Cinnamon Plum Cake with Hazelnut Crumble Topping
Cinnamon Plum Cake with Hazelnut Crumble Topping is perfect with a cup of tea or coffee. But also makes a lovely hot dessert served with cream, custard or ice-cream.
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When I was a child, the house next door to my grandma’s had a very large plum tree in the back garden.
In my mind, I think of them as Victoria plums but I’ve really no idea as it was nearly 40 years ago. Lots of the plum tree’s branches overhung my grandma’s side of the fence and her neighbours kindly said we could have the overhanging fruit plus any windfalls that came our way.
I remember sitting with my cousin, eating masses of them. But, when we’d eaten those, we wanted more. So we got the old wooden clothes prop from the washing line and set about bashing the tree to create more ‘windfalls’.
Rather than being a tale of greedy little children, I prefer to liken it to the pleasant scenes I’ve witnessed in Spain and Italy: on autumn weekend afternoons families out in the country knocking chestnuts out of trees with long sticks.
Okay, they’re not doing it in other peoples’ gardens but still…
Anyway, I still love plums and, as we’re now in British plum season, I wanted to use them at their succulent best.
CINNAMON PLUM CAKE
I decided to make an autumnal-feeling cake that would also serve as a dessert for my ‘Harvest Home’ dinner.
Not having any Victoria plums, ‘windfall’ or otherwise, I used a variety called Marjorie.
These are known for not being overly sweet which I thought would be perfect for what I had planned. I was going to top the cake with a sweet, crunchy, nutty crumble and thought a tangier plum within would be a good contrast.
For spicing, I knew immediately that I wanted to use cinnamon as its warming fragrance is a classic partner to plums.
Making the cake is pretty straightforward. It uses the familiar method of creaming butter and sugar together, beating in the eggs then adding flour and milk to make a smooth batter.
The mixture is transferred to a greased, springform cake tin (ideally 23cm or 9 inch) and the de-stoned and quartered plums pressed on top, as artistically as you can manage.
Then it’s on with the crumble topping.
NUTTY CRUMBLE TOPPING
I decided on hazelnuts as the nut element of the crumble. Not quite in season in Britain, but they do evoke autumn to me.
The crumble topping is dead simple too. Just rub butter into flour flavoured with cinnamon before adding sugar and hazelnuts.
You can use chopped hazelnuts, but I prefer to buy whole ones which I bash up into pieces. I think this gives more textural variety and interest to the crumble.
The easiest way to get different sized pieces is to put the hazelnuts in a sturdy freezer bag and go at them with a rolling pin. This is quite satisfying, but don’t get carried away and pulverize them.
Once the nuts are added, a little water sprinkled over the mix will help you to bring it together into lumps of crumble.
After scattering the crumble over the plums, the cake is ready to go into the oven.
BAKING THE CAKE
The Cinnamon Plum Cake will take around 60-70 minutes to bake. It’s best to have a look after the first 20 minutes to make sure the top isn’t browning too quickly. If necessary, put a sheet of kitchen foil loosely over the top.
When done, the plummy juices should be bubbling a little through the crumble. A skewer pushed in should come out clean from the risen cake.
When done, leave on a wire rack for a few minutes, then run a knife around the inside of the tin before the jammy edges set firm.
Carefully remove the springform sides of the tin then leave the cake on its base on a wire rack until it’s completely cold.
THE RESULT
I was really happy with the way this cake turned out. Not too sweet and with the plums tart and still juicy. The cake was lovely and moist too.
All this was in delightful contrast to the crunchy topping studded with pieces of now-toasted hazelnut. And permeating through the whole cake was the warming scent of cinnamon.
Cutting into the cake, I found that the once-yellow flesh of the plums had now turned bright orange and looked so appetizing against their scarlet skins which had no sign of toughness.
The cake is perfect as it is, with a cup of tea or coffee. Gussy it up with a sprinkling of icing sugar if you like.
But it did also make a lovely dessert, pinged in the microwave just to warm it, with plenty of cream poured over. Custard or ice-cream would be good too.
I definitely think the recipe would work with other juicy seasonal fruits. Changing the spice and type of nut used would give so many different variations to try.
How about pear, ginger and almond?
Cinnamon Plum Cake with Hazelnut Crumble Topping
Perfect with a cup of tea or coffee or a hot dessert with cream, custard or ice-cream.
Ingredients
For the crumble topping:
- 75 grams plain flour
- 1.5 tsp cinnamon
- 1 pinch salt
- 30 grams butter softened
- 60 grams brown sugar
- 50 grams hazelnuts broken into uneven pieces
- 1 tbsp water
For the cake:
- 200 grams self raising flour
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 0.5 tsp salt
- 110 grams butter softened, plus extra for greasing cake tin
- 200 grams caster sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 120 ml milk
- 500 grams ripe plums de-stoned & quartered
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 180C/160C Fan /Gas 4.
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Grease a 23cm/9inch springform cake tin and line the bottom with greaseproof paper.
For the crumble topping:
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Mix the flour, cinnamon and salt together.
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Rub the butter into the flour mixture with your fingers to start forming a crumble.
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Stir in the hazelnuts and brown sugar.
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Sprinkle over 1 tbsp water and bring the mixture into different sized pieces of crumble.
For the cake:
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Sift the flour, cinnamon and salt together then set aside.
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Beat the butter and caster sugar together with electric beaters.
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Now beat in the egg and vanilla until light and fluffy.
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Beat in half the flour mixture, then half the milk until well combined. Then add the other half of flour and the rest of the milk. Beat until smooth.
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Transfer the cake batter to the prepared tin and smooth the top.
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Arrange the quartered plums over the top of the batter, pressing down slightly.
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Sprinkle the crumble mix over the top of the plums and put the cake in the preheated oven.
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Bake until risen and a skewer comes out clean (65-70 min). Check after 20 min and if the cake is browning too quickly, cover with a sheet of foil.
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When cooked, place on a wire rack for a few minutes, then run a knife around the edge to prevent the fruit juices sticking to the tin. Remove the outer tin and leave the cake on its base until completely cold before removing the base and greaseproof paper.
Not had a chance to try the recipe yet, but only this week I made a small crumble (using an un-named variety of purple plum from my garden, which I’d halved and frozen when they ripened a couple of weeks ago), and added cinnamon to the crumble mix. It’s a spice that works well with plums, but putting it in the crumble rather than cooking with the fruit keeps the cinnamon scent clearer and doesn’t detract from the often quite delicate taste of the plums.
Probably thinking on the same lines as you here as, although I put cinnamon in the cake mix and the crumble, the quartered plums are just placed on the top of the cake mix with no embellishment so their flavour comes through even with the crumble topping. As I stored some of the cake in the freezer, we’ve just had some for dessert about 20 minutes ago. Defrosted earlier then pinged in the microwave for a minute and a half and served with some soured cream as we happened to have some open in the fridge. Was just as good as a hot dessert as it was a cake. While eating, we were discussing what fruit to use next time – got some blackberries in the freezer so maybe apple and blackberry?
Blackberry and apple is always a good combination. Given that blackberries collapse so easily, I would probably layer the apple and put the blackberries on top, and then the crumble
On the other hand, might be nice to have the blackberries oozing into the cake…