This delicious, moist and rich cake makes a perfect dessert for a Sunday lunch. You can make it with any fruit other than quince - apples or pears, if you like.
The recipe is adapted from Feel Good Food magazine (Autumn 2015).
Ingredients:
300 g unsalted butter
200 g black treacle
200 g golden syrup
550 g self-raising flour
4 tsp ground mixed spice
4 tsp ground cinnamon
4 eggs
100 g candied ginger
For the crumble:
80 g butter
60 g demerara sugar
150 g plain flour
12 ripe plums, destoned and cut into wedges
For the poached quinces:
2 large quinces (about 1 kg)
750 ml water
150 g demerara sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 large cinnamon stick
Method:
Peel the quinces, remove seeds, then cut each quince into 6 wedges. Put into a saucepan, add water, sugar, lemon juice and cinnamon stick.
Bring to boil, reduce the heat and simmer until quince is tender and rosy in colour (this may take from 15 minutes to 1 1/2 hours depending upon the quince variety you are using).
Discard the cinnamon stick. Strain the quince and leave to cool completely, then cut into smaller pieces.
To make the crumble topping, rub together all the ingredients until they look like breadcrumbs and set aside.
To make the cake, gently melt the butter with the treacle and syrup in a pan and set aside to cool until lukewarm.
Add the eggs to the syrup mixture and beat to combine.
In a large bowl, sift the flour with the mixed spice and ground cinnamon, making a well in the centre. Pour the syrup mixture into the flour and mix well.
Finally, stir in the chopped quince and candied ginger.
Immediately pour the mixture into a greased and lined baking tray (35 x 42 cm) and level the surface.
Top with the plums and crumble topping.
Bake in a preheated oven (180 C, fan 160 C) for 45-50 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.
Leave to cool, cut into squares and enjoy with a nice cup of tea or coffee!
Bon Appetit!
