Plum Streusel Cake

Before we went onto a Gluten Free regime, five years ago now, the following recipe was a standby for all occasions. It's from the Sainsbury's website and can be found here
 
Recently, we have tried making it with Dove's Farm Gluten Free Flour and it's been declared a great success once more!

As the weekend was a bit of a wash out for us, Sunday afternoon became a baking time and plum streusel was one of the cakes we decided to bake. So, a 20cm/8"spring form baking tin was lined with a greaseproof cake case and the oven was set to heat to 180ºC (fan oven).

Next we gathered the ingredients as follows:-


For the base

• 125g caster sugar
• 175g butter, softened
• 2 medium size eggs
• 125g self raising flour, sifted (we use Dove's Farm Gluten Free SR Flour)
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 680g punnet plums, halved and stoned

For the topping

• 125g plain flour, sieved (again, we use Dove's Farm Gluten Free Plain Flour)
• 25g ground almonds
• 50g demerara sugar
• 25g toasted flaked almonds

1. Having softened the butter, 125g of butter and the sugar was creamed into the mix until it was light and fluffy.
2. Next the eggs, SR flour and vanilla extract were added to the mix and beaten until well combined.
3. The mix was then spread over the base of the cake tin and the plums were arranged, cut side down on top.
4. The remaining ingredients (apart from the demerara sugar) were placed in a bowl and rubbed together to make a crumble topping. The demerara was then stirred into the topping mix.
5. Next, the topping was put on top of the plums and the tin was gently shaken to spread the topping evenly.
6. Finally, the cake was then placed in the oven to bake for 60-70 minutes (this can vary a bit, so keep checking after about an hour)

If the top is cooking too quickly, cover with a piece of greaseproof paper or foil for the remainder of the cooking time.

It was then cooled, in the tin, before being devoured with creme fraiche as a pudding.

Store in an airtight container.

We also cooked a brand-new-to-us Lemon Drizzle Cake recipe, it will feature in an upcoming blog post... when we've fully taste tested it!

UPDATE - 30 August 2011

Sous Chef J made this cake without assistance (apart from using the oven)... here's the pic he took to show how we're using the plums we picked at our pals' house yesterday.

The finished creation... like a cake with a plum crumble topping... and very, very delicious!