Summer meets autumn with this spiced chocolate cake, with jammy plums nestled right on top. Simply dust with icing sugar and serve it for afternoon tea or dessert. Goes great with a cup of tea!
This cake is all about extending summer to the very last plum you can find. Paired with warming spices and just a hint of chocolate, it is summer fruit meets autumn baking.
It looks picture perfect too, with jewel-red plums glowing on the surface.
Why You’ll Love This Spiced Chocolate Plum Cake
- it has a rich, creamy crumb
- makes use of late season fruit
- filled with warming spices, like cinnamon and nutmeg
- great for a gathering
- cooks low and slow, filling your home with the most amazing, sweetly spiced smells
- doesn’t need decorating!
Other Favourite Recipes:
Ingredients You Need to Make This Spiced Chocolate Plum Cake
The dry team. Flour, baking powder and salt make the base. Add in some cocoa powder (the Dutch processed kind if you can get it) and the spices: cinnamon, nutmeg and all spice. You can swap these up and out, if you don’t like one. (A cinnamon-ginger combo would work well, but my mum’s allergic and I was taking this round for lunch, so.)
The wet team. Butter and muscovado sugar meet eggs and tangy, vanilla yogurt. Think more of a Greek yogurt with vanilla rather than a heavily sweetened vanilla yogurt. (Or just straight up Greek yogurt with a splash of vanilla essence.)
If you can’t get your hands on muscovado sugar, substitute it for dark brown sugar.
Plums. I use red or black plums for this cake. Mostly because they’re the varieties available later in the season and into autumn, but partly because the red plum colour just looks so appealing against the chocolate cake. But you can absolutely use whatever plums you prefer or can find.
How to Make Spiced Chocolate Plum Cake
Two bowls, a hand mixer and you’ll have the cake in the oven and baking all within 15 minutes!
- Sift all the dry ingredients into a bowl.
- Cream the room-temperature butter and sugar together.
- Beat in the eggs, one at a time.
- Mix in a third of the dry ingredients.
- Add in a third of the yogurt.
- Repeat until all the dried ingredients and the yogurt are incorporated into a thick cake batter.
- Spoon the batter into a springform cake tin.
- Gently press in the plum wedges.
- Scatter over the extra sugar.
- Bake.
- Let cool for as long as you can before cutting yourself a large slice.
If you make this Spiced Chocolate Plum Cake, please be sure to leave a comment and let me know. Which plums did you use? Did you go rogue and change up the spices? Or tag me over on Instagram, I love seeing what you guys are making from the blog!
Looking for other Fruit Desserts? Try these:
- Peach Fritters with Cointreau and Orange Glaze
- Strawberry Shortcakes
- Flambéed Crêpes Suzette
- Blood Orange French Yogurt Cake (Gâteau au Yaourt)
- Peach Galette with Sour Cream Pastry
Spiced Chocolate Plum Cake
Ingredients
- 300 g all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder, Dutch-processed if you can get it
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon all spice
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 180 g butter, room temperature
- 250 g muscovado sugar, (or dark brown sugar), divided
- 3 eggs
- 200 ml vanilla yogurt
- 6 plums, preferably red or blood variety, pitted and cut into quarters
- Icing sugar, to serve, optional
Instructions
- Grease and line a 23cm springform cake tin and set aside. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
- Sift the flour, baking powder, cocoa powder, spices and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.300 g all-purpose flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 2 tablespoons cocoa powder, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, ½ teaspoon nutmeg, ¼ teaspoon all spice, ¼ teaspoon salt
- In a separate large bowl, cream the butter (make sure it’s at room temp!) and 200g of muscovado sugar together using a hand mixer until pale and creamy. Beat the eggs in one at a time, making sure each is incorporated before adding the next.180 g butter, 250 g muscovado sugar, 3 eggs
- Add a third of the dry ingredients, mixing until just incorporated. Mix in a third of the yogurt. Repeat until all the dry ingredients and yogurt have been added, mixed in and just come together into a thick batter.200 ml vanilla yogurt
- Spoon the batter into the prepared cake tin and smooth the surface. Nestle the plum pieces into the batter, cut side down, pushing them gently into the batter. Scatter the remaining muscovado sugar all over the top.6 plums
- Place the cake in the oven and bake for 50-60 minutes. The cake is ready when the surface is set and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean – but don’t stab through a piece of plum!
- Let the cake cool completely in the pan, loosening the springform tin after 10 minutes or so.
- Serve as is or dusted with icing sugar. Pairs really well with tea.Icing sugar
