I love using ingredients that are left from previous recipes and not needing to buy anything else from the shop. Somehow it makes me feel more, sort of, “accomplished”.

I had some dried plums left from the last time I baked savoury cake with dried plums, pistachios and goat cheese (Recipe here: https://mydearkitcheninhelsinki.wordpress.com/2013/09/22/a-savoury-cake-with-dried-plum-pistachio-and-goat-cheese-rachel-khoo-recipe/). I also had quite a good amount of walnut and just enough buttermilk, so I could totally see a cake coming out of those..

 

Oh and the result.. It was so delicious that as I was eating the first small square slice of it with fresh tea I almost cried from happiness. My roommate Maisa loved it too, we were two happy women in one weekday afternoon eating this moist, nutty and sweet, but not too sweet cake.

 

 

 

The next day I took the cake to my friend Melis’ office – I had also prepared a couple of salty finger food for their party – opening of their office’s new premises. I took the cake just for Melis and her colleagues to enjoy though, so that I do not end up eating the whole thing! And the next day I’ve heard from Melis that the cake was eaten in just a few minutes! Yayyy!

 

I used the ingredients I had in hand for this cake, but if you have something else, like another kind of nut other than walnut or another dried fruit in hand, you can totally substitute them with your ingredients, and therefore we can keep the idea same!

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Ingredients:

 

1/2 cup / 115 gr. butter, in room temperature
1 1/2 cup / 355 ml / 300 gr. brown sugar (I used half brown sugar, half cane sugar since I had that much amount of each at home)
2 eggs
100 gr. chopped dried plum
1 1/2 cup / 355 ml / 187.50 gr white flour
1 tsp / 5 ml baking soda
1/4 tsp / 1.25 ml salt
1/2 tsp / 2.5 ml ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp / 2.5 ml nutmeg (in Finnish: muskottipähkinä – jauhettu)
1/2 tsp / 2.5 ml allspice (in Finnish: maustepippuri)
2/3 cup / 158 ml buttermilk (in Finnish: piimä)
70 gr. crushed walnut (do not process it too much, just crush them a bit so that you feel small pieces of walnut in the cake)

 

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1. Preheat the oven to 180C.

 

2. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar, for 5 minutes, in medium speed.

 

 

 

 

 

3. Add eggs to the mixture and continue beating until the eggs are fully incorporated. You will have a bit muddy mixture as seen in the picture below.

 

 

 

4. Cover plums with a little bit of flour. Fold the floured plums into the creamy mixture.

 

 

 

 

5. In another medium size bowl, sift flour. Add baking soda, salt and spices (cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice). Whisk these dry ingredients for half a minute.

 

 

 

 

 

 

6. Add dry ingredients mixture to the wet mixture. Fold in just until all the dry ingredients are covered with wet mixture.

 

 

 

7. Add buttermilk to the mixture and fold until it is fully incorporated.

 

 

 

8. Finally, add walnuts (or any nuts you are using) and fold them in the batter just until they are totally blended.

 

 

 

9. Butter your cake mold and pour your cake batter into it. Tap the mold on the surface a few times just so that the batter is spread in the mold evenly and any air trapped can escape.

 

 

10. Bake for about 40-45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

 

11. When the cake is baked, take it out of the oven and leave it to cool down a bit – first inside the mold, then out of it. When it is fully cooled, slice it and then try not to eat the whole thing at one setting!!!