This old-fashioned prune cake is not your regular cake. ("Regular", get it? Sorry, couldn't resist!) No, it is actually a great cake. This vintage prune cake recipe was one that a Mennonite bakery in Ohio made as a special order for a customer. They had never made such a cake before, but it looks like it turned out tasty.
Jokes aside, prune cakes actually have a rich history in rural cooking and baking. A simple search on the internet shows various recipes for it. They all seem to look a bit different. The prune cake, though, that is pictured here and made by the Mennonite bakery is among the prettiest. And, yeah, yeah, prunes are known for their fiber, but I don't think your guests - or you - will go running for the restroom after having a slice.
🍇 The Amish and Plums
Prunes are, after all, just dried plums and plums are popular among the Amish and Mennonites.
The Amish do eat plums. Plums are a popular fruit that is often eaten fresh, baked into pies or cobblers, or made into jam or preserves. The Amish often grow their own plums, and they may also purchase them from local farmers' markets. Plums are a good source of vitamins and minerals, and they are a healthy snack or addition to meals. Plum pudding is also popular on Amish menus around Christmas!
📋 An Easy Amish Prune Cake Recipe
As far as a recipe goes, this is pretty easy. You don't need a bunch of bowls, basically one big one. You can use a stand-mixer or just a wooden spoon to stir the batter mixture. You may also need a small saucepan to cook your prunes, or you can probably just buy them cooked and seeded.
Overall, the prep tie for this recipe is minimal. Just make sure you have a prepared pan on hand. I just grease the pan with butter, but you can use spray or shortening.
It calls for three eggs, but if your eggs are really small, feel free to use four. The recipe should probably say 3 large eggs.
Buttermilk is another key component of this recipe. The cinnamon adds a lot of flavor, too but if I were making it again I'd probably be bold and add nutmeg, allspice, and whatever other spices sounded good.
All you have to do is pour into a tube or Bundt pan and bake, but if you don't have that kind of pan you can just pour into a regular cake pan, round or rectangle and it'll be fine, just not as fancy.
Make sure to preheat your oven. Pop it in the preheated oven for an hour and you're good! When the cake is out, dust with powdered sugar or use a cream cheese frosting or a brown sugar frosting. A glaze would probably also be good.
🎂 More Popular Amish Cake Recipes
Cake For Company
🖨️ Full Recipe
Amish Prune Cake
Ingredients
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 3 eggs
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 cups flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 cup prunes, cooked and seeded
- 1 cup black walnuts
- powdered sugar
Instructions
- Mix oil, eggs, and vanilla with dry ingredients.
- Then add buttermilk and prunes.
- Thoroughly blend with mixer.
- Add nuts and spoon stir.
- Bake 1 hour in tube pan at 350. Dust with powdered sugar. Cool, remove from pan and chill.
Nana
I have a very similar prune cake recipe and for those who turn up their nose arose at the very idea I think most would have no idea what is in the cake. Mine is baked in a 9x13 inch pan and its very moist. It also includes a buttermilk cooked frosting that is put on the cake as it comes out of the oven making it a sticky candy like treat.
As a side note--you make me feel very vintage with the remote tale. I remember having no remotes. One had to actually get off the couch to change the channel with a knob selector. I commented when remotes came on the scene that if people were too lazy to change the channel they did not need a TV. We had only two channel TV in my area. NBC and CBS and they signed off the air after the late night news and only a test pattern showed until morning.
Kevin
Ah, the test patterns...or the snow...I forgot about those!
dolores
Hi Kevin I am looking for a receipt for salt rising bread. Do you or any of our readers have one.
kentuckylady717
Prune cake is delicious.....I have been eating them and baking them for years.....don't knock them, try them first.....they really are good.....
Brenda Hilbert
I have a friend that has baked a prune cake every Christmas for about 60 yrs.
And I can remember when we didn't even have a TV.
RandyM
Can someone explain the “cooked prunes” to me?
We made this a few years ago and we can’t remember how we prepared the prunes. The prunes o have are already very moist.
BTW it was one of the best cakes we ever had.
Kevin Williams
This recipe called for commercially cooked prunes, which you can buy many places, see here, for example. I'm not sure how to home-cook them, but you can buy them and use them in this cake.
Kimberly
Can also use baby food prunes!
Kevin Williams
Good idea!
Rachel
I have the same recipe that you have, we do two things different, we use raisins and plump them in hot water and strained before adding to the batter, and we poke the cake before pouring the glaze on it. Makes it super moist. 5 generations have made this recipe in my family.
Kevin Williams
Good idea about poking the cake and adding glaze!