My lovely neighbour offered to bring some plums and, although I would have loved making some jam, I opted for a fruity cake for the morning coffee.

It's late September. The kids are back at school. The kits are settling in. The kitchen is half finished and a bit of a tip.What to do in the midst of a building site? Make a cake, of course.With six big bruise-coloured plums and three plump figs lurking in the fruit bowl, the decision made itself. No stranger to plums and what complements their flavour (I once lived in a house with an abundant plum tree), almonds were a given. Would figs work too?Yes. Yes, they would.It was an easy win. I modified an Italian plum cake recipe by David Tanis by adding figs and using golden caster sugar and a dash of almond extract.The end result was the perfect combination of dense crumb and molten, jammy fruit.This is a cake best served warm, as close to just-out-of-the-oven as you can get without the risk of third degree burns, with a cup of coffee on a rainy autumn day.

Beautiful cake. Not too sweet.

This is a very popular cake in Germany for the time of August and September. Usually you find it with a yeast dough but this one is made with a shortcrust pastry (Mürbeteigboden). The dough is enough for a very thin crust on a baking tray (very, very thin) or a springform pan (diameter 26 cm/ca. 10.2 in)The shortcrust recipe originates from "Altbayerisches Kochbuch" (Old Bavarian cooking book). The prune topping follows the instructions of a dear friend of my family.

A wonderful cake to celebrate christmas.

#goldenapron post-17

A yummy and tasty traditional recipe for the season

One of the reasons we fell in love with our house was the garden, with its fig, apple and plum trees. I think the plum variety is Jubilee, but she's a temperamental old thing and in recent years has flowered and fruited biennially.This year has been a fallow year. Usually by now I'd have made endless jars of jam (my favourite recipe being plum and earl grey), ice cream, crumbles, compote, and cake after cake after cake - anything to use up the vast quantities that fill every bowl we own.. But I've been more selective this year, buying just a few to eat or use as we choose rather than out of necessity.Having said that, I've made this cake three times this week, tweaking the recipe a bit here and there until it's just about perfect. Plums seem to take on a different personality depending on what you put them with - I do love a versatile fruit - and my favourite combination is plum and rose.I have a lovely recipe for plum and rose jam, which'll have to be put away for next year. You can see this here - https://cookpad.wasmer.app/us/recipes/2346821-plum-and-earl-grey-jam.Meanwhile, this cake is an excellent way to use up the last of the crop and works equally well with plums of all varieties and in all states of ripeness.

#ALHUMDULILAH #Plain #Cake