This is a lovely little crowd-pleasin’ cake, quick & simple to whip up. The batter is spiked with tangy lime zest, while the topping is juicy tart plums – using tinned plums means you can enjoy this treat year-round. No fresh limes? Try lemon! Equally zestily delicious!
Kitchen notes:
For the plums: here in New Zealand, I use the Watties 850g tin, and usually have a couple of plums left over.
For the flour: this recipe calls for 1.5 cups of gluten free flour. I’ve successfully used a store-bought GF wholemeal blend, which makes it super easy. I’ve also used my own flour combo: ½ cup tapioca flour/starch, ½ cup (brown) rice flour, ½ cup sorghum flour. If sorghum’s not your thing, swap it for buckwheat flour.
Bonus nerdy flour notes: the starch in the tapioca really helps bind the cake. It has barely any nutritional value, but it plays a crucial role in binding the batter, or helping it hold together. In ‘regular’ baking, this job is done by gluten and/or eggs, but since we’re using neither, tapioca comes to the rescue. No tapioca? Try arrowroot.
Wet ingredients:
½ cup/100g margarine/vegan butter, melted
1 cup milk of choice (I use soy)
½ cup plain yoghurt (I use coconut)
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 Tbsp finely grated lime zest
Dry ingredients:
1 ½ cups gluten free flour (see kitchen notes above)
½ cup ground almonds
2/3 cup raw or coconut sugar
2 tsp GF baking powder
Topping:
8-9 tinned Black Doris plums
Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a standard 20cm cake tin or line it with baking paper.
In a mixing bowl, combine all the dry ingredients well, then add the wet, mixing thoroughly. The batter will be thick. Pour it evenly into the cake tin.
Now we’re going to cover the top with the tinned plums. Break each plum into two, three or four pieces – I do this with my hands, over the cake, so the juices drip down onto the batter. Press each piece slightly into the batter. We’re aiming to pretty much cover the top of the cake with tart juicy goodness. I find that 8 or 9 tinned plums should do it. Press a few pieces deeper than the others, so there’s juicy bites throughout.
Pop the cake into the preheated oven and bake for 45 mins. Let it cool in the tin for about five minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Delicious served warm & fresh!
Leave a Reply