Plum Cake... An Irresistable Temptation

My family love plums.  Each one of us can have three to four plums (small ones) at one sitting.  I used to get my supply of fresh juicy plums from this petit chinese lady whose fruit stall is at the Sg. Besi R&R. Hers will never be a disappointment. She would never recommend to me decaying fruit. 

Last weekend, I went to the night market new my home and saw this stall vendor selling ripe American red plums... at a very cheap and insensible price. Yahoo! One plate of 8 plums for RM5 and the size is big, similar to the ones sold by the petit chinese lady. Greedy me, I ended buying four plates. We had plums for dessert and snacks before and in between breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner. My goodness! A weekend full of plums. 

Since I stil have about twelve left on the kitchen counter, I decided to give this Plum Coffee Cake recipe from Stephanie a try. Actually, the recipe doesn't use coffee flavour at all but the taste comes from the caramalized brown sugar sprinkled on top of the cake before baking (I guess..). The cake is moist and full of almod flavour. The wonderful thing is, you don't need an electric mixer to make it.

The cake is fabulous. In the beginning, I just wanted a bite... but the one bite ended with one piece. (Guilty!) I'm telling you that it is super duper-licious that I keep on going for a bite. So, I gave half to my next door neighbour and the rest was my hubby's and girl's treat.

This is my adaptation of Stephanie's, JoyofBaking.com, Plum Coffee Cake. Thanks Stephanie for sharing the recipe.

Plum Coffee Cake:

1 1/4 cups (175 grams) all-purpose flour

1/4 cup (30 grams) ground almonds

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (120 ml) corn oil 

1/2 cup (120 ml) whole milk plain yogurt

1/4 cup (60 ml) orange juice

1 tablespoon orange zest (the outer orange skin (rind) of the orange)

1 large egg

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup (200 grams) granulated white sugar

7 - 8 Italian prune plums, halved and pitted (can also use 4 - 5 red plums)

Garnish:

2 tablespoons (30 grams) coarse brown sugar 

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) and place rack in the centre of oven.
2. Butter and flour one - 8 inch (20 cm) spring form pan or spray pan with non-stick vegetable spray. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper.
3. A. In a large bowl, stir or whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and ground almonds.
4. B. In another large bowl, stir or whisk together the oil, yogurt, orange juice and zest, egg, and vanilla extract. Stir in the sugar.
5. Add B to A (the wet ingredients to the flour mixture). Stir until just combined.
6. Transfer the batter into the prepared pan and evenly arrange the halved plums on top of the batter, flesh side facing up.
7. Sprinkle with the 1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar.
8. Bake in preheated oven for about 35 to 45 minutes or until the cake tester inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

The recipe makes one - 8 inch (20 cm) cake.