Yum Plum!
If you live anywhere similar to us, you will be seeing an explosion of plums on trees and trug-fulls of yummy plums being traded around the neighbourhood at the moment! If you want to grow plums, my latest blog gives you a few tips along with a lovely cake recipe to put them into if you have any left over…
Our tree, laden with plums!
Plum Facts
- They are super easy to grow and reward you with a large crop of juicy plums, perfect for eating straight off the tree or for making jams, cakes and desserts, yum!
- Literally any garden can fit a plum tree. The trick is to carefully choose your root stock so you get one that will suit your size. Any good garden centre (or clever gardeners like Vialii) can advise what variety to choose. You can also grow them as standards or espaliers (along a wall) if that suits your garden better.
- If you only have space for one plum tree, make sure it is self-fertile in order to get fruit. Once the fruit has set on your tree, it’s best to thin them out to avoid congestion and allow the ones left to grow big and healthy (and not overload the poor tree!)
- You should only ever prune your plum tree (or a cherry tree) in Summer to avoid the risk of Silver Leaf infection or bacterial canker.
So, now you know lots about plums you will soon have soooo many you won’t know what to do with them all! One of the things we like to do is bake (and eat!) cakes so why not try out this recipe from the clever people at BBC Good Food…
Plum, Hazelnut & Chocolate Cake
Ingredients:
- 175g butter, plus extra for greasing
- 500g plums
- 175g light muscovado sugar
- 175g self-raising flour
- 175g ground hazelnuts
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 50g dark chocolate (70 per cent cocoa), chopped
- 2 tbsp hazelnuts
- 2 tbsp redcurrant, damson or plum jelly
To make:
1. Ask a grown up to heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4.
2. Butter and line the base of a round 20cm cake tin.
3. Halve and stone 4 plums, set aside for later, then roughly chop the remaining plums.
3. Put the sugar, butter, flour, ground hazelnuts, eggs and baking powder into a large bowl and beat with a wooden spoon or electric hand mixer for 1-2 mins, until smooth and light.
4. Stir in the chopped plums and chocolate, then tip into the prepared cake tin and smooth the top.
5. Arrange the halved plums over the top of the mixture, pressing them down lightly, then scatter over hazelnuts.
6. Bake for 40-50 mins until the top is golden and the cake feels firm to the touch. Cool in the tin for 10 mins, then turn out, remove the paper and cool on a wire rack.
7. Heat the jelly, then brush over the top of the cake before serving.
Yummy Plum, Hazelnut & Chocolate Cake
And there you have it. Yum Plum!
Cor-gette!
I love my seasonal veg. It tastes so yummy when it’s picked from the garden and is on your plate a matter of minutes later. This week my blog is all about courgettes. From how to grow them to a super yummy courgette cake recipe it’s ripe for the reading!
Cor-gette!
Funny Courgette Facts
- The courgette is called zucchini in America
- It is part of the gourd family along with pumpkins and squash
- If you let a courgette grow bigger it will become a marrow!
- You can also eat the flower of the courgette
- The biggest courgette ever recorded was over 1.76m long! Wowser!
Growing Courgettes
Waaaaay back in Spring I told you all about how to grow seeds. One of the ways that we spoke about was using the Twigz mini greenhouse. I used mine to plant a range of lovely veg and flowers and one of those was courgettes.
Over the months the seedlings have been nurtured from mini greenhouse to bigger greenhouse to bigger pots. Make sure you water them LOTS along the way. I have loved using my colourful Twigz tools to help me dig holes, rake soil, water the plants and carry compost to help make my courgettes grow well. My courgette plant now sits happily on the edge of one of our raised veg beds and it has been giving us some lovely courgettes.
There are all sorts of lovely things you can do with courgettes such as adding them to pasta sauces, soups, tarts, making frittata or even pickling them! But one of my favourite things to do with courgettes is to make cakes with them, yum! Here’s my courgette muffin recipe (1) – it tastes so good you won’t believe it has lots of fruit and veggies in it!
Courgette Muffins
You will need:
- 50g courgettes
- 1 apple, peeled and cored
- 1 orange, halved
- 1 egg
- 75g butter, melted
- 300g self-raising flour
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- 100g golden caster sugar
- handful of sultanas
- 1 tub soft cheese mixed with 3 tbsp icing sugar, to make icing
To make:
1. Brush the muffin tin with oil or add some muffin cases. Ask your grown-up to switch the oven to 190C/ 170C fan/gas 5.
2. Grate the courgettes and put them in a large bowl. Grate the apple and add to the bowl. Squeeze the orange and add the juice to the bowl.
3. Break the egg into a bowl. Stir the butter and egg into the courgette and apple mix.
4. Sieve the flour, baking powder and cinnamon into the bowl. Add the sugar and sultanas.
Mix with a spoon until everything is combined, but don’t worry if it is lumpy.
5. Spoon the mixture into the tin. Ask your grown up to put it in the oven and cook for 20-25 mins.
6. Cool in the tin, then spread some icing on each.
Yummy courgette muffins
If you haven’t already grown them this year make sure they are on your list for next year. Super easy, versatile and tasty. Cor-gette!
1. Thanks to the clever people at BBC Good Food for the recipe for the Courgette Muffins