THANK YOU SHIRLEY TULIP!

I've made her plum cake twice in the last couple of weeks......
So thanks from me too ?

Aw, how lovely! I must look up Shirley's recipes...I do love fruit cakes!

Hmmmmm will copy this recipe a.s.a.p. and give it a whirl. Thanks to you both!

Sheila ... you have no idea how this has cheered me up after a pretty poor time with Mum at lunch today. I am so pleased this has renewed your enthusiasm for baking!

If any other GoYers wish to bake this, the recipe is under P for Plums on the GoYpedia section at the bottom of the page. It's very versatile and can be used with many different fruits.

Sorry you've been having a poor time with your Mum, Shirley. Glad the timing was right to cheer you up a little bit . . . look after yourself :))

I knew you'd be pleased Shirley! :))

Thanks Karen ... cam you believe this recipe was first posted in August 2010 ... and is still popular! There will be no Plums this year from the neighbours as they had the tree pruned, quite severely, last week ... :o(

It must have been full of fruit my old tree cracked a branch with the weight!

considering a few years ago 2/3 came down in a gale and its got woodworm its amazing it survives at all, its such a fighter though I'm loathe to take it out!

the thing is I'm not fond of plums.....unless they are surrounded by Shirleys famous plum cake!
or strawberry ........thats yummy too .......

I must pass this on to my brother - he's the foodie in the family.
Looks yummy!

I'd love to make this but have to modify all cake recipes to be without sugar - will certainly have a go at this one!

I did the same to ours Shirley, because it was a mess. The plums were plentiful, but rotting instead of ripening, so it has one chance to recover now, and produce some fruit. Plums are one of my favourite fruits. I planted a new one in the opposite corner in the spring, so if the old one dies, the new one will take over.

This looks great, Shirley - I shall definitely be trying it. Mine will be using Splenda instead of sugar as OH is diabetic, but I don't think that'll be a problem. Thank you!

Checking this under P to find the baking time, I find the
quantities are not the same.

I found the recipe and put it in my favorites. I love plums but unfortunately plums from my tree disappeared before I got them. Squirrels or Jays I guess. So I have to buy them. The cake looks very good . Thanks for posting Sheila and for your recipe Shirley.

Diane ... the recipe Sheila shows on this blog is for 'Special Apricot Cake' ... another fruit cake recipe of mine which was posted as a blog on 5 March 2014 as a request from another GoY member!

So sorry for the confusion with the Plum Cake recipe. I hope you bake one, or both, and enjoy them. :o)

I missed that one Shirley .......

Pam, it is a lovely moist fruit cake from a very old Mary Berry book. I use tinned sliced Peaches in it more than Apricots.

Thank you everyone . . . and in my experience ovens differ . . . so if a recipe says "cook at No.3", I use No.4, and slightly reduce the time! It comes down to trial and error probably.

Melchi, have you tried Xylitol? Its made from Birch sap - expensive but organic! Very low GI.And you don't need very much either.

Thank you Shirley and Sheila.

I bought the tinned Apricots and mixed fruit today.
Thought Shirley Tulip should be on 'The Great British
Bake Off '
She seems to produce much more interesting cakes than
the ' Bake Off' judges.
I never fancy eating the stodgy messes they require,
which take hours to make, and are full of the fats we
struggle to cut down on.

I know Diane, all that messing with the food!

I had seen the apricot cake Shirley, I commented!!
senior moment I guess ?

No, I haven't, Stera, but thanks for the tip. I do sometimes use Sweet Freedom, which is a syrup made from fruit. It's good in pies and crumbles.

I'll look out for it. I also use a lot of concentrated apple juice - the health shop orders a case of half a dozen at a time for me! It won't do for cakes but I use dates for them - weight of sugar in dates, cook gently in a little water to soften, cool, beat and use as sugar to cream with butter. I use it in Christmas cake and you can't tell the difference.

I have a no-added-sugar Christmas cake recipe which uses chopped dates. It is the sweetest cake I have ever tasted! It is also extremely solid, but quite nice in small amounts. OH loves it. I don't ice it. I do, however, always make half a dozen miniature conventional cakes which are iced. 5 go to the church fair, and I keep one for myself. (But I don't eat it all at once!)

Your date method sounds very good. I might give that a try!

Christmas cake is supposed to be solid I reckon. I don't ice mine these days or I end up having to eat all the icing, which is a bit much - so I just put a ring or marzipan round the top like a simnel cake. Goodness it will soon be time to think about making them won't it!

Sure will!

I rather agree about the solidity factor - yum!

I rarely make a traditional Christmas cake these days as OH is the only one who really likes it . . . I buy him a slab of marzipan(!) and make a coffee cake which we all like! Oh, just remembered, I would love an easy recipe for Carrot Cake - are you listening, Shirley Tulip???!!

Hear hear on that one Sheila, would love a good recipe
for carrot cake.

Any left-over marzipan (I always buy ready-made, I'm afraid!) disappears cubic inch by cubic inch throughout the new year - I love it!

I used to bake every day when my kids were still at school/college, so that there'd be something for them to come home to, as I generally found branded cakes too sweet and could adapt recipes to reduce sugar and fat. I used to puree prunes with just a small amount of water and it replaced both fat and sugar. This worked brilliantly in chocolate and other cookies and in fruit cakes, loaf cakes etc. The kids always enjoyed the results, at least. I might have to give this recipe a try, especially as we have 2 Victoria plum trees, which groan with fruit every year. We had the same experience as Pam last year, when we awoke one Sunday to find more than half of one of the trees lying on the lawn. The plums were not then ripe, so we broke the branches into sections with which we festooned the washing line and spread other plums singly on trays all around the garden until they ripened. It must have looked very odd to the neighbours, but we salvaged most of them, and the tree has produced as vigorously as ever this year, tho' the harvest is, for the most part, over now.

Worked very well in Christmas cake, too.

Never tried it with prunes - will have a go.
Tuesdaybear, I wish I'd seen your washing line!!
Melchi, glad I'm not the only one to buy the occasion slab or marzipan for snacking...

;-) ha ha!

Have you ever tried taking the stones out of dates, replacing them with marzipan, and then dipping the dates halfway in melted chocolate? They make very good after-dinner petits fours.

I've tried the marzipan but not the chocolate. Not sure I'm dedicated enough to go to all that trouble- just tend to eat dates by the handful.. and then wonder why i don't lose weight!

:-)))