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!
Plum Upside Down Cake Recipe
It’s been great fun in the garden in recent weeks with all the yummy things we have been picking. This week, our lovely neighbour, Auntie Muriel, asked us to help pick the plums on her tree and said we could take as many as we liked. Daddy was very brave going up a high ladder and racing the wasps to the fruit. He managed to get lots as you can see from our picture! So, even after we shared them out with lots of people we still had loads leftover so needed a yummy recipe to make. Mummy chose a Plum Upside Down Cake from the clever Jamie Oliver (1) and it is properly deelish…
As usual, I need to inspect our pickings and ensure they meet my strict quality control standards
Plum Upside Down Cake
INGREDIENTS
• 225g butter
• 225g caster sugar
• 4 eggs beaten with 3 tbsp milk
• 100g ground almonds
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 150g plain flour
• 50g unblanched almonds, chopped or bashed in a pestle and mortar
Topping
• 125g butter, plus extra for greasing
• 150g light brown soft sugar
• 600g plums or greengages, stoned, halved and cut into 1cm slices
This was only some of the plums from Auntie Muriel’s tree!
METHOD
1. Start with the topping. Grease a 23cm-diameter round cake tin, then melt the butter in a pan. Stir in the sugar until the mixture is foamy and pale, about 2–3 minutes. (If it starts to separate, take it off the heat and keep stirring.) Pour into the cake tin and spread evenly. Arrange the plum slices in concentric circles over the topping, then put to one side.
2. Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4. Cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in a quarter of the eggs at a time, mixing thoroughly between each addition. Stir in the ground almonds, baking powder, salt and vanilla extract. Fold in the flour, then stir through the chopped/bashed almonds.
3. Pour the cake mixture over the plums. Place the cake tin on a baking tray and bake for about 1 hour or until golden and a skewer comes out clean. 4 Rest the cake on a wire rack for 2 minutes before sliding a knife around the edge to loosen it. Place your serving plate over the top of the cake and carefully invert onto the plate, avoiding any juices that may escape. Gently remove the tin and replace any dislodged pieces of fruit. Serve with custard, crème fraîche or ice cream.
Upside down plum cake – very pretty!
There are lots of other lovely things you can do with plums from crumbles and chutneys to dipping sauces and jams. Plums can easily be frozen too – just cut in half, remove the stone and lay them on a baking tray with cling film over them. Once frozen, bag them and they will keep all winter and won’t all be stuck together in one big lump! Yummy cakes at Vialii Towers all winter, yay! Hope you love it as much as me!
Lulu
1. I have a friend called Jamie and a friend called Oliver. They are brothers and are very cute. For boys 😉