No 41 - German Plum Cake

The inspiration for baking something new often comes (in my kitchen at least) from having something I want to use up before it wastes.  So it was with plums I had bought cheaply and in large quantity a couple of years back.  The answer was Plum Cake, and although I suspect it is meant to be made in a shallow rectangular baking tin, and cut into squares (a 'slice' I suppose), it works well for us like this - particularly if we intend to spoon it out still warm and eat it for pudding with lashings of custard.


The plums are a refreshing tart contrast to sweet cake, and the ground almonds ensure a moist firm texture.

German Plum Cake

150g golden caster sugar
150g butter
3 large eggs
75g sifted plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
100g ground almonds
75g chopped walnuts
16 plums (depends on size - use 8 of those big ones we get in supermarkets these days)

Cut the plums into quarter and remove the stones.  (I slice the really big plums into smaller pieces than quarters.)

Cream the butter and sugar until it looks like french vanilla ice cream.  Beat the eggs lightly and add them bit by bit to the creamed buter/sugar mixture and beat in well.

Sift in the flour and baking powder and fold it in with a metal spoon.  Fold in the ground almonds and walnuts chopped to about pea-sized pieces.

Spread the mixture into your chosen baking tin (well greased beforehand of course), and throw the plum pieces on top.  The mixture rises up through the plums as it cooks.

Bake 40-45 minutes at 170-180 degrees C (depending on fan or conventional oven).

PS. I also put a dash of vanilla in the mix

No. 40 - Belgian Biscuits

These are probably no more Belgian than I am.  They seem to be an Australian and New Zealand thing, however in texture and with all their spices they are not unlike a lot of the biscuits that abound in Northern European countries.

By traditional they are round with serrated edges, iced with white and sprinkled with raspberry flavoured jelly crystals.  Jelly crystals are a bit hard to find here, where I note that jelly seems to be made from blocks of concentrated jelly rather than gelatine in granular form. 

They were a treat to make as a child; being allowed to spread one with jam and find another exactly the right size and shape to sandwich onto it, carefully swipe on a circle of white icing and decorate with a pinch of the jelly crystals.  The good thing about jelly crystals is the burst of intense flavour that they add.  Pink sugar provides the look, but it really lacks the zing.

This week I made them heat-shaped a.) because I’ve got heart-shaped biscuit cutters, and b.) because it’s St. Valentine’s Day on Thursday.

Belgian Biscuits

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

250g butter, softened

1 egg

2 1/2 teaspoons mixed spice

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 3/4 cups plain flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 Tb cocoa

Raspberry jam, white icing, and pink sugar or jelly crystals

Cream the butter and suggar, add the egg and beat well.... I read a version that goes - throw the softened butter, the sugar and the egg in the blender..... it seems to work equally well so do that.  Then sift in the dry ingredients and pulse until you have a dough-ball.

Tip it onto your bench with some sprinkled flour and squash it about a bit to make it all stick together, cut it into two, wrap the pieces in plastic film and refrigerate them for half an hour or so.

Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees C (fan oven) - 180 degrees C conventional and prepare two or three baking sheets.

Roll out the dough to about 5mm thick, cut it with a biscuit cutter and slide the biscuits onto baking sheet.  Bake 15-20 minutes and cool them on a rack. 

Stick the biscuits together with raspberry jam.  Ice them with white icing and sprinkle with pink crystals.

You can make pink sugar with 1/4 cup of granulated sugar, and a couple of drops of red food colouring - mixed well.

Saturday was wet and snowy and I spent the day out cutting birch off some common land with the Hampshire Conservation Volunteers;  a great day out despite the weather, a magnificent bonfire, and a piece of birch to take home for my wood-carving class, where I plan to make a kuksa (and possibly some wooden spoons for my kitchen).  Anyway as a result the baking was left until the last minute on Sunday and I was too rushed (and too lazy truth be known) to do some fancy flood icing on my themed biscuits.  Maybe I’ll save that for next year….but I doubt it.  They are not for sale and they’ll be consumed in an instant whether swiped or flooded with icing – so swiped it is.  They did however get royal icing because I’m a convert to its superior properties.