Healthy Plum Cake with Lemon Cashew Icing

Enjoy dessert guilt free with this healthy plum cake. Nutritious alternatives to traditional baking ingredients combine with fresh seasonal plums to create a moist, naturally sweetened cake the whole family will love.

Stone fruit season is here and the gorgeous colors and flavor of late summer plums were just begging to be used in something delicious like this healthy plum cake.

I love this cake because it’s moist and sweet, but only uses unrefined ingredients. It’s a great way to enjoy dessert (or breakfast) and feel good about what you’re eating.

Why you’ll love this recipe

• Uses healthier alternatives to traditional baking ingredients.
• Any fresh plum variety can be used.
• It only takes 15 minutes of prep, then your oven does the rest of the work.
• Delicious as dessert with whipped cream or ice cream, or as breakfast with a cup of coffee.

How to Make Plum Cake Healthier

There are so many ways to make baked goods healthier, and I’ve used several in this particular cake. It’s easy – we’re just swapping refined ingredients for unrefined alternatives.

We’re using almond flour and whole wheat flour to add fiber, healthy fats, and protein in place of all purpose flour. Then a simple swap of coconut sugar for refined white or brown sugars means you get a small boost of natural minerals, while still enjoying a sweet cake.

Plums and dates are also naturally sweet and enhance the moisture without needing extra sugars. Then a simple icing made with cashew butter lets us enjoy a drizzle without using lots of highly refined confectioners’ sugar.

It’s all about choosing the best natural alternatives, and this cake is even better with them.

Choose your favorite seasonal plums

I have great news, whatever plums you like or happen to have in your kitchen right now will work for this recipe. Any of them will provide the sweetness you want for the cake, so long as they’re ripe.

If you’re out shopping, red or purple skinned plums give the baked cake a gorgeous color. But, if the yellow or other varieties look fresher, then go for those. Choosing the sweetest, ripest ones is the most important part.

Instructions

This cake is so easy to make. In just 15 minutes you can have it in your preheated oven, baking to perfection. Creaming butter and sugar together build the light texture, and make the technique familiar, even if you’re new to some of the healthier ingredients.

But I do have a few tips to make sure it comes out of your oven as beautiful as mine did.

• Use a springform pan lined with parchment and greased with butter. You’ll be able to get your cake out of the pan perfectly every time.
• The batter should be thick enough that the plums sit right on top before baking – but be sure to gently press them into the batter before it goes into the oven.
• Let it cool for 20 minutes before you remove the springform mold. Then let it cool completely before you drizzle with the icing so it doesn’t melt off.

That first glazed bite of tender jammy plums and moist cake will make you fall in love with this healthy plum cake. No judgement if you serve up a thick wedge for breakfast, and then have it again for dessert. I hope you love it, and don’t forget to check out my other healthy baking recipes while you’re here.

• Healthy Strawberry Mini Muffins
• Healthy Persimmon Pie with Oat Pecan Crust
• Buckwheat Banana Bread
• Healthy Blueberry Zucchini Bread
• Healthy Banana Rhubarb Muffins