Sweet Meringue Plum Cake

I always wait so impatiently for plum season. I do love preparing plum cakes, they're always so delicious (even though I'm not really a plum-fan ;) )! I know I've waited too long to share this cake with You, but I hope that - at least for some of You - it is not too late :) Besides, it is possible to use frozen plums ;)

This is another wonderful and elegant cake from KwestiaSmaku, which I share with You today and also I do recommend to try this one, right after the very best plum cake, which You can find here.

Ingredients:

• 250g of flour
• 50g of sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 200g of margarine
• 4 egg yolks
• 1kg of plums (without kernels, cut into halves) fresh or frozen (need to be defrost)

Budyń/Custard (it is possible to double the amount of custard in this cake):

• 1 packaging of vanilla custard (40g)
• 500ml of milk
• 2 tablespoons of sugar

Meringue:

• 4 egg whites 
• 200g of sugar
• 3 teaspoons of potato starch 

Optionally - one of these:

• A handful of hazelnuts, to sprinkle the top (I skipped it)
• almond flakes (to sprinkle the fruit) 
• shredded coconut (to sprinkle the fruit or to mix with meringue)

Preparation:

Dough:

1. Start preheating the oven to 170C.
2. Prepare a rectangular baking pan (around 26x36 cm), grease it and put baking paper all over it.
3. Take a big bowl, put flour, sugar, salt and baking powder inside. Mix. Add cold butter and knead till you get crumbles.
4. Add egg yolks and knead again.
5. Distribute evenly all over the bottom of previously prepared baking pan and bake in preheated oven for around 20 minutes, till it becomes gold.
6. Take it out from the oven.

Custard + plums:

1. Prepare the custard as the instructions on a packaging says (using 500ml of milk + 2 tablespoons of sugar). 
2. When the custard is ready, pour it all over the previously baked bottom.
3. Add plums, cover the entire cake bottom with them (there is no need to wait till the custard cools down). Make 2 layers of plums, one on another.
4. Optionally - sprinkle with almond flakes or shredded coconut if desired. Set aside.

Meringue + finishing the cake:

1. Take a mixer and its bowl, put egg whites inside, beat, adding sugar gradually, till it stiffens (around 10-15 minutes). At the end, sieve potato starch inside and mix till smooth.
2. Here - if You haven't and You do fancy to do it - you can mix in some shredded coconut.
3. Distribute the meringue all over the top of the plums.
4. Bake for 20 minutes, setting the temperature as previously, on 170C.
5. After 20 minutes, decrease the temperature to 60C, turn on the hot air cooking, (optionally sprinkle the top with hazelnuts) and bake for another 20 minutes.
6. Take out from the oven.
7. Bon Appetit! :)

Plum Dumplings

That's a very delicious, quick, easy and light dinner :) Soft, sweet, might be served with butter, sugar or shredded coconut. Children love it! It is definitely worth trying! :)

Recipe comes from my Grandmum :)

Ingredients:

• 10 boiled potatoes
• 2-3 pinches of salt
• around 300 g of flour
• 500 g of plums
• 1 egg

Extra ingredients:

• butter
• sugar
• shredded coconut

Preparation:

1. Take a middle-size clean pot, fill with water, add some salt (2-3 pinches).
2. Add potatoes and boil them till soft (10-15 minutes).
3. In the meantime, wash the plums, throw away the kernels, cut the plums into halves.
4. Take a pot, pour water inside, start boiling.
5. Take a big bowl, put boiled potatoes inside, smash till you get a smooth 'dough', cool down.
6. Add flour, and egg, knead till you get a dough, which is not extremely sticky and you can form a ball (which is why I put 'around' 300g of flour - depending on your potatoes - some of them come out more sticky after boiling, some of them less = in some cases you might need more/less flour). Make the ball flat. Put one half of the plum in the middle of the dough, add 1/2 teaspoon of sugar, close(it needs to be done very precisely), forming a ball again.*
7. When the water in the second pot is boling, put your dumplings inside, boil for around 5-7 minutes.**
8. Take them out of the water (they cannot remain in the water).
9. Here you can distribute extra ingredients over boiled dumplings - some butter to melt or sprinkle them with sugar/shredded coconut.
10. Bon Appetit! :)

* It is not necessary to add sugar, you can make them without any sugar (but they might come out sour, especially if the plums are sour, so I do recommed adding it).

** If the dumplings 'swim' on the top of the water, they're ready.

Italian Torta Margherita

Very easy and tasty cake. Last minute idea, when you have a craving for a cake ;)The only thing I needed to buy to prepare it was a greek yoghurt ;) So the cost of preparing it is automatically low too :) Recipe comes from all over the Internet, containing some Italian websites (for example: ricette.giallozafferano.it , emikodavies.com) :)

Ingredients:

• 300 g of greek yoghurt
• 300 g of sugar
• 3 eggs
• 150 g of oil
• 600 g of flour
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 16 g of vanilla sugar
• 200-500 g of fruit - plums, apples, nectarine, pear (preffered harder ones, not very juicy)
• some butter
• powdered sugar or icing sugar

Optional ingredients:

• 2-3 teaspoons zest of a lemon (optional)
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Preparation:

1. Wash, peel and chop the fruit into wedges.
2. Start heating the oven to 200C.
3. Take a big bowl.
4. Put yoghurt and sugar inside, add eggs and stir. Add oil and stir again.
5. Add flour, baking powder and optional ingredients (if desired). Stir everything.
6. Add fruit and stir again.
7. Take a springform cake tin (though I used fluted cake ring) grease it thoroughly.
8. Put the dough in a tin and bake for 30-40 minutes in 200C.*
9. Check, by using a toothpick if the cake is ready (put the toothpick as deep as possible, to get sure).
10. Take it out from the oven, cool down, then overturn the cake and by tapping, take it out from the form.
11. Sprinkle with powdered sugar or icing sugar.
12. Bon Appetit! :)

* The top of the cake may start getting burnt very fast because the oven is already preheated. To prevent your cake, when you notice it starts burning, put a piece of foil on the entire top of the cake. 

Plum cake with crème pâtissière - extended version

Ohh, by accident, my mum came up with a gorgeous idea to 'upgrade' that cake. If you've already tried to do it, you've probably noticed that there are 6 egg whites remaining. I have no idea why haven't I thought about it earlier - it is possible to make a sweet meringue on that cake :) it is cruelly delicious ! must try! :) Recipe... basic + my mum :) greets for her !

Here you can find the basic recipe

Meringue:

Ingredients:

• 6 egg whites (the ones that remain from the cake)
• 200-250 g of sugar
• 1-1,5 teaspoon of potato starch 

Preparation:

1. Prepare the dough for the bottom of the cake, crème pâtissière and the crumble from the basic recipe.
2. Bake the bottom of the cake as the basic recipe says.
3. Cool down the baked bottom, put crème pâtissière on it and plums.
4. Not earlier, but now start preparing the meringue.
5. Take a big bowl (preferably mixer's bowl), put all the egg whites inside, start beating them with a mixer.
6. Start adding sugar, one spoon after another, beating all the time. Add potato starch.
7. Mix (for around 7-10 minutes) till the meringue is really stiff*
8. Put the beaten meringue on the plums. Sprinkle with the crumble.
9. Bake in 170C for 35-40 minutes.
10. Bon Appetit!! :)

* A good way to check it is to take to bowl and overturn it. If the meringue doesn't move - it's perfectly fine.

Plum cake with crème pâtissière

 Ouuutstanding. The best plum cake I've ever made, plus - I am not a plum-fan. But this one is absolutely gorgeous. Pictures - not the best I've ever taken, because we couldn't have resisted and started eating the cake right after having taken it out from the oven :) I guess you'll do the same :)

Slightly changed, the recipe comes from http://www.kwestiasmaku.com/zielony_srodek/sliwki/ciasto_kruche_ze_sliwkami_kremem/przepis.html

Ingredients:

• 1 kg of plums
• powdered sugar (to sprinkle the top of the cake)

Bottom of the cake:

• 150 g flour
• 150 g potato starch
• 50 g of sugar
• 150 g of cold butter
• 1 egg

Crème pâtissière from that recipe:

• 500 ml of milk
• 4 tablespoons of vanilla sugar
• 6 egg yolks
• 100 g sugar or powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons of flour
• 2 tablespoons of potato starch

Crumble for the top

• 100 g of flour
• 50 g of potato starch
• 100 g of shredded coconut
• 50 g of sugar
• 125 g of cold butter

Preparation:
Bottom:

1. Take a big bowl. Put both flours inside, add sugar and chopped butter. Make a dough, add egg and link (everything might be done by using hands). Form a ball. Put in the freezer for 1 hour.

Crème from that recipe:

1. Take a mixer and its bowl. Put egg yolks inside with sugar and beat to obtain a bright fluffy foam (it will take around 5-8 minutes of beating). Add flour and starch and mix only till all the ingredients link.
2. Take a pot, put milk and vanilla sugar inside, heat till it reaches 100C, stiring from time to time. Turn the heat off.
3. Slowly, step by step, add the mixture from the pot to the mixer's bowl, mixing it at the same time. Mix till smooth.
4. Put the mixture in the pot and heat again - stiring all the time, cause it will start getting thicker and thicker, like a custard.
5. When the creme is ready (thick), turn the heat off. Put the creme in a clean bowl. Sprinkle the top with confectioners' sugar or with grounded cold butter(the butter needs to be frozen)

1. Take the dough out of the freezer.
2. Take a rectangular pan and put the dough inside, roll it out, so that it covers the entire bottom of the pan. 
3. Using a fork, make holes in the dough all over the pan. Put the pan in a fridge for 30 minutes.

1. Start preheating the oven to 160C.

Crumble:

1. Take a big bowl, put both flours inside, add shredded coconut, sugar and chopped butter. Using hands, make a crumble. Put it in the fridge.

1. If the oven is already heated to 160C put the pan with the bottom of the cake inside the oven and bake for 25 minutes till the cake's colour is gold.
2. Take it out from the oven and cool down.
3. Wash plums, cut into wedges, throw away the kernels.
4. If the bottom of the cake is already cold, put the crème all over the bottom, then put plums all over the cake and sprinkle the entire cake with the crumble.
5. Put the cake in the oven, increase the temperature to 180C and bake for 35 minutes till the cake's colour is gold.
6. Cool down, sprinkle the cake all over with powdered sugar.
7. Bon Appetit! :)