Let Them Eat...
20130520-252912-spiced-prune-cake.jpg

[Photograph: Yvonne Ruperti]

Moist dried plums, warm spice, and crunchy walnuts flavor this cream cheese drizzled cake.

Notes:If drizzling with icing, refrigerate leftovers.

About the Author: Yvonne Ruperti is a food writer, recipe developer, former bakery owner, and author of The Complete Idiot's Guide To Easy Artisan Bread. You can also watch her culinary stylings on the America's Test Kitchen television show. She presently lives in Singapore working on her new baking cookbook, and as a recipe developer for HungryGoWhere Singapore. Check out her blog: shophousecook.com . Follow Yvonne on Twitter.

Every recipe we publish is tested, tasted, and Serious Eats-approved by our staff. Never miss a recipe again by following @SeriousRecipes on Twitter!

About This Recipe

Yield: makes one tube cake
Active time: 30 minutes
Total time: 3 hours
Special equipment: tube cake pan

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups packed pitted prunes (12 ounces), chopped
  • 2/3 cup boiling water
  • 1 2/3 cups (11 2/3 ounces) packed light brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1/2 cup canola oil
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 cups (10 ounces) all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1 cup (4 ounces) walnuts, chopped
  • 1/2 cup (2 ounces) confectioners sugar
  • 1/4 cup cream cheese
  • 1 tablespoon milk

Procedures

  1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Grease 10-inch tube pan and line bottom with parchment paper. Place prunes in medium bowl and pour boiling water over; let sit 15 minutes.

  2. In large bowl, whisk sugar, salt, eggs, oil, sour cream, and vanilla until combined. Stir in prunes and accumulated liquid.

  3. In medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Whisk into wet mixture until almost combined. Stir in nuts until combined.

  4. Pour batter into pan and bake until golden, just set, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes clean, about 45 minutes. Let cool in pan for 30 minutes, then invert onto cooling rack to cool completely.

  5. When cake is cooled, whisk confectioners sugar, cream cheese, and milk, until smooth. Adjust consistency with more milk if necessary to make the consistency loose enough to drizzle (but not too loose). Spoon over cake and serve.