Plum and Almond cake with Bottlegreen Ginger and Lemongrass Syrup

I was kindly given some plums from a colleague's garden this week.  Being one of my husband's favourite fruits and deciding a few brownie points were in order, I decided to make a cake; just for him! (Well, ok, we'll all eat it too, but it's the though that counts, isn't it?). I love plums and almonds together and having recently been sent a range of Bottle Green cordials to try, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to combine them both with a twist in the topping, so here's what I made:

10 plums (or enough to arrange in the base of your tin)

Syrup:

10ml Bottle Green Ginger and Lemongrass cordial

10ml Water

10ml Muscovado sugar

Cake:

200g Butter

200g Muscovado sugar

4 Eggs

10ml Almond Extract

5ml Nielsen Massey Vanilla Paste

100g Plain Flour

10ml Baking Powder

100g Ground Almonds

1. Preheat your oven to 180C.

2. Line a 20cm/8" spring form tin with baking parchment (or use a cake tin liner, as I've done).

3. Cut your plums in half and remove the stones.

4. Arrange in the bottom of your cake tin, cut side down.

5. In a small saucepan combine the Bottle Green Ginger and Lemongrass cordial, the water and the Muscovado sugar.

6. Bring to the boil and boil for 3-5 minutes until reduced in volume and syrup-like.

7. Pour evenly over the plums then set aside to cool while you make your cake batter.

8. In a large bowl, add the butter, Muscovado sugar, eggs, almond extract, vanilla paste, flour, baking powder and ground almonds.

9. Cream together thoroughly for a few minutes until light in texture.

10. Spoon the cake batter over the plums and level the top.

11. Bake for 50-60 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

12. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes.

13. Invert the cake onto a plate and remove the parchment liner.

14. This cake can be served warm with custard, ice cream, clotted cream or cream. Alternatively allow to cool before serving.

The plums were a gift from a colleague's garden.  I often buy Bottle Green cordials personally, but was sent a box of 3 bottles to try, including Elderflower, Strawberry and the Ginger & Lemongrass cordial that I used in this cake.  I was under no obligation to develop a recipe using the Bottle Green cordials sent to me.