggs well and stir into cooled butter mixture.
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then mix in flours and salt. Mix eggs with milk, then add to flour mixture and mix to make a softish dough (it should drop easily from the spoon). Spoon batter into prepared tin (it should not fill more than a quarter of the depth, as the cake rises a great deal), smooth the top and sprinkle over ground almonds.
Arrange plums on top, cut-side up, starting around outside edge and working towards centre. Spoon topping over and around plums on cake. Place cake in oven and reduce temperature to 180C.
Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, until a fine skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
To serve: Serve warm with cream or ice-cream. Any leftover cake can be warmed, wrapped in foil, in the oven at 180C for 15 minutes.