Prune cake is an old-fashioned dessert. If your grandmother was like mine, she made prune cake for special occasions throughout the year. I wanted to recreate my grandmother’s prune cake but I didn’t have her recipe…so I created my own prune cake recipe with a red wine twist.
You may have had Caribbean Rum Cake, which is a supercharged, highly flammable cake served at Christmas. I wanted to make a lower-octane version that would be a great pairing for dessert wine. What better way to make a prune cake for wine lovers than with red wine! Similar to the Caribbean Rum Cake that I’ve blogged about, you simmer the prunes and raisins in booze. But unlike the ultra-rummy Christmas cake, you simmer the fruit for this cake in red wine. The result is juicy flavor without the high alcohol content.
Most prune cakes have some sort of frosting–a buttery glaze, a rich cream cheese frosting or even a decadent chocolate icing. This cake is so moist, flavorful and down-right delicious that it doesn’t need anything else. If you’re a frosting fanatic, then by all means, add your favorite topping. In my opinion, though, the naked cake pairs better with dessert wine. If you enjoy wine and food pairings, then trust me, this cake will be worth opening a good bottle of dessert wine.
Brown Raisins Versus Golden Soltanas
When you think of raisins, you probably think of the red Sun-Maid box full of dark brown dried fruit. If you already have these in your pantry, then by all means use them. But if you’re going to be buying raisins for this recipe, consider using golden Soltanas. These are made from the same Thompson seedless grapes as traditional raisins, but they are typically smaller, sweeter, and juicier than brown raisins. The additional sweetness and juiciness will WOW your taste buds with every bite. Plus since most of the ingredients in this prune cake recipe are brown, the lighter colored Soltanas will stand out.
Prepare the Prunes and Raisins
The first step is to soften the dried fruit and infuse it with flavor. My grandmother probably boiled her prunes in water to soften them, but whatever water can do, wine can do better. (Cue Irving Berlin music.) By adding cinnamon, nutmeg and all spice to wine, you’re essentially infusing the fruit with mulled wine. This step will pay off in spades once the cake has been cooked.
I suggest buying pitted prunes because cutting the pits out of prunes is a sticky, messy business. Using pitted prunes will save you 10 minutes and a lot of cleanup.
Boil the wine and dried fruit for 25-30 minutes on medium heat, until all of the wine has boiled off and the fruit is soft. If the fruit isn’t soft enough, just add a bit more wine. This is not the time to use your good wine, so inexpensive boxed wine is fine.
When the liquid has evaporated, remove from heat and use a potato masher to puree the prunes. Do not use your food processor, as it’s essential that the raisins remain whole. They will explode like soft chocolate chips, give the final pudding-like cake a velvety richness.
Make the Prune Cake
When you mix the melted butter with the eggs, make sure the butter is close to room temperature or it will cook the eggs. If you don’t have dark brown sugar, light brown sugar can be substituted. Dark brown sugar has more molasses taste than light brown sugar, which really complements the other flavors in this cake. Because of this, I urge you to take the time to buy dark brown sugar if you don’t have it in your pantry.
The mixture will be dark brown as you begin to beat it, but after a few minutes, the color will lighten to a beautiful, silky dark tan color. This color reminds me of pulled taffy and brings back delicious memories.
This cake doesn’t have much flour, which makes it thick. This is intentional. Prune cakes are supposed to have a pudding-like consistency. I usually don’t sift flour when making a normal layer cake, but if you take the time to sift together the dry ingredients, your cake will be silky smooth.
Once you have mixed together most of the ingredients using a mixer, add the fruit and stir it in by hand. It’s important that the raisins stay whole. Because a mixer might breakup the raisins, it’s easy enough to stir these in at the end.
This cake is a bit of an ugly duckling. Because it has cake-like edges and a pudding-like center, it doesn’t cut with precision. You could bake it in individual ramekins for an elegant dinner, but trust me… your family and friends won’t care what it looks like. I like to use parchment paper for easier cleanup, but that’s up to you.
Enjoy the Prune Cake Hot or Cold
Typically, when I make a cake, I suffer for a day or two as I wait for the cake’s flavors to meld together. When I’m impatient and cut into it before Day 3, then I always regret it as the cake never tastes as good on Day 1 as it does two days later.
This cake is different. It is delicious the moment it comes out of the oven. You can serve it hot out of the oven, room temperature, or cold from the refrigerator for a more dense and intensely flavored option.
One of the reasons I like this cake best hot is that the raisins have the consistency of melted chocolate chips. In fact, when I first made this for my husband, I had him guess what ingredients were in it. His first guess was chocolate chips. He didn’t realize that raisins could melt in your mouth the same way warm chocolate chips do.
Wine Pairing with Prune Cake
This cake is satisfyingly-sweet without being sugary-sweet. Icing sugar and wine don’t go together, but the sweetness from the prunes and raisins are a beautiful match for dessert wine. You can pair this with a traditional richly sweet dessert wine (such as a Sauterne, a Klein Constantia, a Royal Takaji, or an ice wine), a low-alcohol frizzante, a demi-sec Champagne or a Tawny port. The Tawny port will bring out flavors of caramel while the dessert wine will focus on the dried fruit. Most recently, I paired this with a Klein Constantia from South Africa, and it was a delightful pairing.
Prune Cake
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups prunes pitted
- 1 1/4 cup raisins golden Sultana
- 1 cup red wine
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
- 1 tsp. all spice
Cake
- 1 cup dark brown sugar packed
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup butter melted and cooled
- 1 1/2 cups flour sifted
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 Tbsp. vinegar
- 1 cup whole milk minus 1 Tbsp.
- 1 tsp. real vanilla extract
Instructions
- Add wine, spices and dried fruit to a medium sauce pan. Heat on medium neat for 25-30 minutes until the wine has evaporated and the fruit is soft. Use a potato masher to mash hot fruit until prunes are pureed. (The raisins will stay whole.)
- Sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.
- Add 1 tablespoon of vinegar to a 1 cup measuring cup. Fill the remainder with milk. Let sit at room temperature for about 5 minutes.
- Combine eggs, sugar and butter and beat for 2 minutes until the color of light brown taffy. Add dry ingredients. Add milk mixture and vanilla. Mix until just combined. Stir in fruit mixture.
- Line 9x13 pan with baking paper. Pour batter into the paper. Bake at 300 degrees for 60-70 minutes, until toothpick comes out of center clean.
- Let cool for 10 minutes in the pan before cutting. Serve warm, room temperature or cold.
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