Vanilla Cake with Plum Sauce
This recipe is from 'The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen' and I tasted it at Angelica Kitchen in New York. This simple, low fat cake is a good place to start if you have never baked before!
Ingredients
For the cake
- 1-1/3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
- 2/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp soda
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
- 1 cup pure maple syrup (we substituted this with 3/4 cup jaggery dissolved in enough water to make up 1 cup. This was cooked a bit to dissolve the jaggery)
- 1 cup cold water
- 1/3 cup pure olive oil (we used saffola oil)
- 2 tsp cider vinegar
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
For the sauce
- 1-1/2 kg plums halved and pitted
- 2/3 cups pure maple syrup (again we substituted with jaggery syrup)
- 2/3 cup apple juice
- 2 (3 inch) cinnamon sticks
- 1/8 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
- 1 vanilla bean
Method
For the cake
Preheat the oven to 350 F (175C). Lightly oil a 9 inch springform pan and dust it with unbleached white flour. In a mixing bowl, sift together the flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the maple syrup, water, oil, vinegar, and vanilla. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and stir just until combined, taking care not to over mix.
Pour the batter into the cake pan and bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Set the cake pan on the rack to cool.
For the sauce
In a 3 litre saucepan, combine the plums, maple syrup, apple juice, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Slice the vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scrape the seeds into the saucepan. Drop in the bean as well. Bring the mixture to boil over a high heat, then reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes. Uncover and raise the heat, and boil for 5 minutes, or until the sauce thickens. Remove and discard the vanilla bean and cinnamon sticks. Cool slightly.To serve, unmold the cake from the pan and cut into wedges. Serve with warm sauce spooned on top, and Custard Cream if desired.
