Mumsey’s Simple Plum Cake

This is a lovely cake to have warm as a desert, or for an afternoon tea. It is straightforward to make too.

2 ¼ cups self-raising flour
2 tsp mixed spice
125gr butter
2/3 cup soft brown sugar
Grated rind and juice of a medium lemon
2 large eggs
½ cup milk
6 ripe plums
8 tsp demerara (or raw) sugar
½ tsp cinnamon
Icing sugar to sprinkle

Sift the flour and spice into a mixing bowl.
Dice the butter and rub it in with your fingertips until it looks like fine breadcrumbs. I do this in my big food mixture which then makes it less messy on your hands but mixes everything together.
Stir in the brown sugar and rind form the lemon.
Beat in the eggs and milk slowly so it doesn’t splash up.
Spoon the mixture into a lined 20cm round cake tin.
Halve and stone the plums (Quarter them if they are big) and place on top of the cake.
Press them in lightly so half of the plum is into the cake.
Sprinkle the lemon juice over the cake surface.
Mix the demarara sugar and cinnamon together in a cup and then sprinkle over the cake. Don’t do this the other way round as the lemon juice helps the sugar mixture to stick to the cake and if you put the lemon juice on after the cinnamon will ‘run’ off.
Bake for 1 hour in a preheated 180°C oven or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out ‘clean’
Allow to cool for 10 minutes and carefully turn out onto a plate.
Sprinkle with icing sugar and serve warm with cream, yogurt or ice cream.