Sugar Plum Cake: And Why I Don’t Want Diamonds
There is something about Christmas that makes a body pull all they hold dear close to their heart. Though it may seem to focus on material things on the onset, most of us quickly see right through the commercial aspects to the underlying motive of just wanting to show someone you love how much they mean to you. Christmas day serves as a reminder of all of the gifts we enjoy each day in our lives, things that are far too grand to ever fit inside a box or stocking.
It’s this affirmation of values and sentiment, of the true meaning and wealth of our lives that serves to get us centered the rest of the year. So today, in light of all of this, I’m thinking about diamonds.
Stay with me now, it’ll all make sense in the end and if it doesn’t, at least you’ll have a new recipe, right?
About twelve years ago, I met the man I wanted to marry. Fortunately for him, he had the good sense to want to marry me, too. He was in his last semester of college, I was right smack dab in the middle of getting my degree, and we lived in two different states. Now when you meet the person you want to marry, living in two different states simply won’t do. So as soon as he got closer to graduation, we made plans to get married so that we could remedy the problem.
The day we went ring shopping, neither one of us were focused on “the ring”, but what it symbolized for us. I knew roughly what shape that I wanted but that was about it. We walked into the store and glanced around, looking over all of the cases with stomachs in knots. Some folks thought we were marrying too soon but we were confident that this was what we wanted to do. I was concerned over finances, having no desire to go immediately into debt and also wanting to make sure folks didn’t think I had looked around merely to pluck up the first promising graduate I could find (it is humorous now, me worrying over people thinking I was a gold digger, I know). After a few minutes, I led Ricky over to the case of synthetic diamond rings (czs) and there I saw the most beautiful set of rings I’d ever laid eyes upon.
The entire set cost around $200, which is a drop in the bucket compared to what most sets cost nowadays but even now, I consider that expensive. They were both placed on my finger August 8, 1998 and I have never been so proud to wear a piece of jewelry. The original plan was to replace the czs with diamonds later on but over the years, that ring began to mean even more to me. It became a symbol in my mind of my own value system. Sentiment and meaning – where the heart was in the giving of the ring itself- far outweighed what a jeweler would call the stones.
When Brady was a baby, he used to toy around with them, sliding them around on my fingers and oohing and ahhing at how they sparkled. One day as he got older he asked me what I was going to do with them “when I grew up” and I told him that if he wanted, he could have them one day. His face beamed and sparkled every bit as much as my rings did at hearing that.
When Katy was born, I had a bad habit of accidentally scratching her with the rings and so I took them off for a bit, only to dazzle her when she was out of diapers by beginning to wear them again. To her they were magical jewels that just appeared on her mother’s hand one day and she, too, took to turning them around, watching them sparkle with delight just as her brother had done at the same age.
I’ve worn them for years, sometimes taking them off and placing them in my jewelry box for days or even weeks at a time as life calls me away to extensive cooking or housework, but I always come back to them and pull them out, thinking of how beautiful my rings are and how lucky I am to have just this one particular set – the prettiest I’ve ever seen.
One day my kids will have these rings, the ones they’ve spent their childhood seeing on my left hand. They’ll have grown up knowing what a treasure they are and the meaning behind them and I can’t imagine them wishing “real” diamonds into the settings any more than I would.
At this point, any other stone would cheapen them. I wouldn’t trade my rings for all of the diamonds in the world and I hope my kids will grow up understanding the weight and meaning behind that. Of course, my writing this is not to lessen the meaning of diamonds at all, but to just speak to the sentiment adding value to any piece of jewelry. Sometimes the most expensive items in all of the world ring empty and hollow but the least expensive things turn out to be the greatest of treasures. It is a wealthy person who knows what to truly value.
And now for my recipe (that means y’all need to wake up if I bored you too much with my tangent).
This is a cherished one of my mothers that her mother used to make her as a child, especially at Christmas time. I’ve heard her talk about it for years and it’s been decades since she had one so I decided to snatch the recipe and surprise her with it last week. Merry Christmas, Mama!
You’ll need: All Purpose flour, chopped nuts (I used walnuts because they are cheaper than pecans), eggs, cinnamon, sugar, baking soda, allspice, vanilla, buttermilk, oil, and dried plums.
Pretend you see salt in this photo, too. there always has to be a shy ingredient when the camera is out!
and yes, you heard me right. Dried plums. We’re not going to say “prunes” because folks don’t like prunes nowadays but they like dried plums.
This cake is DELICIOUS so just do whatever it takes to get ya through the day…
Chop those puppies up.
If you get any with the pits in them, remove them and discard (that’s fancy talk for “throw away”)
I buy the ones that area already pitted.
They need to be about the size of raisins (or dried grapes)
~giggle~
Of course, you can use a chopper or food processor to chop these up but I’d just as soon save the trouble and grab a knife. Besides, makes me feel all pioneerish and rustic, like cooks in the old days who didn’t have food processors and choppers and all these gidgets and gadgets.
They just used a good old knife.
Place them in your mixing bowl and add your flour.
Toss that up a bit. This will help the dried plums to keep from singing all the way down into the cake when it is baking.
(~giggles~Lisa Botts pointed out my type-o here. It is supposed to say “sinking” in that previous sentence but Lisa and I got such a good laugh out of the Type-O that I hate to change it! hehehe Thanks, Lisa!)
Now don’t you be thinking “prunes” in your head…say it with me in unison now: Dried Plums.
Add oil
and milk
and eggs
and nuts (which you can leave out if your life is nutty enough)
and vanilla
and spices, baking soda,
and salt…
and sugar
Okay so I could have just said “add all other ingredients” but then we wouldn’t have gotten to see all of those purty pictures, right?
I knew you’d see it my way 
Go grab some child labor and have them flip the switch on your mixer for ya.
My child laborers are just a sitting around at all times in my house and every time they hear me in the kitchen call out “OOH! Can I help?”
Of course, this only works for the fun part. They poof pretty quickly when it comes time to clean up.
~shrugs~
Can’t says I blame ‘em.
While your munchkin is mixing that up really well, grease your cake pan. I’m using a bundt but Mama says her mother used to use a 9×13 so go with whatever is easiest for you. If you’re going to use a 9×13 though, just spray it with a little cooking spray and you’ll be fine.
Us Bundt users need to smear shortening in our pan …
and then sprinkle some flour in…
Pat that around a bit to coat it and then discard the excess (I used that fancy word again…)
Here is our batter all mixed up.
Go ahead, you know you wanna lick the beater!
Pour that in your pan…
and bake for about an hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
When that is getting ready to come out of the oven or shortly after, you need to assemble your sauce ingredients.
Vanilla, buttermilk, sugar, margarine, and baking soda.
~~~~~~~~~~`
You can use real butter here, too, if’n ya got a hankerin’ to.
I don’t have those kind of hankerin’s often myself. Why?
~chorus calls out in unison~
“Because you’re too cheap!”
That’s right!
~smiles proudly~
Add all of that together in a pot.
Bring it to a boil, stirring constantly. It will foam up a little but that’s okay.
Keep stirring and cooking until it thickens a bit, about two minutes.
Poke holes all over the top of your hot cake.
and pour sauce over.
Let sit for about ten minutes or so in the pan until it absorbs all of the sauce.
Then turn it out.
Serve warm or cold, excellent with homemade whipped cream!
Now I see why Mama has missed this cake so much. It was WONDERFUL!
Old Fashioned Sugar Plum Cake
Ingredients
-
- 2 Cups All Purpose Flour
- 1 ½ C Sugar
- 3 Eggs
- 1 Cup Vegetable Oil
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp allspice
- 2 tsp cinnamon*
- 1 Cup buttermilk
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 1 Cup dried plums, chopped
- 1 ½ Cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts)
-
Sauce
-
- 1 stick margarine (or butter)
- 1 1/2 C sugar
- ½ tsp soda
- 2 tsp vanilla
- ½ C Buttermilk
Instructions
- Grease and flour bundt or 9x13 cake pan. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all cake ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Beat with electric mixer until well combined. Pour into prepared cake pan and bake for one hour.
- Just before cake is done, place all sauce ingredients into a saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, and continue boiling gently until sauce is thickened, about two minutes. Remove done cake from oven and poke holes all over top with a fork. Pour hot sauce over hot cake. Allow to sit in pan until sauce is absorbed.
*This recipe calls for 1 tsp cinnamon and 1 tsp nutmeg but I really, really, really don't like Nutmeg and so willingly and continually discriminate against it in all of my recipes. Feel free to give Nutmeg a chance :).
Serve to thrilled guests, remember to call it "Sugar Plum Cake" to the younger crowd, but you can tell the older folks its just good old fashioned "Prune Cake"!
Google Recipe View Microformatting by ZipList Recipe Plugin
Ingredients
- 2 Cups All Purpose Flour
- 1 ½ C Sugar
- 3 Eggs
- 1 Cup Vegetable Oil
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp allspice
- 2 tsp cinnamon*
- 1 Cup buttermilk
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 1 Cup dried plums, chopped
- 1 ½ Cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts)
- 1 stick margarine (or butter)
- 1 1/2 C sugar
- ½ tsp soda
- 2 tsp vanilla
- ½ C Buttermilk
Instructions
- Grease and flour bundt or 9x13 cake pan. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all cake ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Beat with electric mixer until well combined. Pour into prepared cake pan and bake for one hour.
- Just before cake is done, place all sauce ingredients into a saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, and continue boiling gently until sauce is thickened, about two minutes. Remove done cake from oven and poke holes all over top with a fork. Pour hot sauce over hot cake. Allow to sit in pan until sauce is absorbed.
Print This Recipe
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And speaking of things worth more than diamonds…
Check out Patrick here!
He is the son of Dora, a member of our Southern Plate Facebook Family. She posted this on the SP page, what a treat!
Dora made this reindeer shirt from the tutorial found here.
I don’t know who is luckier, Patrick for having such a fabulous mom or Dora for having such a handsome son!
The difference between an ordinary life and an extraordinary life
is finding extraordinary things in an ordinary life.
~Submitted by Judy. Submit your quote here.
Posted by Christy Jordan
on Dec 15 2009. Filed under Cake, Holidays.
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Christy, I think your rings are beautiful! I have never understood the meaning behind the whole ” rings must cost 2 months salary and such” as I believe they should be given with the heart and not the wallet. My rings were about $300 and are my most cherished piece of jewelry and the only jewelry I actually wear on a daily basis, my husband picked them out on his own and they are absolutely what I would have chosen which makes it all the more special!
Thanks for another great read!
Jackie
BTW–the cake looks divine and are you sure you are not from NFLD as many of your sayings are the same as ours–too funny!
Yummy!! I just love all the cute sayin’s and pictures!!!
Thank you for sharing that story about your wedding ring. I’ve always been really simple when it comes to jewelry – aside from my wedding ring, I don’t wear it! I can’t even tell the difference between CZ and “real” diamonds… my wedding ring is tanzanite, I believe – I wanted something prettier than diamonds.
My son hates loud noises – he hates the vacuum the most, he’ll run into the bedroom and close the door. He’ll run away when I turn on the mixer… but only for a moment. Before I’m even halfway done with it, he’ll be right back, asking to lick the batter! It’s been a fun way of getting him over his dislike of loud noises.
I love Patrick’s reindeer sweater!
After reading your wonderful perspective about cherishing things for the sentiment behind them, I applaud your parents for raising a child to have such awesome family values. I believe that there are many of us SP folks that cherish the things like a child’s homemade ornament or a hand-written note over expensive things. I am sure some people may not even have an engagement ring, or the promise ring given from a soft drink in the form of a “pull-tab”. I’ll bet their love ran just a deep as folks doing the “2-month salary” amount. I always treasure anything my honey pie hubby gives me and things from my children too. Thanks for saying it so eloquently.
The Sugar Plum cake looks like a prize winning recipe. I hope to try it soon.
First let me tell you I tried to leave a comment using Firefox and I couldn’t but it seems to be letting me on IE.
I too have a cz engagement ring and a simple gold band that means more to me than any diamond would.
I love the “dried plum” recipe. Looks yummy and I am trying it tomorrow. First I have to go buy the plums since all I have is prunes! LOL
I love where you mix your dried plums with flour to keep them from “singing” all the way to the bottom of the cake. I just hate singing fruit! Not being critical at all – it just struck me as funny and I needed a good laugh!
Christy….what a beautiful story. Thank you for sharing. I agree with everything you said. True and lasting love cannot be measured by the size or cost of your wedding rings. One of the happiest couples that I know have only simple gold bands. They are a couple that I admire for their relationship and their dedication to each other. Sometimes I think that in this materialistic world that I am alone in my feelings. Thanks for reminding me that I am not!
I completely agree with you about the rings, Christy. My rings aren’t diamonds either – my engagement ring is my birthstone and my wedding band is cz and they cost less than yours did – but I would never EVER trade them for anything in the world, not even real diamonds, which my husband once made the mistake of suggesting.
And babies must love sparkly things, b/c my two fiddle with my rings all the time when I hold them in my lap!
Can’t wait to try this recipe out. Sounds yummy.
I think your rings are beautiful. They don’t need to be real diamonds. It it the love that makes a marriage not the rings.
Well, I like CZs for a different reason than you do. I just plain like big stones, I’m a large person and I feel small stones would look weird on me. Shortly after I was divorced, about 25 years ago I was staying at my sister’s house for a few days. I have to qualify here, this sister is 8 years younger than me, but an “old maid”, in every sense of the word, never married, never dated, has the typical “old maid” attitude. She was saying she sure would like to get a pair of 1 caret total weight diamond stud earrings, so that people would think she had scrimped and saved for them and I said well I don’t want anything less than 4 caret total weight, and I don’t care if people think a “sugar daddy” gave them to me. She was absolutely horrified, which I knew she would be. A few years later I got a pair of 4 caret CZs. When my oldest grandaughter graduated from high school this last spring I got her a pair of 3 caret CZ earrings. I have a girlfriend that kept bragging about the diamond stud earrings that she had finally bought for herself and the first time I saw her after she moved to the town I live in I didn’t notice any earrings, until she reached up and moved on from one of her holes to another. They weren’t much bigger than a piece of lint. I want people to be able to see my stones, anyway the few that I have. I have my earrings and a ring that is a real stone, which is a 2 caret emerald cut amytrine, I call that my big honker because it covers the area between two knuckles on my ring finger. I do have a three stone CZ band style ring, and a couple other pairs of earrings that have CZs in them. Well theres my story for this round.
Hi Christy,
Those are nice rings, for what they mean, regardless of monetary value. Me and my husband got wedding bands. He gave me an engagement ring with a very small solitaire diamond, but as a symbol of our covenant we both wear the bands. They have no diamonds, no stones of any kinds. They are just gold wedding bands, but inside of mine there’s his name and the date we were married and inside of his there’s my name and the date we were married. Those were the rings the priest blessed in the church. Time has passed and they are not as smooth and shiny as they once were, bu I would not change them for any diamonds or jewels of any kind.
Gabi
I too had some problems with posting a comment last night as the “boxes ” were not present to fill out. I opened and closed the page several times between the email and the tutorial and it fixed itself like magic! The sugar plum cake looks wonderful. I wish I could have a slice warm from the oven with a cup of orange spice tea (my Fav) and sit and chat with all of you. You all feel like friends.
Hey Christy we have something in common! I am from Texas and my husband is from Arkansas. As soon as he graduated with his college degree he proposed to me and three months later we were married! I know what you are talking about when living in seperate states just won’t do. My ring story is different from yours though but if I knew what I did now it probably would have been a lot like it though. I created my ring on the internet and when we walked into a jewlry store there it was the exact one I had created it was a sign from God letting us both know that this was the right thing to do. So we have been married for nearly seven years and have three children! LOL!!!
You know, James and I have been togeather for 9 years, engaged for 8, and I still haven’t picked an engagement ring out. I’ve always used my great grandmother’s ring..it has more sentimental value, it’s free..and obviously, since we’re still not married, I’m not the traditional sort of gal, so while I think solitaire engagement rings are beautiful, they are so not for me. I don’t care if it’s made of plastic or platinum, it’s the meaning behind it that matters.
Off to make fudge!!
Smooches!
I love your stories as much as the recipes. You remind me of Peg Bracken, but of course she hated to cook, even wrote a book about it. The famous, “I Hate to Cook” book.
I am a sentimental fool. I save every card my DH gives me or anyone for that matter. We just found a photo book that has been lost for a long time, (in the bottom of the closet, under music books that were going to turn me into a great blues guitar player, don’t ask?) and we discovered a lot of cards his Mom has sent us over the last few years before she died. It was like having her right there with us. I laughed at one especially, where she had included money with it and told us not to tell the other seven kids. Yeah right! LOL…she told everyone that.
Thanks for the recipe. I am going to make that plum cake even if it forces me to go out into the rain and get some plain flour. I usually run away from any recipe that has more than seven ingredients or calls for plain flour. I have a Minute Rice, Instant mashed potatoes, Bisquick mentality.
Tried to enter your contest yesterday but the comment section wasn’t working.
The cake looks lovely, and I will make it.
When it comes to my jewelry, I love color! PURPLE to be exact.
If it is silver and purple, its good.
Thank you for sharing such a sweet story with us! The true “value” is the precious memory or significance, not the monetary cost.
I’m glad you didn’t change the typo. I love the vision of dried plums singing in the flour!! Sweet songs about becoming sugar plums I’m sure!!
Bountiful Blessings!
I am a little dried plum so good and sweet
Call me a dried up prune and you’ll be beat.LOL
I love that cake,whatever yu want to call it. AND I think your rings
are beautiful. I have a costume jewelry braclet that my husband gave
me 40 years ago and it is still as pretty and shiny as the day he
gave it to me.I cherish it.
Hey Christy,
I love your rings! Mine is similar to yours except it has seven small diamonds in the shape of a flower. My husband said the sweetest thing to me when he proposed he said “There are seven diamonds in the middle, and seven is the number of completion and you complete me.” *teary eyed* I don’t think God could have given me anybody better! We have been married 3 years now and I have had so much fun!
I couldn’t post using Foxfire, but tried again with Explorer and now I can. Someone posted this suggestion earlier, so I tried it and it worked for me too.
This looks great. I am enjoying the variety of the Christmas posts and the sweet photos of kids enjoying the holiday. Thank you for taking the time to share! Merry Christmas!
Sounds yummy! I love dried plums/prunes. I buy a big bag at Costco and have to catch myself that I don’t eat too many at once or you know where I will be spending my day. They are so good and moist, just can’t stop eating them.
Thanks for all of the Christmas recipes. Loving them.
I prefer prunes…my granny used to make a dried plum cake, but we figured it had to be prunes because that was always the only empty wrappers we could ever find…
That cake sounds wonderful – prunes OR plums and you can bet I’m going to try it. Just want to pass along a hint from my daughter-in-law who makes wedding cakes and such. She keeps a mixture of equal amounts of flour, vegetable oil and Crisco in her frig and uses it to grease the cake pans. It works really well – I have a container of it in my frig too!! Give it a try – especially on a bundt pan – I think you’ll like it!! Now why didn’t I think to use it in my Scandinavian almond cake pan??? I’ll bet it would have come out in one nice piece instead of chunks and crumbs………..I was just following what the recipe said……….
Wow, great story. What you have is much more than diamonds. I wouldn’t replace anything. You are such a special person.
The comment section seems to be working but then it worked for me yesterday but didn’t let me add my name or email and it wasn’t automatically put in like it is now.
Christy, I haven’t read all the blogs…but…
I made your Sugar Plum Cake today! I followed the recipe to the tee…did you know you left out the SUGAR in the sauce! I tried a crumb stuck to the bottom of my bundt pan, and said, Huummm, that’s sour…I’m not gonna throw it away…I’m taking it to my in-laws! They’ll eat it anyway (my sister-in-law and her family (5)are home in TN with her Mom until after Christmas…she’s a dietician). They’ll recognize the blunder quickly! Oh well…won’t they have fun on me!
Sherian,
Dear, dear, dear, dear Sherian! I just love you to death, thank you for letting me know about my error and for being SO SWEET about it and such a good sport. You know, most folks would have complained but you just laugh along with life just like my family does.
Bless your heart, I am so terribly sorry. I’ve gone back and put it in. It takes me a few hours to get each post up and by the time I get it up, my eyes just don’t hardly wanna read over it anymore. You ever read the same thing over and over and over and then you just kinda can’t hardly see it even though you want to?
Please do me a favor and email me your address to christy@southernplate.com so that I can send you a proper thank you!
Gratefully,
Christy
I just recently discovered a similar recipe in an old church cookbook called Apple Dapple Cake. It uses all the same ingredients, except 3 cups grated apple instead of the “dried plums”. My hubby says it’s divine! I say if it comes from a church cookbook, it must be! I have two cookbooks I can’t live without – this old church cookbook my MIL gave me when I got married to her handsome son and my Southern Living Ultimate Cookbook, which I would have gladly paid twice as much for – it’s that valuable to me!
Jenny, I am an apple dapple cake DEVOTEEE!! it is the best, is it not? I agree with you, anything from a church cookbook is good!
I have my Mama Reed’s recipe for apple dapple cake here!
http://www.southernplate.com/2008/09/apple-week-begins-todays-recipe-apple.html
Christy,
I love you story about the rings! You got married on the day that my husband proposed to me! What a great day! The cake looks wonderful – hope to try it soon!
Bleesings!
Michele
Sugar plum cake! Sounds and looks delicious. I can’t wait to try it out.
Christy, I would like to know how to copy just the recipes from your website I don’t seem to be able to do it.
I would also after handwriting down the recipe wonder how difficult it is to get the Sugar Plum Cake to come out of the bundt pan after it has cooled and keeping its shape.
Hubby thinks this sounds like one his grandmother use to make and I won’t say how many years ago that was.
Love you and your site.
Hi again, Christy!
I’m waiting for this fabulous cake to absorb all that fabulous sauce right now!
When I commented that I think this just may be the best cake ever my son, all in one sentence, asked me, “Where’d you get that recipe? Lemme guess – Christy, right?!”. LOL. As you can tell, you’ve become a part of our family around the dinner table!
Merry Christmas … Or should I say “Christy-mas” … to you & your family!
Love,
The Davis’ <3
CHRISTY, I MADE THIS BACK DURING THE HOLIDAYS (I SUBTRACTED A FEW DRIED PLUMS AND ADDED SOME CHOC.CHIP PIECES ~WIGGLE EYEBROWS~)
I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED IT!! SO DID THE MR. OF THE FAMILY.
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!
I too, wouldn’t exchange mine for diamonds. Great story, we selected the CZ’s with the same intention of exchanging them later on. Now I wonder why we worried about it. I love my rings.
BEAUTIFUL STORY CHRISTY.
I AM STILL WEARING THE SAME WEDDING RINGS THAT I GOT WHEN MY HUSBAND AND I GOT MARRIED ALMOST 19 YEARS AGO. WE HAD SAID THAT FOR OUR 20TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY THAT WE WERE GOING TO RENEW OUR VOWS. STILL UP IN THE AIR ABOUT THAT. MY HUSBAND IS NOW DISABLED NOT BY FAULT OF HIS OWN HURT ON THE JOB ANYWAY THE RENEWAL IS NOT LOOKING TO GOOD. ANYWAY DUE TO YOUR RECIPES AND MY FAMILY RECIPES WE ARE ABLE TO LIVE THROUGH THIS. KEEP THE RECIPES COMING CHRISTY.
I made this cake at Christmas and intend to make it again and again! It is DELICIOUS! Thanks, Christy!
I saw this recipe a few months ago and decided to resist making it until the holiday season because of the name. My husband and I kicked off the Christmas season last night by finally baking it! The only change I made was to leave out the nuts and to stab the cake with the handle of a wooden spoon, almost all the way down to the bottom and then made sure to pour the sauce down the holes. I thought maybe my cake wouldn’t turn out of the pan well between the design of the pan (this one: http://www.amazon.com/Nordic-Ware-Cast-Bavaria-Bundt/dp/B00005NCWY/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top), how many holes I’d put in it, and the added liquid, but it came out perfectly. Even more importantly, the cake tastes wonderful and is pretty evenly saturated with the sauce. We don’t normally like dried fruit in our desserts/bread but the “dried plums” are great. This Christmas is our first as a married couple and we’re spending it with his parents several hundred miles away, and I’m considering making this cake for Christmas dessert because it’s so good and festive. Now that’s special! Thanks, Christy!
I’m gonna try this with the plums but I also have a bunch of dried figs that I might make a Sugar Figs cake with, haven’t known what to do with them but now I have a plan LOL Thanks!!!
Can this is made in little loaf pans? Or those mini Bunt pans? Thinking these would be great to give to the neighbors!
Yummy!
Goodness gracious, this looks and sounds good! I love prunes…sorry, dried plums. My Grandmother used to make a dessert called “Prune Whip” It was divine, and I am still trying to duplicate it. In the meantime, I’m gonna make this cake, y’all!
Ohhh I’m deffo going to make this, this week & I already have the ‘dried plums’ in the house
That is such a beautiful story about your rings.
What an absolutely beautiful sentiment to share with us Christy. Before I finished your story, you had me a bit teary-eyed knowing the love that you have for your husband and family. How very lucky they must feel to have you in their lives!
Sharing these thoughts is almost as if you baked the perfect present and gave it to everyone here as their special Christmas gift from you!!!! Thank you
I agree with you about the nutmeg, really don’t like it at all.
Ahh, but Ricky is the smartest man….he married the jewel. YOU!
Oh this plum cake looks wonderful, Christy. My grandmother made a Suet Pudding, that I still love. I did change the name after a few comments about
“suet” and call it Grandma’s Christmas Pudding now!
Christy, I have been meaning to srop you a note, So busy, you understand, I made the dishpan cookies Tuesday and they are the BIGGEST hit!! I’d never heard of them , but I think they are nbetter than oatmeal, my fav of all time, I added walnuts for an extra yum
You are so very precious .I have been missing home and you made it hurt less thank you I will most certainly try this recipe. I agree about the cost of the ring its the heart that counts not the coast most awesome love this blog .
Even before I read this story (just now) about your rings, I want you to know that I have ALWAYS admired them. I love rings and I notice beautiful ones. Yours are so beautiful, and now, even more so since I have heard the story.
Your ring story is similar to mine. My set cost around $200.00 also and still are beautiful–even after 43 years of marriage.
I had to take them off whenever I worked because they scratched my patients (I was an RN.) Now, I can’t wear them any longer because of rheumatoid arthritis but I get them out of the jewelry box once in a while and look at them. You are right, Christy. They have a lot of sentiment and memories attached to them. Thanks for your story and recipes.