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Sticky spiced plum upside-down cake and 16 years of blogging

by Jeanne Horak on June 7, 2020 17 Comments in Baking (sweet), Dessert

Plum upside down cake
Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

At my 30th birthday party – a fabulous 1980s-themed affair to which I wore my 80s goth uniform of a black leather mini, a Sisters of Mercy T-shirt and black lipstick (!) – I made a speech thanking my parents for all they had done for me . One of the quips I remember making ran like this: “When I was fourteen, I was convinced that Mamma knew nothing about life at all.  Today, I am truly amazed at how much she has learnt in 16 years!”. Then, 16 years represented over half my life, but even now it is still about a third (ahem!) – and a lot can happen in 16 years.

It took 16 years for Leonardo da Vinci to finally finish the Mona Lisa.  It was 16 years after it was first announced that the highspeed Channel Tunnel rail link between the Chunnel and London was finally open for business.  It took JRR Tolkein 16 years to write his epic Lord of the Rings trilogy. And it’s taken 16 years from Mark Zuckerberg to go from a spotty Harvard geek to an entrepreneur worth in the region of $54 billion.

It’s also been 16 years this May since I started Cooksister.com (although I am still working on my first billion…!).  Back in a time when MySpace was still a thing and people still occasionally used search engines other than Google, my friend Sally who was by then living in the US suggested that I turn my weekly e-mail newsletter to friends and family about life in London into a blog. “A blog?” I said, “Say what?”  “Have a look at Typepad (remember Typepad??) and Blogger featured blogs”, she said, “that will give you an idea.”  An hour of browsing later, I had stumbled across not one but two blogs written by US lawyers about cooking and restaurants (the now defunct Frost Street and the still active and still hilarious Amateur Gourmet.) Had I not had the good fortune to find two food blogs written by lawyers like me with no formal food credentials, my blog might have turned out to be a very different beast.  But I was hugely inspired by the fact that in the new gatekeeperless online world, passionate cooks and eaters like me with crappy (or in my case, no) digital cameras and a burning desire to write could have a platform where they could connect with the world.

 

Sliced red plums

 

And one Sunday night not long after, in a rented house about 100m from where I live now, I sat down and created Cooksister and put up my first blog post. Yes, the entire blog was mustard yellow.  No, I have no idea why I did that *eyeroll*.  Over the 16 years there have been a couple of redesigns (my first attempt at a banner; and my second mercifully simpler and less mustardy look); 3 different straplines (“A South African nibbles on the world”, “Life’s delicious – take a big bite”; and the current “Food, photos & faraway places”); a move from Typepad to WordPress and my own .com domain; all sorts of blog events (Is My Blog Burning; Sugar High Fridays; Weekend Herb Blogging; the End of Month Egg on Toast Extravaganza; Does My Blog Look Good in This; the Monthly Mingle; Wine Blogging Wednesdays; and Waiter There’s Something in My…); the chance to teach at conferences and workshops (Food Blogger Connect, Plate to Page; the South African Food Blogger Indaba); some absolutely amazing press trips to far-flung places; over 1,500 posts; many more photos; the opportunity to work with so many fun and talented people; and some outstanding lifelong friends made along the way.

A lot has changed in the blogging world since then – I have seen fads come and go and, sadly, bloggers come and go.  But looking back on those 16 years, I can also say for sure that blogging has irreversibly changed my life and has been been an amazing learning curve – not only for practical skills like photography, cooking and networking – but also life skills that have far wider application than just the blogging world.  Here are five that really resonate with me:

 

Plum upside down cake close up

 

1. You do you – let everybody else do them.  Some people will love you, regardless of what you do or how you mess up.  Some people will be annoyed by you and how you choose to live life (or blog), despite your best efforts to please them. It’s hard for a people-pleaser to accept, but this is how the world works.  Expending time and energy looking at what everyone else is doing and trying to follow every trend and jump on every bandwagon to please other people, or twisting yourself in knots to try and keep up with competitors is exhausting.  Write long posts. Write short posts. Tell personal stories. Don’t tell personal stories.  Do restaurant reviews. Don’t do restaurant reviews. Do and be exactly what makes you happy and create the kind of blog/life you want to read/live. Ultimately, you will never make everyone happy – so you may as well make yourself happy.

2. From little things, big things grow. If you asked me if I could write a novel I would recoil in horror at the idea of having to stare daily at an empty page and fill thousands of them with coherent writing,  But if you estimate that my blog posts are at least 1,000 words each (often more!) and I have written in excess of 1,500 posts, then I have over 16 years written roughly one and a half million words.  A manuscript is considered long enough to be a novel at between 50,000-100,000 words. This means that even using the upper limit of a novel’s minimum word-count, I have written the equivalent of 15 novels since I started this blog. Achieving things in your life does not have to take the form of a big, one-off dramatic climax – even just doing a little bit of something most days over years can amount to a massive result.  Run 5 km every day and in less than 10 days you will have run the equivalent of a marathon. You really can eat an elephant in small bites.

 

Slice of plum upside down cake

 

3.  Done is better than perfect. Being naturally inclined to perfectionism is a double-edged sword. Yes, perfection is a noble goal to strive for – but it is also exceedingly hard to achieve and often sets you up for disappointment. Worse, though, is when it holds you back from doing things just because you know they won’t be perfectly done.  Not going for a run because you wanted to do 10km but you are running late and will only have time to do 5km.  Not making that photo album because you haven’t had time to edit EVERY SINGLE photo to perfection, or write descriptive captions for every image. Not publishing that blog post because you are not entirely happy with the opening paragraph and maybe tomorrow you can think of something better. I only have 3 words for you. JUST. DO. IT.

4. Don’t feed the trolls. Some people come into your life and make it infinitely richer, better and happier. Others, while they may not improve your life markedly, fulfil a need and don’t diminish any aspect of your life.  But some people in your life are happiness/mood/self-esteem vampires. They may appear to be helpful or needing your support, but they drain your energy, make you feel bad about yourself and leave you anxious and doubting your own ability and choices. Just as you shouldn’t engage with trolls on social media who seek to drag you down, you shouldn’t tolerate them in your offline life either. Life is hard enough – look after yourself first. You are enough.

5. Say yes. Back in 2011, somebody e-mailed me and asked me if I’d like to go on an all expenses paid trip to Dubai to stay in Atlantis on The Palm in exchange for posting about it on my blog. I was convinced it was a scam to get hold of my passport details – surely nobody was daft enough to send me to Dubai for free to stay in a 5-star hotel??  But after much agonising I said yes… and had one of my best press trips ever, which opened the door to many more over the years. When I was asked to speak at a blogging conference (or hell, even establish one from scratch!); or put together, market and present at a series of writing and photography workshops; or help put together a cookbook; or write a regular column for Food24; or bake muffins in a studio for a major advertising campaign… I just kept saying yes, even when I had no idea if I could deliver the goods. We tend to live as if we will always have another chance and as if every opportunity will come around again. We may not, and they may not. Take that trip. Accept that job offer. Sign up for that course. Life is not a dress rehearsal. Say yes.

 

Slice of plum upside down cake

 

As I have said many times before, I am a cook rather than a baker, but the milestone of sixteen years of blogging seemed to call for a celebratory cake.  After a little enthusiastic overbuying of plums (ahem!), I had a few in the fridge that were slowly beginning to look wrinkly, so making a cake that used up the plums seemed like a great way to kill two culinary birds with one stone. I have a weakness for upside down cakes and tartes tatin – I think part of it is the caramel (how can you resist caramel??), and part of it is the theatre of upending the unassuming-looking finished product onto a plate to reveal its gleaming, caramelly, fruity goodness.  The recipe was a slightly adapted version of this one on the Great British Chefs site – I added extra spices to the batter and used dark brown sugar to give the cake a more robust flavour, which made for a fantastically grown-up taste together with the slightly tart plums. If you can find red-fleshed plums, I would definitely recommend them as they retain their colour after baking. And if you can resist eating it all in one sitting (!), it keeps very well, covered in the fridge for 2 days – just warm a slice for 10-20 seconds in the microwave before serving.

Happy 16th birthday, Cooksister, and may you have many more!

If you like upside-down cakes, you will also love:

  • Spiced rhubarb & strawberry upside-down cake
  • Pear and cranberry upside-down cake
  • Blood orange & Cointreau upside-down cake
  • Clementine & cranberry upside-down cake
  • Charred clementine & rum individual upside-down cakes

 

Pin this recipe for later!

 

 

5 from 6 votes
Plum upside down cake
Print
Sticky spiced plum upside-down cake
Prep Time
30 mins
Cook Time
50 mins
Cooling time
15 mins
Total Time
1 hr 35 mins
 
This decadently spiced, sticky plum upside down cake is a perfect way to celebrate like a grown-up. It's easy to make, impressive to serve and delicious to eat!
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: British
Keyword: cake, dessert, easy, fruit, plums
Author: Jeanne Horak
Ingredients
  • 140 g butter at room temperature
  • 150 g dark brown sugar
  • 10 large red-fleshed plums stoned and sliced
  • 125 g self-raising flour
  • 40 g ground almonds
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 0.5 tsp ground ginger
  • 0.5 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 0.25 tsp salt
  • 85 g caster sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 0.5 tsp vanilla extract
  • 120 ml milk
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4
  2. Place 55g of the butter in a 23cm oven-proof dish or cake tin
  3. Put the pan in the oven and leave until the butter has melted. Remove the pan from the oven, swirl the butter around so that it is distributed evenly, and sprinkle the brown sugar over the butter. Then lay the plums on top of the sugar in a single layer, in concentric circles or any other pretty pattern you like.
  4. To make the batter, start by mixing the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt in a medium-sized bowl. In a large bowl, beat the remaining butter with an electric mixer until it is fluffy, then add the caster sugar and beat until creamy. Add the eggs, beat until light and fluffy, then beat in the vanilla extract.
  5. Add the milk, ground almonds and othet dry ingredients to the butter mixture and mix with a spatula until just blended - do not overmix. Spoon the batter evenly over the plums.
  6. Bake until the top of the batter has risen and is golden, and a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean (about 50-60 minutes, depending on your oven). Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool for 15 minutes. I find if you leave it much longer, the caramel gets too sticky and it becomes difficult to get the cake out of the pan without breaking it.
  7. Run a knife carefully around the side of the pan to loosen the cake. Place a plate upside-down on top of the cake pan, grip them both tightly and carefully flip the pan and plate over. Let it sit for 5 minutes on the plate and then gently lift the pan off. Serve warm with whipped cream or creme fraiche.

 

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  1. Kit says

    June 9, 2020 at 11:00 am

    Happy blogaversary, Jeanne! So fabulous that you’re still blogging and still telling stories, that’s what I always love about your posts, the stories. And some great life lessons. Here’s to another 16 years of Cooksister!

    Reply
    • Jeanne Horak says

      June 10, 2020 at 12:53 pm

      Thanks Kit! You were one of the first S African food bloggers I discovered and I still remember meeting up at Fairview for lunch all those years ago! Really flattering that you still enjoy my stories after all these years as much as I enjoy telling them. Thanks for your support and look forward to providing you with another 16 years of stories and smiles xx

      Reply
  2. Fiona maclean says

    June 9, 2020 at 11:29 am

    Congrats on 16 years …and next time we meet in real life I’ll bring the wine if you make the plum cake!!!

    Reply
    • Jeanne Horak says

      June 10, 2020 at 12:52 pm

      Thanks Fiona! And that sounds like an excellent deal! Plum cake and celebratory wine it shall be 🙂

      Reply
  3. johanna says

    June 9, 2020 at 1:31 pm

    happy blog-birthday darling! i hope we can soon celebrate together!

    Reply
    • Jeanne Horak says

      June 10, 2020 at 12:51 pm

      Aaaah, thank you Schatzi! Glad you were the first person I decided to meet in real life after meeting online… and even more glad that you weren’t an axe murderer ;P Here’s DEFINITELY to a celebration in person when everything calms down again xx

      Reply
  4. Tandy | Lavender and Lime says

    June 9, 2020 at 1:46 pm

    Well done! It’s hard work but so rewarding. Here’s to the next 16!

    Reply
    • Jeanne Horak says

      June 10, 2020 at 12:50 pm

      Thanks doll!! You are one of the pioneers too – and you are right, it’s not always easy, but it’s so rewarding and I cannot imagine not being a blogger!

      Reply
  5. Milou says

    June 9, 2020 at 1:49 pm

    Happy anniversary. You are SUCH an enthralling writer, and I love these reflective personal posts. So happy we met, and here’s to many more schnitzel-adventures in the future! X

    Reply
    • Jeanne Horak says

      June 10, 2020 at 12:49 pm

      Awwww, thank you Milou 🙂 Glad you enjoyed reading – and yes, very very glad we met and hit it off before the minibus had even made it from the airport to the hotel!! We definitely need more shouty-taxi-driver, cellphone-grabbing, wrong-hotel, hunger-games, schintzel-based adventures. Miss you!! x

      Reply
  6. Ilva says

    June 11, 2020 at 8:42 am

    Happy Anniversary! I admire that you are still going strong but I’m not surprised knowing you! I still (but for how long will I?) the first time I stumbled into your blog and participated in one of those things we used to do, I can’t even remember what it was called. And we even ended up doing Plate2Page together, so many happy memories! Keep on going, Jeanne! <3

    Reply
  7. Beth says

    June 12, 2020 at 5:56 pm

    This looks so delicious! Can’t wait to make this!

    Reply
  8. Sandhya Ramakrishnan says

    June 12, 2020 at 7:10 pm

    I would love for someone (or even myself) to bake this for my birthday. This has everything I like and especially the sticky texture. Love the use of dark brown sugar for the extra flavor!

    Reply
  9. Emily Liao says

    June 12, 2020 at 7:19 pm

    Wow, what a delicious way to use plum! The cake turned out perfectly fluffy and just the right amount of sweetness.

    Reply
  10. Sonila says

    June 12, 2020 at 7:54 pm

    Love plums and always look for recipes with them in it!! This sticky plum upside down cake looks so gooood!!I have to try it:). Plus, I love that you have added ginger and nutmeg to the recipe. Those are my favorites.

    Reply
  11. Anita says

    June 12, 2020 at 8:01 pm

    Such a beautiful looking cake. I have some nectarines so I’m going to bake this cake with nectarines instead. 🙂

    Reply
  12. Sarah Trivuncic says

    June 25, 2020 at 6:28 pm

    Such sound advice and I concur with all of it. Typepad, OMG I forgot you were on there and how it took years to convince you to switch to WordPress! And I identify with the mustard blog, my earliest appearances were in a sickening pink colour. I probably have a Wayback Machine style screengrab somewhere.

    Congratulations on 16 years! I’m proud to have known you for eleven of them!

    And I’ve not even mentioned the cake yet… I remember doing a plum upside down cake once and the glossiness of the fruit when you turn it out is so satisfying! I will have to add this to Ted’s repertoire soon 😀

    Reply
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Jeanne | Stylish food & travel


Are you a cook... or a baker?
I fall firmly into

Are you a cook... or a baker? 
I fall firmly into the "cook" category. Baking is too precise, too fiddly - and best left to those with an affinity for it, I always say! But every now and then, only a cake will do. Say, for example... when you celebrate your blog's SIXTEENTH birthday!! 🎉🍾 Yes, last month Cooksister.com turned sweet sixteen, and to celebrate I baked this sticky spiced plum upside down cake. It's a very forgiving recipe and it's worth every single calorie 😁. Click on the link in my profile to see the recipe or save this post so you can find it later: https://www.cooksister.com/2020/06/sticky-spiced-plum-upside-down-cake.html

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappoint
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain

Anybody else got Lockdown Itchy Feet Syndrome...?? If it isn't an official disorder,  it certainly should be!

I have always been a dreamer, a planner, an explorer. Few things excite me more than stepping onto the soil of a country I have not visited before. When I am going through tough personal times, my go-to self-help therapy has always been to arrange a trip - to throw off the metaphorical bow lines and sail away to a new adventure. 
But then... Corona 😞  I can honestly say that I am enjoying working from home; enjoying having the time to run every day; enjoying cooking proper meals; enjoying my own company; enjoying the lack of FOMO. But OH MAN, I miss travel. 
This image was taken 2 years ago in St George's, Grenada - my first visit to the Caribbean but  certainly not my last. This photo has me dreaming of the day I can throw off those bow lines and travel again... How are you dealing with the lack of travel during this time?

Am I the only one feeling faintly sad at all the S
Am I the only one feeling faintly sad at all the Spring bulbs that were planted last year that have been flowering in parks and public gardens with nobody (or fewer people, anyway...) around to admire them? Spare a thought for the gardeners at Holland's famous Keukenhof who planted SEVEN MILLION bulbs last winter in preparation for the garden's annual 2-month opening... but because of Covid-19 Keukenhof did not open at all in 2020. 
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When people tell me they don't like Brussels spro
When  people tell me they don't like Brussels sprouts, my inner voice always cries out the same response: oh honey, you're just doing it wrong! Sesame ginger sprouts are nutty, zingy and delicious - the opposite of the overcooked grey stinky sprouts of your youth, and so easy to make! 🔖 Remember to save this post so you can make the recipe later! The recipe is also on my blog - click the live link in my profile. 
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500 g Brussels sprouts, trimmed, halved and cooked (I roast mine in a hot oven)
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Have you visited New Zealand’s South Island?  Would you like to?  Let me know in the comments!

"Don't just stand there, let's get to it: strike a
"Don't just stand there, let's get to it: strike a pose there's nothing to it!" (Madonna)

Nicole Kidman's is both hands on hips. Meryl Streep's is only left hand on hip. Victoria Beckham's is right hip out, left foot forward (and no smile!). Mine started as a joke many years ago - the earliest evidence I have is from 2005 😎 Do YOU have a signature pose? Tell me in the comments or DM me a pic!

This particular pose was struck on the @chateaulhospitalet estate in the Languedoc, looking out over @gerardbertrandwines vineyards all the way to the Mediterranean. You can read all about my stay there now on the blog - click on the live link in my profile

Even if you are not a French speaker as such, you
Even if you are not a French speaker as such, you may be surprised by the number of French words you already know: rendezvous, entrepreneur, souvenir and ricochet need no introduction. All have been adopted into English wholesale, with their original French meaning and spelling. Perhaps they should apply for settled status post-Brexit... But sometimes a word’s literal translation in French bears no resemblance to what the word has come to mean, such as canape. Although we know the word as meaning a small piece of pastry or bread with a savoury topping served at drinks receptions, the literal translation is a decorative antique sofa. When a clever chef first came up with the idea, the topping was thought to sit on the bread or pastry like a person reclining on a sofa, and the snacks came to be known half-jokingly as canapes. Fact! 
I enjoyed these very elegant canapes (LOVED the lacy little potato lattices!) with Code Rouge sparkling wine before a jazz dinner at Gerard Bertrand’s flagship wine estate Chateau L’Hospitalet in the Languedoc.  The dinner was as  spectacular as the canapes and you can read all about it on my blog now – click the live link in my profile above.

The Christmas decorations may be long gone, but Ol
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1.  The closest station is Liverpool Street which is only a 5 minute walk from the market.
2. It's open daily, with over a hundred stalls, but on Wednesday the focus is on fashion & on Thursday the focus is on antiques & vintage.
3. The busiest day is Sunday - get there early to beat the crowds!
4. Make sure you sample some of the excellent street food on offer - I love the 8-hour pulled pork bagels from Dirty Bagel, topped with cheese melted by blowtorch in front of your eyes; or the traditional raclette at Abondance.
5. Don't forget to check out the amazing Shoreditch street art in the area around the market, either on a tour or self-guided walk.
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Thanks @meetakwolff for the 📸

"You're off to Great Places! Today is your day! Yo
"You're off to Great Places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting so... get on your way!" (Dr Seuss)

How are you starting the new decade? Staring at the mountains ahead, worrying about how hard they will be to climb and whether your shoes will be comfortable and whether it is going to rain along the way? Or striding confidently towards the mountains ahead, looking forward to the fresh air filling your lungs and the sense of purpose as your legs carry you ever higher, and relishing the prospect of an amazing view from the top?

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Wishing you all a very happy new year and amazing views from the top of every personal and professional mountain that you climb!

This particular mountain is in the Austrian Alps where I hiked last summer. Thanks to @thepassionatecook for the 📸!


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Jeanne Horak is a freelance food and travel writer; recipe developer and photographer. South African by birth and Londoner by choice, Jeanne has been writing about food and travel on Cooksister since 2004. She is a popular speaker on food photography and writing has also contributed articles, recipes and photos to a number of online and print publications. Jeanne has also worked with a number of destination marketers to promote their city or region. Please get in touch to work with her Read More…

Latest Recipes

Brussels sprouts with chorizo & hazelnuts
Plum upside down cake
plum flapjack crumble
Sesame ginger Brussels sprouts
Jersey-royals-salmon-salad2 © Jeanne Horak 2019
Beef-Udon-noodle-stir-fry-title
P2PIrelandRhubarb © J Horak-Druiff 2013
Blood-orange-halloumi-salad-title

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© 2004 - 2021 · Jeanne Horak unless otherwise stated - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. You may not reproduce any text, excerpts or images without my prior permission. Site by RTW Labs

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