Honeyed Almond & Plum Cake

If you’re on the hunt for a beautifully easy snacking cake, stop your scrolling! This delicious Honeyed Plum & Almond Cake is my current obsession. Juicy stone fruit, warming spices, and a moist gateau make for a perfect everyday cake that is sure to wow your guests. 

While this delicious honeyed almond & plum cake might look and taste quite elegant, the method for making it couldn’t be easier.

With just about 15 minutes of active time, you can have this gorgeous buckle-style cake ready for eating, making it the perfect recipe when you need something sweet without a lot of fuss.

One-layer snack cakes are some of my favorite desserts to enjoy, as they are the perfect size for a small family! My salted caramel date cake, rose pistachio cake, orange chocolate cake and semolina cake are some of my favorites!

⭐ Why You’ll Love This Recipe 

This moist and flavorful almond plum cake is a delightful recipe that is simple enough to make (and eat!) basically any day of the week! It’s so easy, in fact, that you don’t even need to bust out your mixer - everything can be stirred together by hand.

This style of fruit-topped cakes is one of my favorites - it looks super impressive, but is so easy to make! Spoon batter into your baking tin, artfully arrange the fruit on top, and bake. The plums act as both a design element and a major source of flavor, texture and acidity.

Since this light and airy cake isn’t loaded down with frosting, I consider it a perfectly appropriate breakfast or midday snack. I mean, it has fruit and nuts, right? In my mind, this is an everyday and anytime kind of treat!

The almond flour also serves to lighten the batter in terms of texture, giving it a finer, more delicate crumb. It doesn’t hurt that the flavor of almonds pairs gorgeously with all stone fruits because they’re actually related!

A Few Notes About Baking With Almond Flour

If you’ve never tried your hand at baking with almond flour, you’re in for a real treat. This magical ingredient can add a lovely flavor and light texture to recipes, and is especially delicious when added to cakes and muffins. 

That said, there are some things you should know about almond flour to ensure your baking success:

• Be sure to refrigerate or freeze open almond flour for any long term storage, and use within 6 months. Unlike all purpose flour, almond meal has quite a high fat content. Once ground, the oil is quite vulnerable to air, which causes it to oxidize and turn rancid. If you don’t have space in your fridge, be sure to keep it in an airtight container in a cool, dark and dry environment and use it within 3 months of opening.

• Don’t try to substitute almond flour with other non-nut flours, especially in baking. While using *some* almond flour in this plum cake gives it a wonderful flavor and consistency, we’re still relying on the gluten in AP flour to create structure around our cake.

❓ Almond flour vs. almond meal

The biggest difference between almond flour and almond meal is the almond skin - to make almond flour, the nuts are first blanched and skinned, meaning the resulting “flour” is lighter in color than almond meal, where the skins are left intact.
The two can generally be used interchangeably, but reaching for almond flour can create a more sophisticated looking end product (like these Spiced Pear Macarons). In this rustic looking plum almond cake, though, you can feel free to use either.

🍴Key Ingredients 

Dry Ingredients

• Almond Flour - Now that you know the basics of baking with almond flour, you should be good to go! Feel free to use products labeled “almond meal” if needed. You can also make your own almond flour by processing nuts in a food processor until they are fine, stopping before they turn into a paste (which would be homemade almond butter). Want to try your hand at making your own nut butter? Try my Homemade Chocolate Hazelnut Butter!
• AP Flour - All-purpose plain flour should not be substituted for other flours like bread flour, whole wheat flour, or cake flour as they all have different protein contents; bread and whole wheat flour will have more protein, while cake flour will have less. Even different brands of AP flours will have differences in their protein content, which will affect their ability to create gluten.
• Granulated Sugar - This is a staple ingredient in any baker’s kitchen. If you run out, you can swap in an equal measure of coconut or maple sugar instead.
• Brown Sugar - Brown sugar adds a lovely caramel flavor to baked goods. If you happen to run out, you can make your own using granulated sugar and molasses. 
• Baking Powder - Not to be confused with baking soda, this is an important leavening ingredient. Please note that baking powder will begin to activate as soon as it comes in contact with the wet ingredients, so be sure to preheat your oven before you start mixing up your almond cake batter.
• Cinnamon, Cardamom, & Nutmeg - This spice mixture is an utter delight when combined with stone fruit and almonds. You can feel free to shake things up if you prefer - other good warming spices include ginger, cloves, allspice, or even pumpkin pie spice.

Wet Ingredients

• Eggs - When it comes to making batter, I generally recommend you let your large egg come to room temperature - this is especially true if you're mixing by hand. At room temp, the egg yolks will break more easily, which will allow them to incorporate without overmixing. Cold eggs can also cause the butter to seize and become firm, which is not what we want.
• Unsalted Butter - The butter should be softened to a regular room temperature for easy mixing, but you don’t want it to be melted. An ideal stick of softened butter will be easy to indent with a finger.
• Vanilla Extract - Feel free to swap in vanilla paste or powder here instead. You can also make this plum cake extra almond-y by using almond extract instead!

Toppings

• Fresh Plums - While plums are one of my favorite fruits, you can easily swap in your favorite sliced stone fruit instead. Try peaches, apricots or nectarines if you prefer! You can also feel free to use frozen plum slices - no need to defrost first.
• Turbinado Sugar - Sometimes referred to as “sugar in the raw,” golden brown turbinado sugar is a lovely way to add sparkle and crunch to the tops of muffins and cakes. Demerara sugar is an excellent substitute.

✨ Almond Cake Toppings

Technically speaking, these are all optional additions because you can make the cake just fine without them. That said, all three will add a touch of elegance and refinement to an otherwise simple cake.

• Sliced Almonds - if you’re reaching for a garnish, be sure to opt for sliced almonds rather than chopped or slivered; the sliced almonds add a delicate crunch without overpowering the tender plum cake.
• Honey - For best results, don’t drizzle with honey until you’re ready to serve. The added liquid will eventually cause some sogginess, so it’s best to do this to order.
• Powdered Sugar - This finely processed sugar elevates the appearance of most any dessert.

📖 Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Preheating & Prep: Preheat your oven to 350F. Grease and line the base of a 9 inch square cake pan with parchment paper. PRO TIP: If your parchment paper is rolling up while you’re trying to work, crumple it into a ball and then flatten it back out!
2. Mixing Dry Ingredients: Combine the ground almonds, all purpose flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ground cardamom, nutmeg and sea salt into a large mixing bowl, whisking to combine.
3. Mixing Wet Ingredients: In a separate small bowl, whisk together the eggs, butter and vanilla extract, then add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, stirring until completely combined. 
4. Adding Plums: Pour the mixture into the prepared cake pan and use a spoon or an offset spatula to smooth the top. Then, gently place your plum slices on top of the cake pressing gently so the plums are nestled into the cake batter. Finally, sprinkle with top of the batter with turbinado sugar. 
5. Bake the cake: Bake for 45-50 minutes until a toothpick that has been placed into the center of the cake comes out clean. 
6. Cooling & Garnishing: Remove the cake from the oven and let the cake cool for 20 minutes before removing the cake from the cake pan and placing on a cooling rack or wire rack to cool completely. Before serving, sprinkle on sliced almonds on your honeyed almond cake with ripe plums, dust with powdered sugar and drizzle the beautiful cake with honey!

👩🏻‍🍳 Expert Tips

This simple recipe for my plum and almond cake is relatively straightforward. That said, I’ve assembled my best tips and tricks to ensure your cake comes out perfectly every single time!

1. How to choose the best plums. Depending on where you live, plums are generally in season from about May-October. Choose plums with an even color and smooth, taut skin that is free of blemishes. They should be heavy for their size and have a slight give when gently squeezed. If you plan to make the cake within a day or two, avoid plums that are super soft or very hard. 
2. How to pick the best almond flour (or make your own). You should be able to find almond flour at any well-stocked national grocery chain, though you may need to look in the “gluten free” baking section to find it. Note that it may also be marketed as “almond meal” or “almond powder.” In a pinch, you can also make your own by blending (preferably blanched) almonds in a food processor until they create a fine “flour,” before they turn into almond butter.
3. Don’t over-mix. While you want your batter to be uniform, it is important not to over-work the batter. Any dough or batter that uses wheat flour will have gluten; the more you mix, the more strands of gluten that are created, which can result in a tough consistency.
4. Toast the almond flour for even deeper almond flavor. If you have time for an added step, I recommend toasting the almond flour prior to using. To do so, pour it into a dry pan over medium heat and stir constantly. It should become lightly golden and aromatic after a few minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature before continuing with the recipe.

⚖️ Tip for accurate measuring

Finally, be sure that you’re measuring your ingredients as accurately as possible. If it’s in your budget, I highly recommend that you invest in a kitchen scale.

When it comes to baking, it is important to be super precise when making measurements. Dry ingredients like flour or brown sugar can vary widely in terms of weight vs. volume depending on how you measure it.

If you don’t have a kitchen scale, be sure to first fluff and then spoon flour (or other dry ingredients) into a dry measuring cup, then level it off with a knife like shown in this video. When it comes to brown sugar, you’ll want to make sure it is packed firmly and holds the shape of the measuring cup when turned out.

💭 Recipe FAQs

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