Prune Tea Cakes

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are enjoying that brilliant time of year between Christmas and New Year where time seems to standstill and everyone survives on cheese and leftover ham and mincepies (or is that just me). For my last post of 2022 I wanted to post a recipe from my book Small Batch Bakes. The recipe is one I have been making a lot over the Christmas period and whilst not particularly festive its warming flavour is the perfect warming wintery treat, especially if you’ve run out if mince pies or Christmas cake and you need something else to accompany your evening plate of cheese and crackers.

If you like sticky toffee pudding you will love these little cakes. Made from a similar set of ingredients, these squidgy little cakes are made with prunes which add both a lot of flavour and help keep the cakes moist for days. Whilst the cakes might look a little underwhelming or maybe even boring I can safely say they are wonderful, they’re actually my boyfriends favourite recipe from Small Batch Bakes, they’re simple but with layers of flavour coming from every single ingredient. Brown sugar is supplemented with a little treacle to add depth, rye flour is used in place of white flour which has no inherent flavour of its own, the prunes are soaked in tea to add even more flavour

Buy yourself a copy of Small Batch Bakes here!

Prune Tea Cakes
Makes 6

40g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
115g ready-to-eat prunes, halved
150ml brewed black tea (I like earl grey)
75g light brown sugar
1 tbsp black treacle
1 large egg
75g wholemeal rye flour
25g plain flour
¼ tsp fine sea salt
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
Demerara sugar, for sprinkling

Heat the oven to 180C (160C fan)/350F/gas 4, and lightly grease a six-hole muffin tray.

Put the prunes in a small saucepan, pour in the hot tea and bring to a simmer. Continue simmering on a medium heat, stirring occasionally, until almost all the liquid has been absorbed by the fruit.

Meanwhile, put the butter, sugar and treacle in a bowl and beat for about five minutes, until light and fluffy, then beat in the egg until fully combined. In another bowl, whisk the flours, salt and baking powder, then add to the butter mixture and mix briefly just to combine.

Take the pan of prunes off the heat, add the bicarb and stir just until it starts to foam. Add to the batter and mix briefly until combined.

Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tray, sprinkle liberally with demerara sugar, then bake for about 20 minutes, or until the cakes spring back to a light touch. Remove and leave to cool for five minutes, then carefully turn out and put on a wire rack to cool completely. The cakes will keep in a sealed container for at least four days.

Cinnamon Bun Slices

I am back from my US book tour and am in that place where I am very happy to be home, exhausted from all the travel, but also kind of wishing I was still on the road. Firstly, I cannot tell you how amazing it was to spend the last three weeks flying around the states and doing a whole bunch of events in celebration of my new book Small Batch Bakes. We had a launch party at Ovenly in NYC, events at Williams Sonoma stores in Minneapolis and LA, and book store events in Seattle, SF and LA. The absolute best part was meeting so many of you along the way. I cant tell you how amazing it is to hear your stories of baking, the recipes of mine you my make and how they’ve become regulars in your kitchen. It still blows my mind that my baking reaches all that way and that it gives you the same pleasure it gives me. If you want to see more behind the scenes moments from the tour and, more importantly, read all about the bakeries I visited whilst on the tour make sure you are subscribed to my Substack newsletter. The newsletter has tons of free content and will also be home to lots of exclusive content and recipes just for paid subscribers.

Now that I am back in London it is, of course, pouring down with rain and cold so I was in the mood for a delicious cinnamon bun, something warming to counteract the miserable weather. But after the tour, making something yeasted that involves kneading sounds like far too much work. Instead let’s make the Cinnamon Bun Slices from Small Batch Bakes, a super simple recipe that gives you all the warming toasty goodness of a homemade cinnamon bun but without any of the work. Made with a simple cake, made with melted butter for speed, it is swirled with cinnamon butter which sinks and melts into the cake as it bakes. The cake is finished with a simple vanilla bean glaze that sets as it cools giving the same effect as a glazed doughnut. It is the perfect cake to whip up when a craving hits and perfectly paired with a big mug of coffee. It’s a teensy little cake which makes just 4-6 slices depending how hungry you are which means if your staying inside to avoid the rain nothing has to go to waste. If you like the idea of Small Batch Bakes you can get a copy of the book anywhere books are sold. If you’re in the US the following places also have limited amounts of signed copies, which can be shipped anywhere in the US:

Book Larder - Seattle
Omnivore Books - San Fransisco
Now Serving - LA

The following Williams Sonoma stores have copies available exclusively in store

Williams Sonoma - LA Farmers Market
Williams Sonoma - Edina, Minnesotta

Cinnamon Bun Slices - Small Batch Bakes

Cinnamon Butter
25g unsalted butter, at room temperature
25g light brown sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
Pinch of fine sea salt

Cake Batter
50g unsalted butter, diced, plus extra for greasing
100g caster sugar
1 large egg
65ml double cream
¼ tsp vanilla bean paste
100g plain flour
¾ tsp baking powder
Pinch of fine sea salt

Vanilla Glaze
50g icing sugar, sifted
1 tbsp whole milk
¼ tsp vanilla bean paste 

Preheat the oven to 180º (160ºC Fan) 350ºF, Gas Mark 4.

Lightly grease a 23 x 13cm loaf tin and line with a strip of parchment paper that overhangs the long sides, securing it in place with metal clips.

First, make the cinnamon butter: place all the ingredients for it in a bowl and beat together until a very soft paste forms. Set aside.

To make the cake, melt the diced butter in a small pan over a medium heat, then set aside. Place the sugar, egg, cream and vanilla in a bowl and whisk together until smooth and combined. Add the flour, baking powder and salt and whisk again, just until a smooth batter forms.

Pour in the melted butter and stir gently with the whisk, just until fully combined. Scrape the batter into the prepared tin and spread evenly.

Spoon little dollops of the cinnamon butter over the batter, then use a skewer or chopstick to gently swirl them in. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until the cake springs back to a light touch and is just starting to come away from the sides of the tin. Turn off the oven and set the cake aside for 15 minutes, before carefully transferring to a wire rack to cool.

When the cake is cool, reheat the oven to 180º (160ºC Fan) 350ºF, Gas Mark 4. Combine the glaze ingredients in a bowl and mix together until smooth and pourable. Drizzle the glaze all over the cake, then return it to the oven for a couple of minutes, or until the glaze is set. (this step is optional, the glaze will eventually set at room temp but for that classic doughnut style glaze the heat helps)

Serve thin slices of the cake alongside big mugs of coffee. Once sliced, it is best eaten that day, but the slices can also be frozen for up to a month.