Plum, apple and almond cake (vegan)

I am rather in love with this cake. To me, it sings of autumn and Easter and lazy weekends. It is the sort of cake to eat with a cup of tea and a good book - or without the book, but the company of friends and family. It is a cake to relax with.

It is, in short, very good.

I made this on a whim, drawing on my almond-semolina-apple-oat slice recipe for inspiration, and being guided by the plums in my fruit bowl and the flours in my fridge. The resulting cake sets sweet plums and apple pieces against almond tones, a pairing (tripling!) that is very harmonious.

I also used a mix of flours for this: semolina, wholemeal spelt, and almond meal. I suspect other flours would work too. The almond meal seems essential, but feel free to experiment with plain wheat flour instead of the semolina or spelt components, or to try alternative gluten-free flours if you prefer.

This recipe calls for a decent number of plums, and the resulting cake is gorgeously moist as a result. It doesn't really need accompaniment, but if you wanted it, some vanilla ice cream or coconut whipped cream would no doubt perform well.

Plum, apple and almond cake

A perfect mid-afternoon treat

Vegan

Makes 16 small square slices, or 12 medium slices

Author: Bite-sized thoughts

Print recipe

Ingredients

1 tbsp chia seeds mixed with 3 tbsp water and set aside to gel

1/2 cup semolina

1/2 cup almond meal (ground almonds)

1/2 cup wholemeal spelt flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp mixed spice / pumpkin pie spice (or use 1/2 tsp each of cinnamon and nutmeg)

1/2 cup non-dairy milk of choice

1/4 cup apple sauce

2 tbsp oil

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 tsp almond essence

1/3 cup rice malt syrup, agave or honey

1 large apple, peeled and diced (~180g with peel and core or a heaped 1/2 cup diced)

10 - 14 small plums, roughly chopped (~400g with cores or a heaped 2-1/2 cups chopped)

Method

Preheat your oven to 180'C and line a square baking dish with baking paper. 

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flours (semolina, almond meal, spelt), baking powder, baking soda and mixed spice. Add the milk, apple sauce, oil, vanilla essence and almond essence and stir to combine. Add the liquid sweetener and chia seeds in water and stir to combine.

Add the diced apple and approximately 2 cups of chopped plums to the batter, reserving approximately 1/2 cup of plum slices. Stir the fruit through until incorporated.

Pour the batter into your prepared pan and then top with the reserved plum slices. 

Bake for approximately 30 minutes (my oven took 30 minutes but I recommend checking from 25 minutes) until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for approximately 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Submitted to Healthy Vegan Fridays.

Do you have a favourite stone fruit cake?

Tweet

Pin It