Plum and Blueberry Yoghurt Cake

When Caroline announced that this month's AlphaBakes letter is 'Y',I immediately thought of yoghurt. I love baking with yoghurt and tend to use it in muffins and banana bread. I found this great recipe online for a Peach and Blueberry Greek Yoghurt Cake so I decided to give it a go. Plums were on sale in the supermarket so I used plums instead of peaches and it worked beautifully. I'm sure nectarines or even pears would work well too. The cake is really colourful and visually appealing. The sponge is light and the added fruit on top makes it feel almost healthy. 

I'm sending this to AlphaBakes hosted by Caroline from Caroline Makes this month and myself on alternate months. The letter is Y for yoghurt. 

It's also going to Recipe of the Week hosted by Emily from A Mummy Too

 sponge base 

 adding lovely fresh fruit on top 

 

 look at all the lovely colours 

Recipe from Julia's Album
The only changes I made was to reduce the amount of sugar, replace the peaches with plums and adding in some brown sugar before baking.

185g flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
56g butter, softened
180g caster sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
125mls Greek yogurt
4 plum, sliced
170g blueberries

3-4 teaspoons light brown sugar (optional) 

• Preheat oven to 180C. 
• Grease and line a 23cm diameter springform tin.
• Sift the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda in a bowl. 
• In the bowl of a mixer, beat the butter and sugar together for a few minutes.
• Add in the eggs, one at a time and mix well.
• Add in the yoghurt and vanilla extract.
• Stir in the flour mixture and continue mixing. 
• Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin.
• Arrange the plum slices in a circular fashion on top.
• Sprinkle the bluberries on top.
• If using, sprinkle a few teaspoons of light brown sugar on top before baking. 
• Bake for approximately 45 - 50 minutes until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 
• Allow to cool completely in the tin before releasing and serving. 

Apple, Plum and Almond Crumble Cake

My colleague brought in a huge basket of plums to work from her garden. We ate some of it but there was so many left I decided I'd take some home and bake something with it. I started thinking about flavour combinations and in the end decided on this apple, plum and almond crumble cake. The cake was declared one of the best bakes of the year. 

The cake is lightly spiced with chunks of apple which added a lovely freshness to the cake. The crumble topping added a lovely layer of texture and flavour with the ground almonds and oats. The plums were tart but still retained their shape and moisture after baking and paired well with the toasted almond flakes. The cake is delicious on its own but would go well with some custard or cream. 

I'm entering this to several blogging challenges this month. Firstly to the Rix Aga Inspired Recipe Competition where the theme is plums. 

Simple and in Season hosted this month by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary for Ren from RenBehan.com. It's definitely plum season as these came fresh from my colleague's garden.

Shop Local hosted by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. This challenge was created to highlight produce from local sources. The plums in this recipe came from a colleague's garden. 

The No Waste Food Challenge which is run by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. This month, it's guest hosted by Laura from I'd Much Rather Bake Than... The plums were bountiful and would have gone to waste otherwise.

Update 19th January 2015

This recipe has been published in House of Fraser's 'The Blogger's Recipe Book'  I was pleased to have been invited by the team at House of Fraser Home Department to participate in this project. They've compiled an assortment of recipes from bloggers and it features both sweet and savoury recipes. There are lots of familiar bloggers in there and a few new ones that I've not come across on my blog travels. I'm not sure if the book itself will be for general sale but once I know I will update this post again. 

 The recipe book 

 My bio 

 My recipe

 adding chunks of apple to the batter 

 place the cake batter in the tin 

 top with the crumble 

 arrange the sliced plums on top 

 after baking for about 40 minutes - the middle will still be wobbly 

 add a sprinkle of almond flakes and continue baking until brown 

 fresh from the oven 

 you can see the chunks of apple at the bottom of the cake on the right side 

 

An original recipe by bakingaddict

For the cake

4 eggs = 259g (use the same amount of butter, flour and sugar) 

259g butter

259g caster sugar

259g self raising flour

2 red apples - peeled, cored and chopped

1.5 teaspoons ground cinnamon

0.5 teaspoon ground nutmeg

For the crumble topping

90g butter

90g plain flour

90g light brown sugar

50g ground almonds

60g oats

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

For the topping

Handful of plums - cored and sliced

approximately 35g almond flakes

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
• Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well between each addition.
• Sift in the flour and mix well.
• Stir in the apple chunks by hand and pour into a 23cm round cake tin which has been lined. 
• Make the crumble topping by rubbing the butter and flour together with your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs. 
• Stir in the sugar, ground almonds, oats and ground cinnamon.
• Pour the crumble topping on top of the cake batter and smooth the top with a spatula.
• Arrange the plum slices on top of the cake.
• Bake for approximately 40 minutes then remove from the oven - the middle will still be wobbly at this point but the outside of the cake should be cooked.
• Sprinkle the flaked almonds on top of the cake and bake for another 15 - 20 minutes or until the almonds are toasted and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. 
• If the almonds brown quickly, cover with foil and continue cooking until the cake is cooked. 

Plum Cupcakes

It's time for yet another Random Recipe challenge set by Dom from Belleau Kitchen. This month the theme is store cupboard finds where we are asked to reach into our cupboards and pull out the first thing you touch then pick a cookbook, turn to the index and find a recipe which has the item in your hand. So with trepidation I opened my overflowing cupboard and reached far into the back and came up with this.... 

 a bottle of homemade plum jam that my colleague gave me quite possibly hoping for a baked item from it. I've now left that job but I did use it in a cake as she probably intended! :) 

I knew that I wanted to make cake with it so I looked at my bookshelf and pulled out my trusted Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook. I turned to the index and what do you know on page 111 a recipe for plum cupcakes. Score! 

It's a fairly simple recipe with buttermilk and plum jam which creates a very moist cake. It has jam baked in the cake and sandwiched in the middle of the cake. It tasted very much of plums which incidentally is not my favourite fruit. I thought the cakes were a little too sweet and dense but they are definitely worth a try if you have some plum jam to spare. 

I'm also entering this to Tea Time Treats hosted by Kate from What Kate Baked and co hosted by Karen from Lavender and Lovage. The theme this month is jams, chutneys, curds and conserves. The plum jam is homemade (although not by me!) and I used the whole jar for the cake and icing so I hope this entry qualifies!

I'm also sending this to Made with love Mondays hosted by Javelin Warrior as the ingredients are homemade jam and fresh plums to decorate. No artificial flavours or colours here!

 plum jam, brown sugar, 4 egg yolks and buttermilk 

 fill the cake 1/3 full 

 add a teaspoon or so of jam 

 then top with another 1/3 of batter 

 fresh from the oven 

 decorate with slices of fresh plum

 you can see the jammy layer in between 

Recipe from hummingbird Bakery Cake Days

Makes 18 cupcakes

For the cupcakes 

120g butter

340g plain flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 large egg yolks

300g light brown sugar (I reduced the amount of sugar as it seemed too much)

180ml buttermilk

270g plum jam 

For the frosting

400g icing sugar (again I reduced the amount)

160g butter

50ml milk

50g plum jam (original states 70g but I didnt have enough)

Fresh plum slices to decorate

• Preheat the oven to 190C.
• Mix the butter, flour, baking powder and salt until it resembles coarse crumbs.
• In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks, brown sugar, buttermilk and 120g of the plum jam until well combined. 
• Add half to the dry ingredients and mix well. 
• Add the remaining half and continue mixing.
• Fill each cupcake case 1/3 full of batter. 
• Place 1 teaspoon of plum jam followed by another 1/3 of batter. 
• Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
• Allow to cool completely on a wire rack.
• Make the frosting by whisking the icing sugar with butter.
• Pour the milk in slowly and continue whisking until light and fluffy. 
• Finally, stir in the plum jam.
• Spread the frosting on top of your cooled cupcakes and decorate with slices of fresh plum. 

Plum and almond crumble slice

Autumn is one of my favourite seasons. I like that it's the season of change and preparation for winter. I also love autumnal foods so I was quite excited to see the Autumnal Baking Challenge hosted by Kate of What Kate Baked . I decided to make this amazing recipe which I got from... BBC Good Food (no surprise there!) It turned out even better than I expected and everyone really enjoyed it. The biscuit base is really soft and crumbly and you can definitely taste the butter that went in there! The plums lend a nice tartness and the almonds balance it out with a lovely crunch. I think this would work well with apples, pears or even rhubarb. 

 making the base

 add the filling

 top with plums 

 and almonds and bake

 delicious! 

250g butter (must be very cold)

225 caster sugar

300g ground almonds

140g plain flour, plus 25g 

2 eggs

1 teaspoon cinnamon 

1 teaspoon baking powder

approx 6 plums, stoned and cut into sixths

50g flaked almonds

• Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Butter and line a 20 x 30cm baking tin with baking paper. Put the butter, sugar and ground almonds into a food processor, then pulse until the mixture resembles very rough breadcrumbs. Spoon out half the mix into a bowl and set aside.
• Add 140g flour into the mix in the processor and whizz until it just forms a dough. Tip into the tin and press down with the back of a spoon. Bake for 15-20 mins until golden. Leave to cool for 10 mins.
• To make the filling, put the remaining butter and the sugar and almond mix back into the processor, saving a few tbsp for the topping. Add the eggs, the 25g flour, cinnamon and baking powder and whizz to a soft batter. Spread over the base.
• Top with the plum pieces and a little extra caster sugar and cinnamon. Bake for 20 mins, then sprinkle with the remaining crumble mix and flaked almonds. Cook for another 20 mins or until golden. Leave to cool in the tin before slicing.