Wholewheat Pineapple and Plum Dimple Cake

I love my afternoon tea like many others over here and I love it even more when I have something interesting to go with it. So every week I bake something delicious and healthy which will last me for the whole week as well as take care of my husband's hunger pangs when he returns from office. Today, it was going to be a simple pineapple cake with wholewheat flour and just as I was about to take something out of the refrigerator, I chanced upon these beautiful red plums which were fresh and tout and waiting to be grabbed. I immediately pounced upon them and after a quick pitting session, upgraded my recipe to a dimple cake. I have noticed, in few of my recent bakings, I have grown up as a baker and now I confidently experiment with my cakes and cookies and breads too and every time it turns out perfect. As the old saying goes, "Practise makes perfect!"

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup wholewheat flour (I use Ashirwad aata)

3/4 cup fine grain or powdered brown sugar (you can use regular sugar too)

3 eggs (I shall include the eggless version in the notes below as this recipe was originally eggless)

1/2 cup olive oil or any other oil

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

3 slices of canned pineapple chopped or you can use canned pineapple chunks chopped into small pieces (reserve 5 tsp of the sugar syrup)

4 red sweet plums pitted and quartered (my plums were quite oversized and hence I cut them into quarters. You can make them into halves if you have smaller ones. Make sure they are sweet enough, else dip them in the pineapple sugar syrup for 1-2 hours before use)

Icing sugar for dusting (I skipped it)

Direction

Sieve the flour with the baking soda and baking powder and keep aside. In a bowl, beat the sugar and the eggs until smooth and creamy. Now add the oil and beat further. Add the vanilla essence. Now fold in the flour little at a time until the mixture is smooth and without any lumps. The consistency will be a little thick. Now apply a little flour on the pineapple chunks and mix. Add this to the batter and give a gentle stir. Now add the reserved 5 tsp sugar syrup one tsp at a time to make the batter a bit liquidy. However, it will not be as liquid as a regular cake batter. It should be in between the consistency of a thick custard and regular cake batter. 

Pre-heat the oven at 200 degree celsius and grease a round or square baking dish. I used a spring form pan with the base lined with baking sheet and sides lightly greased as it will be easier to take the cake out later without inverting. You can use a regular dish but have to be quick with the inverting and re-inverting the cake. Pour the batter into the prepared dish and carefully arrange the pitted plums on the batter. Gently press into the batter and bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes at 200 degree celsius and then for another 20 minutes at 175 degree celsius or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove from oven and let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack for cooling completely. The cake tastes best when allowed to cool completely. So hold on till it cools down!

                                        

                                        

                                        

Notes for Eggless Version:

To substitute eggs in this recipe, take 1 cup yogurt. Beat the yogurt and sugar together until creamy and then add the baking powder and baking soda. Let it stand for 3-5 minutes. The mixture will become frothy and then continue with the rest of the procedure. You do not need to sieve the flour with the baking powder or soda in this version.