Family Recipe: Plum Cake

[msviolaceous.livejournal.com]

This recipe has to be at least 25 years old, because that's how old I am, and my mom made this since I was a child. She got it from her grandmother, or was it her great-grandmother? It's so old that the key ingredient isn't made anymore, in fact. I use apple-prune baby food as a substitute, though it doesn't seem as plummy as the cake of my childhood. Sometimes the organic baby foods have different flavors from the conventional, so check out both when shopping to find the best substitute or even try new flavors.

2 C self-rising flour
2 C sugar
3 eggs
1 C vegetable oil
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp vanilla
8 oz plum baby food

Cream eggs, sugar and oil. Sift dry ingredients together and incorporate gradually with a mixer. Grease a bundt pan and sprinkle with flour. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes. As soon as the cake is cool enough to handle, invert it onto a serving platter and poke it all over with a fork. Spoon on the glaze (recipe below).

Glaze:
1 C powdered sugar
juice and zest of one lemon
Mix until no longer lumpy.