Plum & Almond Crumble Cake

Needless to say when I arrived home from town one morning last week and found a bag of freshly picked plums hanging from my door I was more than chuffed. My good friend Lisa, kindly donated a whole bunch of plums that grows in her sister Gillian's neighbour's back yard. So Thank you Lisa. Thank you Gillian and of course thank you Gillian's neighbour!!!

I have never cooked with plums before, not even a tart tatin. I did want to cook/bake something with them for my guests in the Bed & Breakfast so I set about googling breakfast ideas with plums. 

I stumbled across the BBC Good Food website and found this gem of a recipe http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2952/plum-and-almond-crumble-slice 

It turned out so well, I will do it regularly now, especially with raspberries or whatever else I have to hand. Its quiet a versatile recipe. I was so proud of the result I gave most of it away for guests, friends and family to try, which was a regret in the end as I only had one piece myself. 

It is a three stage baking method so not a quickie cake; which I am used to. But the effort is definately worth it. I'll be making it again tomorrow that's for sure!

Ingredients

• 250g pack butter (this must be very cold)
• 225g caster sugar
• 300g ground almonds
• 140g plain flour, plus 25g
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking powder
• approx 6 plums, stoned and cut into sixths
• 50g flaked almonds

Method

1. Heat oven to 180 degrees. 
2. Butter and line a 20 x 30cm baking tin with baking paper. 
3. Put the butter, sugar and ground almonds into a food processor, then pulse until the mixture resembles very rough breadcrumbs. 
4. Spoon out half the mix into a bowl and set aside.
5. Add 140g flour into the mix in the processor and whizz until it just forms a dough. Tip into the tin and press down with the back of a spoon. 
6. Bake for 15-20 mins until golden. Leave to cool for 10 mins.
7. To make the filling, put the remaining butter and the sugar and almond mix back into the processor, saving a few tbsp for the topping. 
8. Add the eggs, the 25g flour, cinnamon and baking powder and whizz to a soft batter. Spread over the base.
9. Top with the plum pieces and a little extra caster sugar and cinnamon. 
10. Bake for 20 mins, then sprinkle with the remaining crumble mix and flaked almonds. 
11. Cook for another 20 mins or until golden. Leave to cool in the tin before slicing.