Danish Plum Cake

Danish baking is lengendary the world around, traditional cakes tend to be simple and seasonal.  This recipe has been adapted from “Danish Food & Cooking” by Judith H Dern, a fascinating collection of Danish traditional recipes.

Ingredients

• 9 (pitted) fresh plums plus 8 extra plums (pitted and halved) to decorate
• 2 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons plain sugar
• ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• ¾ cup finely ground almond meal
• 1 teaspoon soda  bicarbonate
• 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoon brown sugar, to decorate

Method

1. Place 9 chopped plums in a pan and add 2 tablespoons of water and 2 tablespoons of sugar.  Bring to the boil over a medium heat and cook for 10-15 minutes, until soft. Set aside to cool.  You will need 1 ½ cups stewed plums for the cake.

1. Preheat the oven 180C.  Grease and flour a 24cm/9 ½ in spring-form cake tin.
2. Cream the butter with the sugar in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy.  Beat the eggs, one at a time.
3. Stir in the stewed plums and the almonds.  Add the baking soda, baking powder, cardamom and salt and stir until blended.
4. Gradually stir in the flour, a few spoons at the time, and mix until blended.
5. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin.  Place the 12 plum halves around the circumference of the cake and the remaining 4 halves in the centre, cut side down.  Sprinkle the brown sugar over the cake.
6. Bake for 1 hour, or until the top springs back when lightly touched.  Cool in the tin for 15 minutes before unfastening the ring.

 Tips

• This cardamom-accented cake has an intriguing pale bluish-green hue from the plum skins.
• Serve the cake with whipped cream – Beat double cream until you have soft peaks, make one cup.   Stir in 2 tablespoons of sugar and 2 tablespoons vanilla sugar.
• If there is too much liquid in the plum stew, take the 1 1/2 cups needed for the cake and then put the remaining juice in a pan and reduce it at medium heat.  You will have a tasty, rich, and thick sauce to serve with the cake.