Christmas Wholemeal Rich Plum Cake

Rich Plum Cake

Plum Cake at Christmas brings back fond memories of carol singing, a house full of guests and us children meticulously picking the plums out, one by one from the Nilgiris  Rich Plum Cake gifted to my Dad every Christmas by friends and colleagues.  That Plum Cake was oh so delicious and I can still smell it mixed with the aroma of tangerines, spices, kal kals, rose cookies and other treats my Mum would conjure up for us every Christmas.  This year, I made it for an elderly friend and saved a few pieces for the two of us. This takes me back in time and to the fun we had decades ago.

The Recipe:

2 cups wholemeal flour; 3 cups mixed (black and golden raisins) plums; 1 cup almond meal; 1 tsp baking powder; 1/2 tsp baking soda; 1/4 cup ginger juice- smash a one inch piece of ginger, add 1/2 cup water and boil till reduced to 1/4 cup; 4 large eggs; 1 cup brown sugar; 250 gms salted butter; 2 tsp vanilla essence; 1 tsp mixed spice powder (I used cloves, cardamom, nutmeg and cinnamon in equal quantities).

Sieve the flour, spice powder, baking powder and baking soda together three times.  Keep aside in a large bowl.  Add the almond meal and the plums and mix well till all the plums are coated evenly.  This will help to distribute the plums throughout the cake and prevent them from sinking to the bottom.

Cream the butter and sugar until pale and creamy.  Add the eggs, one by one and mix well.  Then add the vanilla essence and give the mixture a whirl.  Gently fold in the flour, almond meal  and plum mixture spoon by spoon until everything is used up.  Pour in the cooled ginger juice and mix really well.  The batter should be of a dropping consistency.  Pour into 2 x 9 inch greased and lined  square cake pans and bake in a preheated oven at 175 Centigrade for 40 minutes or until skewer inserted in pan comes out clean.  Cool, slice and serve with red wine.