September.

I don’t know how we got here, but here we are. Have you felt the transition in the air from summer to fall?

It’s my favourite time of year.

You know what some of my family claim is their favourite thing? Plums.

You know what don’t ever get eaten if I buy them? Plums.

Looking at you oldest child and daddy-o.

So I always make plum cake with the leftover plums.

…I think I’ve finally caught on that that may be their end game all along when they ask for them on the shopping list.

Plums are in their glory right now (along with all of nature’s other bounty— that’s one the reasons it’s my favourite time of year).

If you find yourself with a whole bunch of plums but you don’t know what to do with them, I recommend plum cake. I’ll always recommend plum cake. If you also are wanting to limit refined sugars and maybe cut back on the butter, then I recommend this one. But it’s still absolutely delicious, I promise you that.

This cake is lightly sweetened with the use of dates and a tad of coconut sugar. It is still cake, so let’s not go fooling ourselves that it’s the same nutritionally as a huge salad, but it definitely soothes the soul. It is pumped full of fibre from the plums, dates, and whole grain flour. It gets its moistness and healthy fats from eggs and almonds. It has a pleasant lemon zip. I’m a sucker for lemon.

I’m going to stop dissecting it and just give you the recipe— you can figure out how to describe it yourself when you make it.

Healthyish Plum Cake

10-12 plums*

2/3 cup ground almonds**
1/2 cup whole grain flour (spelt, einkorn, wheat)
2 tbsps coconut sugar (could use brown sugar if that’s what you have)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon

6 Medjool dates (soaked in hot water for 10 minutes)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
Juice and zest of 1 lemon

Directions

1.) Get your dates pitted and soaking in enough hot water to cover them in a small bowl.
2.) Preheat your oven to 350F. Butter, coconut oil, or spray an 8x8 glass dish to get it ready to rumble.
3.) Slice your plums into quarters or sixths depending on the size and place them in the bottom of the baking dish. There’s a picture somewhere on here that shows what they look like. Either cut them in your hands above the dish (a ninja move passed down from my grandma and moma) to catch all the juice or make sure to pour the juice from the cutting board into the dish with the plums because it bakes into a wonderfully sweet sticky syrup that you don’t want to miss out on.
4.) In a mixing bowl, mix the ground almonds, flour, sugar, baking powder, and cinnamon. Make a well (a fancy term for a hole in the middle).
5.) In a blender or food processor, add the dates (removed from the water but not squished), eggs, vanilla, zest, and juice of the lemon. Blend until smooth. If a little more liquid is needed to get it moving, use a tiny splash of the date water.
6.) Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until combined. It will be quite thick.
7.) Spoon the batter over the plums and smooth it out as best as you can without disrupting the plums. It doesn’t have to reach all the way to the edges. It also doesn’t have to look completely smooth this is the bottom of the cake and it will be flipped when served showing those glorious plums on top.
8.) Bake for 25-30 minutes or until you can stick a toothpick through the cake and it comes out clean. Be sure not to stab it too far through or you’ll pick up plum syrup, making it look undercooked when really it could be done.
9.) WAIT 10 MINUTES UNTIL YOU DIG IN. I know. The agony. But you need to let the juices settle and turn into a beautiful glaze.
10.) Cut into however many pieces you want. 10? 4? I won’t judge. Make sure to fancy flip it onto a plate to admire the plums and their beautiful stickiness. Enjoy it warm with a tea, good company, and preferably a friendly animal to snuggle.

*I definitely encourage you to use red or golden plums. They’re much juicier and sweeter. Italian prune plums are okay, but not as juicy. If that’s what you’re using, they just need a splash of water in the dish (you could use the date water) and a teaspoon of coconut sugar sprinkled over them.

** If you don’t have ground almonds but you do have a fairly competent blender, just grind your own flour— it is so much more cost effective. Use a half cup of whole almonds to get what you need. Just watch when you’re grinding to not overdo it and make almond butter. Delicious, but not what we need. A few chunks of almond in your cake also won’t hurt.

And that’s it. We’re baking up a storm this week (energy balls, granola bars, muffins, oh my!) in preparation for school snacks. If we come up with anything delicious, I’ll be sure to share it.

Happy September to you all!