Upside Down Plum Cake

I absolutely love plums when they are sweet, especially prune plums which are available in late summer. They are my favourite. However sometimes plums can be hard and tart, and just don’t seem to ripen. When you happen to have some of those the best thing is to cook or bake with them. Precisely this happened to me when I bought more than half a kilo of prune plums without having a feel of them first (they did look nice, plump and fresh though!), so I came up with this recipe, which was perfect for a lazy summer afternoon treat. I served it with some vanilla ice cream on the side. I can also see this as a perfect winter cosy treat served with custard. It’s up to you really! Upside down cakes may sound dated but I don’t care, it was absolutely delicious, sweet, fruity, moreish, and the cake was ever so moist…a must try!

To make the sauce:

• Melt 100g of butter in a pan and add 100g of granulated sugar and 100g of muscovado sugar.
• Allow the sugar to dissolve and make a toffee sauce.
• Stone the plums and cut into quarters or 1 inch slices, depending in the suze.
• Pour the sauce into a 23cm springform pan and arrange the plums on top to cover.

To make the cake mix:

• Cream 100g of butter and 200g of sugar until it is light and fluffy.
• Add the eggs one by one and the vanilla extract.
• Sieve the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl, and add to the batter alternating with the buttermilk until all is combined.
• Spoon the batter on top of the plums.

Place in the oven preheated at 180C for one hour until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool inside the tin for another 30 to 45 minutes, then remove from the tin upside done onto a cake stand.

Tip:

Because you are adding the liquid toffee sauce to a spring-form tin, in theory this should be able to hold it without leaking. However sometimes when the bottom isn’t placed correctly it can leak, so before poring the toffee sauce fill it with water and if it doesn’t leak then it is placed correctly.