Ren Behan - Author Wild Honey and Rye

Food Writer

Plums

Recipe: Poppy Seed and Plum Cake

Poppy Seeds and Plums are two of my favourite things. Both remind me of my Polish heritage and childhood. Sweet plums are plentiful in Poland and are also in season now here in the UK. If you are lucky enough to have a plum tree in your garden, as we did growing up, you’ll always be on the look out for an extra plum cake recipe to use up your glut.

Poppy Seeds and Plum Cake

In Eastern European baking, poppy seeds are typically ground into a paste, with Makowiec being one of Poland’s most well-loved cakes. Makowiec is a very sweet, nutty-flavoured cake, an egg-enriched yeasted dough is rolled with a poppy seed paste filling before being baked and glazed. If you watch The Great British Bake Off, you may have spotted that Brendan used a poppy seed paste, flavoured with orange zest, lemon, raisins, brandy and orange liqueur to give his Chelsea Bunski’s an Eastern European twist. I have also tried a baked cheesecake with poppy seed paste, and there is a sweet noodle dish called Kluski z Makiem, usually served at Christmas.

Poppy Seeds and Plum Cake

My recipe combines poppy seeds with plums in an easy tray-bake, although the poppy seeds are left to be sprinkled in whole to add texture, rather than being ground into a paste. I served my tea time treat with a fresh plum compote, which was made by cooking the plums very gently with a sprinkle of sugar and a splash of Polish Plum brandy.

Poppy Seed and Plum Cake 

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Poppy Seed and Plum Cake

Ingredients

  • 8-10 English plums, stones removed
  • 225g / one cup caster sugar
  • 4 large free range eggs, lightly beaten
  • 240ml/ one cup sunflower, vegetable or mild, light olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon orange or lemon zest
  • 260g/ two cups self-raising flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 2 tablespoons poppy seeds
  • 2 tablespoon icing sugar mixed with 1 teaspoon of cinnamon to dust
  • Cream or a warm plum compote to serve

Instructions

  1. Pre-heat your oven to 190 degrees Celsius/Gas Mark 5/375 F. Grease and line a rectangular baking tray with parchment.
  2. Chop the fresh plums in half and remove the stones.
  3. Put the caster sugar, eggs, oil and vanilla extract into a mixing bowl and whisk together well for 3-4 minutes until a pale and fluffy. Add in the zest and mix again.
  4. Sift in the flour and baking powder and gently fold or mix with a metal spoon until all the flour is incorporated. Sprinkle in the poppy seeds and mix again to combine.
  5. Pour the batter carefully into the tray and gently press the halved plums into the batter.
  6. Bake in a pre-heated oven for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the centre of the tray bake.
  7. Leave to cool. Dust the cake with icing sugar mixed with a teaspoon of cinnamon and serve with cream and/or a warm plum compote.

If you get a chance to make this easy cake, I’m sure it will be quickly devoured, but it will keep in a tin for up to five days.

I’m quite fond of tray-bakes and easy, seasonal bakes, as you may have realised. Here are a few others to try –

Cherry and Almond Tray Bake

Hidden Apple and Honey Cake

Polish Apple Cake – Sharlotka 

I’m also linking this up to Simple and in Season, this month being hosted by Nazima at her new blog, Franglais Kitchen.

What are your favourite seasonal treats?

 

Late Summer Fruit Salad with Pomegranate and Pistachio

A beautifully bright Saturday morning! If you are on a health kick, or as in my case, feel like you need to be, then this salad is the perfect prescription – my late Summer Fruit Salad with Pomegranate and Pistachio.

Late summer fruits are always the most delicious. They’ve had lots of time to soak up the sunshine. My nectarines and purple plums here were honey-sweet. So fresh, so pure, I ate two of them whole while I was chopping the rest. The raspberries, at this time of year, absent of any sharpness. Tiny pomegranate pearls capturing crimson essence. A little bit more crunch from finely chopped pistachio. A drizzle of plain yoghurt was a last minute thing, just because it was breakfast. Pretty violas, organic and edible, because I was just in that kind of mood.

 

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Late Summer Fruit Salad with Pomegranate and Pistachio

Ingredients

  • 2 ripe plums
  • 2 ripe nectrines or peaches
  • A handful of seasonal raspberries
  • A handful of pomegranate seeds
  • 1/4 cup or 25g shelled pistachio nuts, finely chopped
  • 1/2 cup or 125ml plain, natural yoghurt
  • A drizzle runny honey
  • 1 tablespoon milk

Instructions

  1. Slice the plums and the nectarines, removing the stones and scatter on a large plate.
  2. Sprinkle over a handful of raspberries, the pomegranate seeds and the finely chopped pistachio nuts.
  3. In a small bowl, whisk together the natural yoghurt, runny honey and a tablespoon of milk to loosen. Drizzle over the fruit and decorate with edible violas. Serve immediately.

Notes

You can add any fruit of your choice, figs would work, fresh apricots, ripe pears etc. Substitute a flavoured yoghurt if you prefer.

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 2

Amount Per Serving

% Daily Value

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

Fuss Free Helen’s Breakfast Club is being hosted by Urvashi over the The Botanical Baker this month with a theme of fruit…do join in if fruit is your thing in the morning. And if it’s not, perhaps this salad will convince you to try.

Fuss free flavours breakfast club

This whole plate screams of Simple and in Season so I will be linking up to Katie at Feeding Boys and a Firefighter who is hosting for me this month.

I’m looking forward to seeing all the seasonal offerings around this month as well as all the fruitiness of Urvashi’s Breakfast Club.

If you’re lucky enough to find some fresh pomegranate fruit and want to know how to get the seeds out take a look at Sally’s beautiful Pomegranate Season post here.

Have a lovely weekend – and thank you for all your kind comments about my refreshed blog!

 

 

Baked Victoria Plums & My First ‘New Home’ Post!

Well, this is both exciting and scary at the same time! Ta da  – Fabulicious Food! has made the very long cyber journey across from Blogger to WordPress!

I am totally overwhelmed by the help, expertise and professionalism of Liz of Violet Posy Design who has done an amazing job, with about a million technical issues thrown at her too.

It’s going to take me a little while to settle in and get used to the way things work, but hopefully not too long.

If you are experiencing any problems or issues, please do drop me a line.

If you previously subscribed to posts via the RSS feed I’m afraid it has changed and you’ll have to re-subscribe using the icon to the right.

On Monday I will also be hosting a really amazing giveaway so do stay tuned.

For now, I’m sharing this lovely autumnal plum recipe as there are tons of English plums around at the moment and they are my very favourite fruit.

Simple and in Season September is now open and working – anyone who left me a comment with a link should now find themselves on the current link-up page.

About to hit ‘publish’ so here goes!

 

 [gmc_recipe 382]

 

 Thank you for visiting and for all your lovely comments so far.