Prune Coffee Cake Food

PLUM STREUSEL COFFEECAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°F. and butter and flour a 9-inch round or square baking pan at least 2 inches deep.
• Make streusel:
• In a food processor pulse together streusel ingredients until combined well and crumbly.
• Make cake batter:
• In a bowl with an electric mixer beat butter with sugar until light and fluffy and add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, and vanilla. Sift in flour with baking powder and salt and beat until just combined.
• Spread cake batter in pan, smoothing top, and arrange plum slices over it in slightly overlapping concentric circles. Sprinkle streusel over plum slices and bake cake in middle of oven 1 hour, or until a tester comes out clean. Coffeecake may be made 1 week ahead: Cool cake completely in pan on a rack and freeze, wrapped well in plastic wrap and foil. Reheat cake, unwrapped but not thawed, in a preheated 350°F. oven until heated through, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool cake slightly on a rack and sift confectioners' sugar over it. Serve coffeecake warm or at room temperature.

OLD FASHIONED PRUNE CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour Bundt or tube pan.
• In a medium bowl, mix together flour, soda, salt, allspice, cinnamon and nutmeg. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, combine oil, eggs and 1 1/2 cup sugar. Beat 2 minutes at medium speed.
• Add flour mixture, alternating with 1 cup buttermilk, starting and ending with dry ingredients. beat well after each addition. Stir in prunes, pecans and 1 1/4 teaspoon vanilla.
• Pour into greased and floured bundt or tube pan and bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center.
• Make large, deep holes in hot cake and pour topping in holes and on top of cake a little at a time, giving it time to soak in.
• For the topping: In saucepan, over medium heat, cook butter, 3/4 cup buttermilk, corn syrup and 1 1/2 cup sugar until sugar and butter melt. Remove from heat and add 2 teaspoons vanilla and stir.

APRICOT PRUNE COFFEE CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350*F.
• Butter a 10" tube or Bundt pan and dust with flour.
• Coarsely chop apricots and prunes. Toss to combine.
• Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
• Beat butter until fluffy.
• Gradually beat in sugar, then eggs, one at a time.
• Add vanilla.
• Blend in flour mixture, alternately with sour cream, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Blend until just smooth. Gently fold in prunes and apricots.
• Mix the first four streusel ingredients with a fork until crumbly. (Will make approximately 1 cup of streusel). Turn 1/3 of batter into prepared pan, spreading evenly.
• Sprinkle with 1/3 of streusel mixture.
• Repeat, layering the remaining batter and streusel twice.
• Bake 55 to 60 minutes, or until cake tester comes out clean.
• Let cool in pan 20 minutes.
• Remove from pan to platter.
• Sift icing sugar over top if desired.
• This cake can be served warm.

SHABBAT COFFEE CAKE WITH RED WINE-SOAKED PRUNES

Steps:

• For the prunes: In a small pot, combine the prunes, granulated sugar, wine and cinnamon stick if using. Bring it to a simmer over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low and cook, stirring occasionally, until the wine reduces by about a quarter and the mixture becomes syrupy, 15 to 20 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the prunes cool to room temperature. Transfer to a container, cover and refrigerate until you're ready to make the cake. (You can do this up to a week ahead of time and keep them chilled until ready to use.)
• For the streusel topping: Combine the flour, dark brown sugar, cinnamon and salt in a mixing bowl. Break up any lumps of sugar with your hands, and then mix to evenly distribute all the ingredients. Add the melted butter and vanilla, and with a fork, gently mix the mixture together until large crumbles form. Use your hands and continue to gently mix until the topping is in crumbled bits ranging in size from a small marble to a lentil. Cover and place the streusel in the refrigerator to chill while you mix the cake.
• For the cake: Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Line a 9-inch springform pan with a circle of parchment paper and then butter the bottom and sides with 1 tablespoon of the softened butter. Set aside.
• In a mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and baking soda. Mix in the salt and set aside.
• In another mixing bowl, cream together the remaining 7 tablespoons of butter with the granulated sugar, vanilla extract and vanilla seeds. I like to do this with a large, stiff spatula, or a wooden spoon, beating the mixture for 2 minutes. Add the eggs and mix to fully combine. Add the sifted dry ingredients to the butter mixture, and gently fold them together until uniform. Last, add the sour cream and gently fold it through the batter until just combined. A few streaks is ok; you don't want to overmix it.
• Remove the prunes from the red wine syrup, straining off the liquid. Save the liquid for later! It's great drizzled on fruit or ice cream. Roughly chop the prunes and set aside.
• Transfer half of the batter to the prepared pan, and smooth it out into an even layer with a spatula. Add the chopped prunes in an even layer and then cover with the remaining batter, smoothing it out into an even layer. Remove the streusel from the fridge and gently break up any large clusters with your hands. Top the cake with the streusel crumbles in an even layer.
• Bake until set and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean with just a few moist crumbs, 50 to 55 minutes.
• Allow the cake to cool in the pan on a heatproof surface for at least 1 hour. Release the outer ring of the springform pan, running a butter knife around the edges if the cake seems to stick in any areas. I like to leave the cake on the bottom round of the pan for easy serving.
• Place the coffee cake on a serving platter or cake stand and using a small, fine strainer, dust the powdered sugar all over the top of the cake. Slice and enjoy. Shabbat Shalom!

SPICED PRUNE-ALMOND 'COFFEE' CAKE

Steps:

• For cake:
• Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F. Generously butter 10-inch (12-cup) tube pan. Sprinkle half of almonds into pan. Tilt to coat bottom and halfway up sides with nuts (do not tap out excess). Combine buttermilk, instant coffee, vanilla and almond extracts in small bowl. Stir until coffee dissolves. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and ground cloves into medium bowl.
• Using electric mixer, cream butter and sugar in large bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Slowly mix in dry ingredients alternately with buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Mix in prunes and orange peel. Pour batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle with remaining almonds. Bake until tester inserted into center of cake comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Cool 30 minutes in pan on rack. Turn cake out onto rack. Quickly turn upright onto platter and cool until just warm.
• For glaze:
• Combine brown sugar, butter and cream in heavy small saucepan. Stir over medium-high heat until butter melts. Boil 2 minutes. Mix in instant coffee granules. Cool slightly. Drizzle glaze over cake.
• Garnish cake with orange slices and cinnamon stick if desired and serve warm or at room temperature.

BABY'S FAVORITE PRUNE CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
• Grease 13x9x2" cake pan, and set aside.
• Cream together margarine and sugar until well blended; add lightly beaten eggs and mix well.
• Add prune baby food and molasses to sugar/egg mix and blend well.
• In a large bowl, sift together dry ingredients except nuts and prunes.
• Add to dry ingredients and stir until moistened.
• Add nuts and prunes and fold into batter.
• Pour batter into prepared pan and bake in 325 degree oven for approximately 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in cake comes out pretty clean.
• Serve plain, as a snacking cake, or for a sweeter touch, sift confectioners sugar over cake; or make a glaze of confectioners sugar and milk to a drizzling consistency and drizzle over cake.
• Tastes good plain though.