Spiced Plum Sauce Cake

We are so very lucky to have a dear friend who gifts us a huge amount of Italian prune-plums every summer. I tend to turn them into this Spiced Plum Sauce so we can eat it in lunches in those dark days when the apples have gone mealy, the citrus dried out and there are no new crop fruits available. We also eat it on pancakes and waffles or in hot cereal or yogurt. 

This year I had an extra bounty because we had a neighbor with a tree in need of picking. I was thinking of all the ways I could use the sauce and happened to think about applesauce cake. It’s a perfect low-effort snacking cake that hits all the right cozy, autumnal notes. I knew that I could substitute my plum sauce for the applesauce with no issues. 

My base recipe is from King Arthur Baking. I love it because it already uses 100% whole wheat flour, which is something I do in most of my baking anyway. The only changes I made were to sub the plum sauce for apple, omit the raisins and use ginger instead of cloves. I also doubled it to cook in a 9x13 pan because a. I had a lot of sauce I could access and b. We are a family of four who loves snacking cake. Just for kicks I sprinkled some of my ever-available crumble topping on the cake before baking. None of us regretted this decision, but you don’t have to use the topping if you don’t wish it.

INGREDIENTS

225-6g unsalted butter at room temperature

426g light brown or muscovado sugar

4 large eggs, room temperature (you can always warm them in a bowl of water if you forget to leave them out as I almost always do)

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp table or fine sea salt

4 tsp baking powder

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

396-400g soft white wheat (I grind my own wheat berries)

2 c unsweetened spiced plum, pear-clove or apple sauce

1c or 100g (ish) chopped walnuts

1/2-1 c (ish) or to taste crumble topping

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F with a rack in the middle and lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking pan (I use cooking spray)
2. Cream together the butter and brown sugar until it is light and fluffy, scraping the bowl once or twice. I use my stand mixer but you can use a hand mixer if you prefer
3. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. After the final egg, give the bowl a scrape
4. Stir together the dry ingredients together in a small to medium bowl 
5. Add to the butter and sugar in thirds, alternating with the plum sauce. Mix well, again giving the bowl a scrape
6. Stir in the walnuts
7. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and sprinkle over the crumble topping, if using
8. Bake for 45 minutes, checking at 40 minutes. Either make sure a toothpick comes out clean or use an instant-read thermometer in the center of the cake—the cake is done when it has reached around 190 degrees F
9. Remove from oven and cool on a rack. It’s ok to slice it when it’s still a bit warm