Sunday, May 6, 2012

Gluten-free upside down plum and chocolate cake


Last night, I had friends over for dinner for the first time in what seems forever.  It will have been at least a couple of years since I have made dinner for friends, and this was nearly the dinner party that wasn't - I had forgotten about it until at 2.30pm on the day, one of my friends emailed me to ask if 7pm was OK.  Yikes!  It was back to the grocery store, and I had no time to fuss about the menu as I might have if I had had the time.  My first thought was roast (always great for a dinner party because it's easy and a crowd pleaser), but I didn't have time to cook a full roast in the oven if I wanted to make dessert as well.  In the end, I bought chicken pieces, sprayed them with vegetable oil, and sprinkled them with cayenne pepper and rosemary.  I paired the chicken with roasted pumpkin, baby potatoes and cherry tomatoes, and beans a la Sunday on the side.

For dessert, I decided to make a cake that I had been eyeing up for a while in Issue 22 of Masterchef magazine.  It was a gluten free upside down plum and chocolate cake, by Melbourne blogger Jasmine of The Gluten Free Scallywag.  Neither me nor my friends have a requirement for gluten-free food, but I made the recipe as stated because I had the gluten free flour anyway.  This was a devine cake, perfect to be served for pudding warm with icecream.  I used pluots instead of blood plums, so my cake has yellow rounds peeking out inside of red, but it tasted terrific.  The plums were tart against the chocolate, giving a perfect yin and yang effect.



To make this cake, you will need:

180g butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
6 plums, halved and stoned (I used 3 large ones)
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 eggs
1 2/3 cups White Wings gluten free plain flour
1/4 cup cocoa
3/4 cup almond meal


Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius and spray a 22cm springform pan with spray oil and line it (base and sides) with baking paper.

Melt 20g of the butter, and paint it onto the base of the lined pan with a pastry brush. Scatter the brown sugar evenly over the base of the pan, and place the plum halves, cut side down, on top of the sugar, leaving a 1cm border from the sides of the pan (to avoid sticking).

In a stand mixer, beat together the sugar, vanilla and 160g butter until light in colour and fluffy.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between each one.

Combine the dry ingredients together in a bowl.  Beat into the cake batter in two batches until just combined.  Spoon the cake batter evenly over the plums in the pan, and smooth out the surface with a metal spatula.  Tap the pan on the bench to remove any air pockets.

Place the springform pan on a cookie tray, then bake the cake on the tray in the oven for 65 minutes or until cooked through.  Remove the  cake form the oven and allow it to cool in the oven for 15 minutes before inverting it onto a serving plate.    Serve it warm with vanilla icecream - delish!

14 comments:

Finla said...

Looks super delicious.

The Caked Crusader said...

Don't those plums look amazing in the chocolate batter? What a lovely combination - nice to see plums getting a look in!

Unknown said...

Looks amazing, it's great that you are trying gluten free recipes even if not being alergic!!

Hotly Spiced said...

This chocolate and plum cake looks delicious - very moist and full of flavour I'm sure. This was make a wonderful dessert. xx

yummychunklet said...

Yum! I love the look of your sunken fruit in the chocolate cake!

Johanna GGG said...

Amazing what you can whip together at short notice - I always find there are so many ideas for a dinner party that it is hard to choose - sounds like you chose wisely! Love the cake - my mum has been very partial to the white wings gf flour for gf baking lately so I must find some of it.

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella said...

We don't really need to eat GF either but I really like some of the GF cakes-they have a nice, soft texture! :)

Kari said...

This looks amazing! I don't need / regularly have GF either, but I'd definitely have it in this form :)

Blond Duck said...

I love plums! And I've come to like GF deserts just b/c they're not as heavy.

Kathy said...

That cake looks so beautiful and delicious too! Sound like a wonderful dinner party!

Blond Duck said...

Happy Wednesday!

Kayte said...

Amazing...you put all this together on a whim??? Wow. The cake is so pretty...we love fruit in baked goods and this is just great on the eye appeal. Your guests must have felt very honored and special to have you make a dinner for them, you are always doing such nice things for people.

gfs said...

I'm so glad to hear that you loved the cake and made your own substitutions with the fruit, that's exactly what home cooking is all about, using what we have! Thank you for the mention and I hope you enjoy some of the other recipes I have :)

Food Manager Certification Texas said...

I really love to taste that scrumptious delight of a cake! Can't wait to try it out.