Duck for Dinner Part II: Dessert

These little plum and almond cakes formed the dessert for the last week’s duck dinner. They were from the same article by Bill Granger in Good Living. Plums are out of season at the moment yet I had hoped to still source some. When I couldn’t I opted for strawberries, which worked amazingly well. The little cakes are very light, the almond meal gives a texture similar to friands yet without the heaviness you sometimes get. The batter is quite runny which can be disconcerting to start with. The great thing about this recipe is it can all be done by hand. Two bowls, a fork and a spoon make life a lot easier than pulling out the mix-master whilst trying to cook the rest of a meal...you might remember from Part I how disorganised I was so this was a Godsend.

Here’s what to do:

1 cup almond meal
1 ½ cups icing sugar, sifted
½ cup plain flour
150 g unsalted butter, melted
6 egg whites, beaten lightly with a fork
2 plums, halved, stone removed, sliced
1/3 cup flaked almonds
½ cup thick yoghurt
½ cup crème fraiche

Preheat oven to 180C. Grease ½ cup capacity muffin tin.
Combine dry ingredients together and add melted butters and beaten egg whites, stir until just combined.
Spoon the mixture into about 9 muffin holes and top with a few plum slices and the flaked almonds.
Bake for 20 minutes until golden and cooked through.
Combine yoghurt and crème fraiche and serve a dollop on warm cakes.