Shortcrust cocoa cake with plums

In my home, shortcrust fruit cakes are disappearing from a table at an express pace. It doesn’t matter what fruit I use, they are all successful. The only thing I have to pay attention to is the softness of the fruit. They must be as soft as possible and preferably almost pureed. The plums in the shortcrust cocoa cake below also had such a consistency. In this cake, I combined the plums with meringue and cocoa pastry. The cake tastes great and the combination of cocoa and plums is phenomenal.

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Ingredients for cocoa and plum cake.

Shortcrust cocoa pastry:

• 350 g all-purpose flour
• 50 g dark cocoa
• a pinch of salt
• 50 g lard or margarine
• 150 g unsalted butter
• 150 g icing sugar
• 4 egg yolks (big)
• 1,5 tablespoons of sour cream

Meringue:

• 4 egg whites (big)
• 1/2 teaspoon of potato flour
• 150 g icing sugar
• a pinch of salt

Fruits:

• 1 kg plums (with no stones)
• 3 tablespoons of light brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons of water
• 1 tablespoon of potato flour
• 2 cloves

How to make shortcrust cocoa cake with plums.

How to make shortcrust cocoa plum cake? I prepared the cake by using a food processor. Put flour, cocoa, icing sugar, salt and diced cold butter with margarine into a bowl. Mix the ingredients with a hook overlay until they start coming together. At that point, add the yolks and cream. Mix for a moment until all the ingredients combine completely, then knead the pastry. Divide the pastry into 6 balls, wrap each with cling film and place them in the freezer for 30 minutes.

How to prepare fruits for shortcrust cake? Put pitted plums, sugar and cloves into a pot. Simmer for 10 minutes over a medium heat. Mix water with the potato flour in a cup and pour it over the plums in the pot. Bring it to boil, cook for a minute then let it cool down.

How to make meringue? Put the egg whites and a pinch of salt in a bowl and whisk until half stiff. Then add icing sugar in small batches. At the end, add the potato flour.

Line the baking tin with baking paper. Spread the cocoa pastry grated on a large-mesh grater (4 ball of pastry) at the bottom and the sides of the baking tin. Pour the cold plums in and cover them with whipped egg whites. Grate the remaining 2 balls of the pastry on top of the egg whites foam. Put the cake in an oven preheated to 180 degrees Celsius for one hour and 10 minutes. Once baked, allow the cake to cool down completely before slicing.

Good to know when making cocoa plum cake.

The egg whites used to prepare the meringue should be at room temperature.

Remember to take out the cloves from the plums, once the plums have cooled down after cooking. Instead of the whole cloves, you can also use a pinch of ground ones and then this problem will be solved.

The baking tin I used was 30 by 21 centimetres.

For this cake, plums such as Hungarian, Empress, Stanley can be used.

If you don’t have a food processor, prepare the pastry on a pastry board. First, chop the dry ingredients with butter and margarine, then add the cream and yolks, and finally knead the pastry.

Do you like plum cakes? If so, try our recipe for Shortbread cake with custard foam and plum.