This Gluten Free Plum Almond Sponge Cake is one of my all time favourite cakes. It’s light and spongy yet surprisingly moist and soft. It tastes like a bakewell tart but with much less effort. Not to mention, it’s gluten and dairy free! It contains just a few ingredients; ground almonds, sugar, eggs, baking powder and fruit. The roasted plums may be replaced by any fruit you prefer! Raspberries, Blueberries or Cherries would also be fab in this. For a rhubarb version of this recipe you can check out my Rhubarb Almond Cake Recipe or for a blackberry version you can check out my Gluten Free Blackberry Almond Cake Recipe.
This sponge cake recipe is beyond simple. There’s just two steps involved;
To begin, take a small sharp knife and cut each plum in half down along the line. Remove the stones and cut the plums into wedges. Toss in brown sugar and place onto a baking tray. Roast for 5-10 minutes until the plums have softened. Leave to one side to cool.
If you have a glut of plums or are planning to use a lot for different recipes, you can roasted off more plums than you need for this recipe.
Begin by adding the ground almonds, sugar and baking powder to a large mixing bowl. Whisk together (this can be done with a hand whisk) to ensure no lumps of baking powder remain. Add the eggs and almond extract and whisk until smooth. Add in 3/4 of the roasted plums and switch to a rubber spatula or wooden spoon. Carefully fold in the plums being mindful not to squish or crush the plums. Pour into a greased and lined tin. Sprinkle with the remaining plums and flaked almonds and bake until golden brown.
Allow to cool fully before slicing. Leftovers can be wrapped tightly or stored in an airtight container for 3-5 days at a cool room temperature.
I haven’t tried this with raw plums but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work! I personally just prefer the added flavour of them roasted but it could definitely be done with raw plums!
If you can’t get your hands on good quality plums because they are not available or in season in your area, you can use a wide variety of fruits instead. You can substitute 1:1 with other berries like raspberries, cherries or blueberries. You can also add in roasted fruits like rhubarb, gooseberries or apple. Nuts or chocolate chips may also be added to this recipe.
Unfortunately the main ingredient in this recipe is ground almonds. I have not tested this recipe with gluten free or plain flour instead so I really can’t say if it would work with a substitute.
You sure can! As long as they are ground nuts, they will work. Ground almonds tend to be ground a little finer though so using other ground nuts may result in a slightly denser cake.
Any cooled leftovers can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Absolutely! Once the cake has completely cooled, you can portion it into slices. Tightly wrap each slice or place into an airtight container. Place into the freezer and freeze for up to 3 months. Defrost the cake slice(s) at room temperature for at least 1 hour before consuming.
For more Cake Recipes, check out my Cake Category, here.
Maybe you’re interested in Gluten Free Recipes? I have Gluten Free Category, here.
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Delicious! Easy, moist and tasty. My plums were soft so I just tossed them in the brown sugar and didn’t worry about roasting them first. I only used 100g caster sugar as suggested, perfect level of sweetness. I will definitely use this recipe again.
Really delicious! And so simple. Like others, I only used 100g of sugar it was perfecto. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Good to see this I did a plum almond cake but it was not gluten free and wondered how to make it gluten free for friends with sensitivity. I did use raw plums which worked well. I like how you wrote this all out.
Delicious and so easy to make! Thank you for this recipe. I used about 3.5 plums, as I guessed that was about 200g, but think it would have been slightly better with some more - baked plum wedges in the mixture, and raw plum wedges on top for decoration (before putting in the oven)
Hi Orah,
Yes this recipe can take quite a lot of fruit and still work.
It's one of my favourite recipes as it really is so simple and so delicious!
Really glad to hear you have enjoyed it too.
Thanks,
Rosie
How fine do you grind the almonds, and what kind of plums do you use? I have a plum tree with small Italian plums. I cut them in half. It's in the oven now.
Absolutely delicious! I used small Italian plums and halved them. I would use a few more than 200 grams next time because they're so small, but this recipe was 5 star all the way! Served with a dollop of whipped cream or a bit of ice cream and YUM!
I guessed on how finely to ground the almonds ( not specified in the recipe), but it turned out great.
Hi Linda,
So glad you liked the recipe! I tend to buy and use almonds that are already ground from the shop but if you are grinding your own, a fine breadcrumb texture would be perfect however it will still work if the almonds are ground a little chunkier too!
Thanks,
Rosie
Comes together easily and is excellent tasting. Hard to believe there used to be no butter.