Orange and Raisin Plum Cake

There are a thousand ways to make plum cake, but in this recipe I give you one of the best I've tried, for its combination of ease, fluffiness, flavor and that you can make it with ingredients you usually have at home.

It's a very soft plum cake and has a pleasant orange aroma. While baking you can also enjoy the smell of oranges and when you see the fluffy result you'll only want one thing: to make it again.

What is a plum cake?

If we look for a textbook definition, a plum cake is basically a fruit cake, either candied fruit or chopped fresh fruit that is usually soaked, macerated or hydrated in alcohol. Plum cake also adds nuts and spices.

With all those ingredients in its mix (fruity aromas, spices and liqueur), plum cake tends to be a very tasty bite with many and varied nuances.

About the orange plum cake recipe

Today's recipe incorporates all the ingredients that a plum cake requires, but the only fruit we add is orange, which you'll easily have at home and makes its usual easy preparation much simpler.

The citrus flavor makes this cake light on the palate, and it pairs fabulously with the notes of rum and spices.

The recipe is as delicious and soft as it seems, and easy to make. It's a unique cake that doesn't need many ingredients and can become a real delight for adults and children.

I hope that with autumn arriving and the return to the oven you'll be encouraged to try it. Let me know if it has been as successful in your homes as it has been in mine!

Emile Henry rectangular ceramic mold

Ingredients

• 35 ml rum
• 100 g candied orange (cut into small cubes)
• 100 g raisins
• 150 g butter (at room temperature)
• 50 g white sugar
• 50 g brown sugar
• 50 g panela
• 3 L eggs (or 4 M), at room temperature
• 1 heaped tsp ginger
• 1 heaped tsp cinnamon
• 1 level tsp turmeric
• 1 pinch of salt
• Juice and zest of half an orange (40 - 50 ml)
• 160 g pastry flour
• 1 packet of baking powder

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 170 °C, conventional (no fan).
2. In a bowl, put the rum together with the raisins and candied orange to hydrate.
3. In the KitchenAid bowl, add the room-temperature butter together with the sugars (white, brown and panela). Beat with the whisk attachment at speed 2 until everything is integrated.
4. Add the eggs, one at a time (wait for one to incorporate before adding the next).
5. Add the orange juice and zest, without stopping beating.
6. Strain the rum from the raisins and orange, squeezing the fruit well. Add the resulting rum to the mixture as well.
7. Reserve the drained raisins and orange in another bowl with a couple of tablespoons of flour, and mix them. The flour will help the fruit stay distributed in the batter and not sink to the bottom of the cake during baking.
8. In another bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, salt and spices (ginger, cinnamon and turmeric).
9. Incorporate the dry ingredient mixture (the flour mix) into the KitchenAid bowl with the wet ingredients, in batches, allowing it to integrate progressively.
10. Let everything integrate and switch from the whisk attachment to the paddle attachment. Add the floured raisins and orange and mix minimally, but until you see they have been distributed evenly throughout the batter.
11. Prepare the Emile Henry mold with non-stick spray. If you prefer, you can also place two pieces of parchment paper longitudinally and transversely in it, and spray them to ensure the batter won't stick to the paper and you can remove everything in a second.
12. Pour the batter into the mold and bake on the lower rack at 170 °C for 60 min. Check with a skewer that the cake is done and remove it, or leave it a few more minutes if it needs it.

KitchenAid stand mixer Model 175 and Emile Henry rectangular ceramic mold

Notes

• If you want a denser plum cake, you can increase the amount of flour by one more tablespoon, either pastry flour or spelt, or wholemeal flour.
• If you want more nuances in the batter flavor, you can add half a teaspoon of vanilla extract and half of white pepper.
• You can add another candied fruit if you have it or prefer it.
• The resulting batter is very moist. To ensure it rises well, you can loosely place a sheet of aluminum foil over the mold, to ensure the top doesn't set too quickly and can expand properly, rising without impediment (but do not use the oven bottom-only function or you'll burn the cake base).

Emile Henry rectangular ceramic mold

I hope it turns out to be a delicious plum cake. At home they've enjoyed it a lot, and my father had seconds (he's a great lover of plum cakes).

Are you tempted to make it? I'd love it if you leave a comment explaining the result. Thanks and have a great week!