Plum, apricot and almond pudding cake

You hear all kinds of indicators that autumn is upon us….the swallows are doing something or other, Arsene Wenger starts wearing boiler lagging, the wispy clouds over the moors are a different shade of chartreuse to those seen on the 32nd of Nowonder. For me, it’s when the blowers in the car need to be set no longer on cool, but on warm. Cars are by some distance the best indices of seasonal change. Summer starts on that day you get in the car and feel uncomfortably hot but the smell of warm interior is delicious, winter kicks in when you do your first accidental skid going round a corner within 50 yards of your house, spring begins when the birds, in their excitement to mock you with all that noise that indicates they are having more sex than you, shit ever more readily on your bonnet.

So the blowers went on the other day and it made me hungry for a weighty pudding. That very day, Trish Deseine tweeted a link to a pud which I liked the look of, so I made it, only different.

It was different because I happened to have different fruit to use up and I like cakes made with ground almonds, but it is jointly Trish and LLGs fault that I have made fruit with cakey stuff on top and now have a larger stomach because of it. Here it is.

For 4 with a little for seconds

I used 7 plums and 5 apricots, quartered, or 650g or so of whatever fruit you have
100g plain flour
100g ground almonds
100g sugar, plus a little for sprinkling on sharp fruit if you’re using them and for the top of the batter
100g butter, cold from the fridge, cubed
200ml milk
2 eggs, beaten lightly
3 tsp baking powder

Heat the oven to 190C

Use 20g of so of the butter to grease an oven dish that’s 8″ by 12″ or so.

In with the fruit and sprinkle with a little sugar and cinnamon

Put all the dry ingredients into a food processor and whizz them up briefly to combine. Add the rest of the butter and whizz until breadcrumby in texture.

Add the eggs, a little of the milk, and whizz until combined. Then gradually in with the rest of the milk as you continue to whizz.

Pour the batter over fruit and don’t worry if some of the fruit sticks out of the batter, it’ll rise above it – unless you have very old baking powder, in which case you are probably making Plum, apricot and almond biscuit cake and it serves you right.

Sprinkle the top with a little sugar, this gives a lovely crusty top.

Cook in the oven for 35-40 minutes* – test with a pointy thing: it should come out clean. Or do as I did, take it out after 35 mins assuming it’s done, dig a spoon in in your rabid lust for pudding, and on spooning it into a bowl realise it needs a bit longer.

Double cream works best with it I think.

It’s possibly even better the next day, cold with a coffee half way through the morning when you really oughtn’t to be thinking about eating a pudding.

I know the picture isn’t overly glam, but I wasn’t thinking of taking a picture, I wanted to eat – especially having had to wait longer while it finished cooking. That’s how it looks when you’re in a hurry to eat it.

* why not practice doing this 17 times while you’re waiting…