For some time I have wanted to create a non ginger, syrup based alternative to my Easy Peasy Ginger Cake, that was quick reliable and fool proof. And baked entirely from the store cupboard, which meant no eggs & no milk. I do have quite a good handle on eggless cakes, most of the time I just leave the eggs out and use oil in place of fat. The first version of this cake was the basic ginger cake recipe, with syrup instead of the treacle and leaving all the spices out. It was OK, but a little boring, and tasted heavily of the bicarb.
In this cake you can clearly taste the syrup, but the sweetness is balanced with a hint of lemon and the sourness of the plums. I used Waitrose’s Wholefoods Plum Medley containing a mix of roysum and angelino plums; their cranberry and golden blush colours make the cake look more interesting. Like the Easy Peasy Ginger Cake this is a whizz and go one step cake.
Golden Syrup & Plum Cake
- 350 g Plain Flour
- 200 g Sugar I use soft dark brown for colour and flavour but any would work
- 100 g Cooking oil Sunflower or rape/canola
- 1 tsp baking powder
- Zest of 1 lemon
- Pinch salt
- About 120g Golden Syrup*
- 225 ml boiling water
- 100 g dried plums - cut into 1cm cubes.
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Place all the ingredients apart from the plums into the food processor bowl and whizz until you have a smooth golden brown batter, add the chopped plums and pluse once or twice. Pour into 8” square pan lined with greaseproof paper and bake at GM4/180C for about 35 - 40 mins until risen and a cocktail stick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
* the syrup is almost impossible to measure, the recipe is quite forgiving so I measured by eye, and dolloped just over 1/4 of the tin of syrup into the food processor bowl.
the caked crusader
oh my….I think I’m in love! What a PERFECT cake!
David
Hi, Helen! I just made this cake for the first time and really like the flavor! I used raisins, instead of dried plums.
I have never used golden syrup before! The cake had a dense texture to it–not a light, cakey texture. Do you have any idea if using less of the golden syrup would make it lighter in texture? Since I’m not accustomed to baking with golden syrup, I’m not sure how it affects the texture. I don’t want to lose the great taste of the golden syrup, but would like to have the texture a bit lighter. Thanks for your help!
Helen
It is meant to be a dense sticky cake. Possibly a little less would make it lighter, or a bit more baking powder.