This delightful dessert consists of a warmly-spiced cake dotted with fresh plums and drizzled with a warm rum sauce that will knock your socks off. Enjoy with a steaming mug of hot coffee for optimal results. Plum cake with rum will be your new favorite sweet treat.
Why You Should Make This
Let me tell you right now, this plum cake with rum sauce is so stinkin' easy to make and the result is really something impressive. Picture this: a single layer moist cake filled with warm spices and fresh plums that become soft and juicy as the cake bakes. Baking the cake in a springform pan allows for a lovely presentation with deep red spots.
But wait, you're not done yet. The plum cake, served warm, is then drizzled with an intensely buttery rum sauce that seeps into the cake and transforms the dessert into something else completely. Something completely magical.
If you're feeling really sassy, add a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top for a tantalizing mix of temperatures, flavors, and textures that'll have you reaching for that knife to cut yourself a second slice.
Ingredients Needed
A well-stocked kitchen and baking pantry will already have most of what is needed to create this dessert. Just grab some fresh plums and you'll be ready to go.
Plum Cake
- The Basics: all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Yummy Spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves. All of those yummy spices that are ideal during the winter, but still delicious at any time of year.
- Fresh Plums: You can use black or Santa Rosa plums.
- Texture Pleasers: Butter and sugar get creamed together to aerate the batter.
- Vanilla and Almond Extracts: I love using both of these flavors together - the almond in lesser amounts - to enhance the flavor of the fruit and spices.
- Eggs and Milk: Add structure and moisture to the cake.
- Springform Pan: For the prettiest presentation, use a springform pan so you can remove the edge from the cake after it is baked. You can also bake the cake into a pie dish or 9-inch round cake pan and serve slices directly from the pan.
Rum Sauce
- Rum: But of course. A nice spiced rum works brilliantly in the sauce, though in a pinch you can use bourbon or other whiskey.
- Butter: This is a super buttery sauce, so a base of melted butter is a good place to start, yes?
- Sugar: Just plain white sugar that'll dissolve into the warmed up sauce.
- Vanilla Extract: A full teaspoon to enhance the other flavors in the sauce. Use pure extract for the best result, or you can use vanilla bean paste for visual appeal (you can see the pretty specks of vanilla bean in the paste)
- Egg: An egg adds richness and thickness to the sauce.
- A Candy Thermometer: A pot-clip thermometer is helpful for making sure the sauce is cooked to the proper temperature. You can get away without using one, however. If the sauce coats the back of the spoon and a groove remains when you swipe your finger across the spoon, it's ready.
Substitutions
Milk: You can use a lower fat or non-dairy milk for this cake, but the texture of the cake will be a bit more dry and/or crumbly as a result.
Fruit: If you can't find plums or want to try different variations of this cake, you can substitute with any other stone fruit such as peaches, nectarines, cherries, or apricots.
Rum: Substitute with brandy, bourbon, or other whiskey in place of the rum in the sauce. If you want a non-alcoholic version, try ½ teaspoon of imitation rum extract or ¼ cup of spiced apple cider.
How To Prepare Plums
Give the skin of the plums a rinse in the sink and dry them off. Cut into the skin of the plum down to the pit and continue around the circumference of the fruit. Then, pop the fruit into halves so you can dig out the pit and discard it. Finally, cut the plum into 8 sections. No peeling needed - the skins will soften when the cake bakes.
Serving Suggestions
This recipe is perfect when served just as written: the warm slice of cake on a plate and drizzled with hot rum sauce.
For an extra special treat, add a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top of the plum cake, and then drizzle the whole thing with the rum sauce. The ice cream will be cold and perfectly melty. Yum? Yes, yum.
Storage Instructions
Storing Leftovers: Because of the fresh fruit in this recipe, I recommend storing the leftovers of your plum cake with rum sauce in the refrigerator. Store the sauce in a separate container to keep your cake from getting soggy.
Reheating Instructions: Place a slice of cake onto a microwave-safe plate and drizzle with cold rum sauce. Microwave for 10 seconds or until it's as warm as you desire.
Can You Freeze Plum Cake?
Yes, you can freeze the fully-baked plum cake for up to 3 months (for best flavor - it will be safe to eat beyond that point). To freeze: I recommend removing the cake from the bottom of the springform pan so that you can still use it for other things while your cake is frozen. Wrap the cake in plastic wrap, making sure no air can get in, and freeze. To thaw: let the cake thaw in the refrigerator and then slice and heat in the microwave with rum sauce as needed.
You can freeze the rum sauce, too. Spoon the sauce into a freezer-safe zip top bag, seal tightly, and freeze. To thaw, invert the bag into a small saucepan, cover, an heat on low, stirring frequently, until thawed out. Use as desired.
Print
Plum Cake With Rum
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: Serves 8
Ingredients
Spiced Plum Cake
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ⅛ teaspoon ground ginger
- ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
- ¾ cup white granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract
- ½ cup whole milk
- 3 plums, pits removed, cut into eighths
Rum Sauce
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
- 1 cup white granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup rum
Instructions
Spiced Plum Cake
- Preheat oven to 350F. Grease bottom and sides of a 9-inch springform pan.
- In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and salt.
- Use a hand or stand mixer to cream butter with sugar until pale and fluffy. Add egg, vanilla extract, and almond extract. Mix on medium-low speed until fully combined.
- Add half of the dry ingredients to the wet and mix on low for 20 seconds. Add milk and the rest of the dry ingredients and mix on low until just combined. Do not overmix.
- Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth out the top. Press plum sections into the batter, peel side up, in any design that you wish.
- Bake on center rack for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out with a few moist crumbs attached. Allow to cool for 5 minutes, then loosen cake from the sides of the pan using a butter knife and remove the outer ring of pan.
Rum Sauce
- While the cake is in the oven, make the rum sauce. In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt butter.
- While butter is melting, in a small bowl whisk together egg, vanilla extract, and sugar until it forms a thick paste.
- While whisking constantly, add egg mixture to melted butter. Fit pot with thermometer and continue stirring until a temperature of 170F is reached. Sauce will coat the back of a spoon when done.
- Remove from heat and stir in rum sauce. Drizzle hot sauce over warm plum cake. Add a scoop of ice cream for a super indulgent treat.
- Store leftovers of cake and sauce in the refrigerator and reheat in the microwave when serving.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Stovetop and Oven
Not making your plum cake just yet? Make sure you can find it later when you need it! Use the pretty image below to Pin to your Pinterest boards. Also, share this post with your friends and family by using the buttons at the top and bottom of this post. Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by my blog!
Jane
I just made this with some leftover plums and it was incredible. I can't wait to try it with peaches!
Erin
Peaches would be delicious!