Saturday, 30 April 2011

plum tea cake

So you might have heard the saying, 'When life hands you lemons, go make a gin & tonic'; I remember first seeing this print on the shelf at the Donna Hay General Store and was very tempted to pick it off the shelf until I realised that it was actually part of the display. Well, life hasn't quite handed me lemons but I do seem to have a bit of a lemon of a phone. Have tried to go get it fixed but after several times trotting over to Nokia & Optus, I've just given up. On my last visit, my efforts were so half hearted that I ended up trotting into a bookshop and buying myself a cookbook - much better. 'When life hands you a lemon phone, go buy a cookbook!'

The cookbook I picked up was 'The Thrifty Kitchen' by Suzanne & Kate Gibbs. Only $12.95 from one of the discount bookshops in Parramatta and yes, I know, another cookbook for me but really, it's a rather good one. Lots of staple recipes for the every day and scattered with cooking tips for the home. I've made two recipes from the book so far and here's one of them for a plum tea cake.

Preheat oven to 190 degrees. Butter a 20cm diameter cake tin and line the base with baking paper. In a medium sized bowl, using an electric mixer, beat 1 egg white until stiff peaks form, then mix in the egg yolk. Gradually add 1/2 cup caster sugar, 1/2 cup milk with 1/2 tsp vanilla extract and beat well. Stir in 1 cup sifted self raising flour and 30g melted unsalted butter. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and top with 4-6 cut plums (cut side down).

Bake for 35 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Make yourself a cup of tea in the meantime (well I do anyway).

Remove from the oven and whilst hot, brush the top with 20g melted butter. Sprinkle with cinnamon (1/2 tsp) and sugar (1 tbsp) mix. 

Cake innards!

Serve warm or at room temperature.

This cake is best eaten on the day it's made. Personally thought it was a rather good recipe to use up some plums that were rather sour. The sourness seems to be balanced out by the sweetness of the cake. 

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Plums are one of those...hit or miss fruit. You get the insanely sweet ones, and those sour enough to turn your face into a scrunched up ball. I agree, great recipe for sour plums! Maybe some custard next time too! ;)

mashi said...

Oh no, what's wrong with your phone?

The cake looks yummo, wouldn't mind a slice with a hot cuppa right now mmm

Rita (mademoiselle délicieuse) said...

Love tea cakes that you can kind of throw together without worrying too much about the way it looks! Personally favourite is apple or pear.