Tag Archives: moist cake

Plum and Olive Oil Cake with Lemon Cream

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This is a slightly adapted recipe from The Waitrose magazine and it is wonderful. Soft, moist, delicious, simple. Just the perfect cake to have in.

You need a round tin measuring 20cm/8″ lined with baking parchment – you can line just the bottom.

Oven to 190C, cooking time 1hr

Ingredients

150 plain or spelt flour

75g ground almonds

Two teaspoons of baking powder

Zest of an unwaxed lemon

Pinch of salt

Three eggs

200g caster sugar

180g natural yoghurt (I used Greek organic)

100ml of very good (or as good as you can) extra virgin olive oil

400g ish of plums stoned and cut into pieces

(I’m sorry, there’s no reason for these gaps in between the ingredients, I have no idea why WordPress does this, if anyone knows do let me know!)

Lemon Cream

225ml double cream
Two tablespoons of lemon curd

Preheat the oven to 190C. Mix together the flour, ground almonds and baking powder and then add the lemon zest and the salt.

Whisk together – preferably using an electric whisk or your arms will fall off – the eggs and sugar until pale and thickened. About 5-7 minutes. Then slowly whisk the yoghurt and olive oil until all combined.

Now slowly fold in the dry ingredients. I used the whisk to do this but switched off if you see what I mean.

I placed the plums on the base of the cake tin and poured the mixture over the top. Mine was done in an hour, but after 20 mins I covered the top with foil. Yours might need a tad longer – check with a skewer or dry piece of spaghetti, it should come out clean.

You can serve this nicely warm, about 30 mins out of the oven. Or you can let it go cold. In warm weather, store in the fridge and to take the chill off give it 10-15 mins in the microwave. Serve with the cream which you have whisked together with the lemon curd – it all comes together very nicely, very fast.

Dense chocolate loaf cake

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This is a lovely chocolate cake that I’ve been making for years. It’s so simple, yet so good. I’ve put it up here for my friend Kate who has never, to my knowledge, asked me for a recipe. But she did after tasting this on Saturday. It’s a cake that keeps, a bit like gingercake, for a good few days wrapped in parchment and foil. Ideal for taking for weekends away, picnics, lunchboxes

I don’t know a child who doesn’t like this – and it’s rare I can say that; and, slightly warm, and with custard or maybe some cream, makes a nice, simple pudding.

It’s originally from Nigella Lawson’s How to Be a Domestic Goddess, but, like a lot of Nigella’s recipes, God love her, I’ve cut down the sugar dramatically (yes, really and it’s still at 250g!) and changed the flour around a bit.

225g very soft, unsalted butter

250g dark muscovado sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

100g dark chocolate (70%), melted

150g plain flour

50g wholemeal plain flour

1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

150ml boiling water

A 2lb loaf tin, about 23x13x7. Mine one is bigger. If you want to use two smaller loaf tins you can, cook for less time: 20min for first part, then 10minutes.

Preheat oven to 190C.

Line the loaf tin – this is really important as this is a very moist cake and it will fall apart if you have to wrestle it out of the tin. If possible leave some baking parchment overlapping so it lifts out easily.

Put the chocolate on to melt – in a bowl above a pan of simmering water, making sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water. When melted, set aside to cool slightly.

Cream the butter and sugar together with a wooden spoon, then add the eggs and vanilla. Now fold in the cooled chocolate. Mix the flours and the bicarb together.

Now you’re going to add the flour mixture and the water, a spoon at a time, stirring well between each. This is important. If you add the flour and water too fast, the boiling water will cook the flour into little balls and you’ll end up with little white flour balls in the cake. I know because I’ve made this many, many times and tried to cheat the system and it doesn’t work.

You’ll end up with a very runny batter. Put – pour- in the cake tin, and if your tin is very up to the brim already, it may be prudent to put a baking tray underneath to catch any spills. (This is why I use an even bigger loaf tin than recommended. I can’t bear to lose any to the oven.)

Cook for 30 mins, then turn down to 170C and cook for a further 15 mins. I do this exactly and end up with a very squidgy, moist cake. If you use two smaller loaf tins, cook for 20mins and then 10 at lower temperature. The top should be set and there shouldn’t be any discernible ‘wobble’ (or not much) but a skewer inserted may still have some crumbs attached due to the moistness of the cake. Don’t overcook.

Let it cool completely before taking out of the tin. It will sink a bit in the middle, don’t worry, it’s meant to. If you don’t eat it all immediately, wrap in parchment and foil and enjoy a slice every day.