I watched Amelie last weekend; it's one of my favorite movies. I love escaping into Amelies magical, quirky world of cracking crème brûlées and skipping stones. There is a scene near the end where she begins to make a cake while day dreaming of her crush running in the rain outside, tracking down yeast for her "famous plum cake" and every time I see this I dream of eating plum cake in France. Well I'm not in France...but I did make a plum cake! Amelie made a Kouign-amann cake, which is quite a bit different to mine, there is no yeast in it, but it turned out to be a very moist and delicious plum cake.
Last week, the company Oh! Nuts sent some bags of nuts my way to use for recipes. Of course, I was delighted! They sent me some unshelled pistachios, macadamia nuts and almond flour. So I would like to say a big thank you to Oh! Nuts. I'm very keen to make some macadamia nut cookies and lots of things using the pistachios. I decided to begin with the almond flour for this plum cake and turn it into a plum and almond cake. The almond flour will also come in very handy when I finally attempt to make macarons!
Plum + Almond Cake:(9" by 9" square pan)
- 3-4 firm, sweet red plums (quartered and stone removed)
- 3/4 cup butter (softened)
- 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon orange zest
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- pinch of nutmeg
- 2 tablespoons milk
Pre-heat oven to 350F.
Cream the butter and sugar together, beating for about 3 mins.
Add the eggs, orange zest, almond extract and vanilla extract and beat well.
Then add the almond flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt followed by the milk.
Combine well.
Pour the batter into a 9" by 9" square baking pan, or a 9" round pan if you prefer.
Arrange the plum quarters on top of the batter.
Bake at 350F for 30-40 mins until golden.
Allow to cool for at least 10 mins before serving. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.
