Every summer we get treated to a glut of plums from the 6 different varieties of plum trees in our orchard. Starting just before Christmas and running through till late February, we bring in baskets of fresh plums to the kitchen.
So it is not surprising that we are always on the lookout for great plum recipes, particularly plum cake recipes.This recipe is one of the best plum desserts we've come across. It is like a plum upside-down cake but without the pressure. You can serve it hot like a plum sponge pudding or plum shortcake, or cold as a lunch box cake or special afternoon tea cake.
A plum pudding recipe can be stodgy, but the Greek yogurt and coconut in this batter make it light, and the lemon gives it a zing. It also makes an adorable plum muffin with a couple of slices of plum topping each one.
Make this plum crumble cake throughout the year with bottled plums. The key to using preserved plums for plum dessert recipes is not to overcook your plums when you bottle them, so they keep in nice slices.
A plum cobbler or plum crumble recipe can get away with using stewed plums. But where you want to see the lovely pieces of plum poking up on the top of your plum tart, use fresh plums or lightly bottled ones.
This batter makes a lighter version of the classic Black Doris plum cake, which can be a bit stodgy. You can even use canned Black Doris plums in this recipe if you drain them well.
Most plum varieties will work well to make this plum pie recipe, but try and choose ones that are still firm, not overripe, or they won't hold their shape nicely.
If you're looking for Luisa plum recipes, this is a good one that show's off the impressive size of the fruit. It works well with omega plums too or drop stoned damson plums on top like fat cherries to make a plum clafoutis.
If you want to make this into a gluten-free plum cake, you can adapt the batter to be more like a plum and almond cake or plum frangipane tart by swapping out the flour for ground almonds and adding another egg.
One of the reasons this plum cake is so light is that it uses Greek Yogurt in the batter. It is nice to be able to make your own yogurt to use in baking because you can make natural yogurt with no sugar or other additives. Read our blog on how to make yogurt.