Are you ready to enjoy a new recipe? This Chocolate Plumcake with Rum Baba and homemade custard follows Grandma Licia’s recipe! I immediately thought of this recipe when I opened the last gifted package from Fabbri 1905, which contained rum babas. On the few occasions I had them with my family, grandma decorated them with custard, so this new recipe idea came to be.
I chose the chocolate plumcake also for its simplicity of preparation. A simple recipe always encourages everyone to try making it, there are no traps or hidden tricks, you just need the ingredients at room temperature, a whisk or an electric mixer, and the plumcake goes straight into the oven.
Below, you will find the recipe and quantities to make the custard just like my grandmother did—dense and creamy, perfect for many preparations. In my case, I chose to use the custard as a decoration for the plumcake and as a filling for the rum babas. I will explain how to prepare the custard and the resting times before using it for this recipe.
Do you know why it’s correct to write rhum, rum, or ron? The difference, or rather the language and thus the pronunciation, varies based on the country of origin and thus the processing of the rum. The Anglo-Saxon countries produce rum, the French-speaking countries produce Rhum, while the Spanish rums become ron. All three terms are correct, it just depends on the language and also the origin of the rum you are using or drinking. Did you know that?
Below you will find more cocoa recipes that you can try. Each link is clickable and will take you directly to the recipe you choose to read here on my blog. Remember that I await you every morning in the Facebook group and fan page of Le Ricette di Bea with the Recipe of the Day!
On the blog, you will also find a collection of sweet recipes with homemade custard, all the desserts I prepared using this ingredient as the main character!
If you want to try one or more products from the Fabbri 1905 family, know that you can use a 20% discount code by typing FABBRIRICETTEDIBEA20 at checkout in the official online store. To make this recipe, we will use rum babas and Fabbri cherries, the iconic product recognizable worldwide.
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Economical
- Rest time: 1 Hour
- Preparation time: 15 Minutes
- Portions: 6People
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
- Energy 516.82 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 69.89 (g) of which sugars 29.64 (g)
- Proteins 12.45 (g)
- Fat 23.53 (g) of which saturated 5.58 (g)of which unsaturated 16.66 (g)
- Fibers 3.48 (g)
- Sodium 50.22 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 166 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients for a Chocolate Plumcake with Rum Baba and Custard using a 10-inch mold
- 1.75 cups all-purpose flour
- 4 tbsps unsweetened cocoa powder
- 0.4 cup potato starch
- 0.5 cup brown sugar
- 0.6 cup milk (at room temperature)
- 0.4 cup vegetable oil
- 3 eggs (at room temperature)
- 1 packet baking powder (preferably non-vanilla)
- 1 cup milk (at room temperature)
- 1 egg (at room temperature)
- 0.25 cup flour
- 0.3 cup sugar
- as needed lemon zest (finely grated)
- 4 rum babas (from Fabbri 1905)
- 2 syrup cherries (from Fabbri 1905)
- as needed red currants
- as needed powdered sugar
Tools to prepare the Chocolate Plumcake and homemade custard
- 1 Saucepan
- 1 Bowl
- 1 Hand Whisk
- 1 Mixer
- 1 Spatula
- 1 Scale
- 1 Oven
- 1 Loaf Pan
- 1 Knife
- 1 Spoon
- 1 Sieve
- 1 Teaspoon
- 1 Piping Bag
On the blog, you will also find other recipes I’ve made with products from Fabbri 1905 like the Chocolate Squares with Candied Ginger or the Pistacchiotti with Spreadable Pistachio Cream fragrant and delicious.
Steps to prepare Grandma’s homemade custard
Pour the sugar into a saucepan and crack an egg, whisk with a hand whisk or electric whisk, if you prefer, to obtain a lump-free cream. Add the flour and continue mixing. Lastly, add the vanilla extract or ampoule or vanilla beans if you wish to use this ingredient.
Place the saucepan on the stove with low heat and gradually add the milk. Add the grated lemon zest and continue stirring with the whisk. It will take about 3 to 5 minutes to thicken the cream making it smooth, shiny, and thick.
Continue stirring the cream with the whisk even after turning off the heat, this will prevent lumps from forming in the seconds following preparation. Cover with plastic wrap or a wet cloth. I always prefer the plastic wrap. Let it cool completely before using it to decorate the chocolate plumcake that we are preparing today.
As anticipated, I prepared the custard the night before using it to ensure it was cold, perfect for being transferred into a piping bag.
The first thing we need to do is preheat the oven to 320°F – 325°F in static mode. Place the rack in the middle of the oven, where we will place the chocolate plumcake we are about to prepare.
Start preparing the plumcake batter by cracking the room temperature eggs into a bowl, a pinch of salt, and whisking them with the electric mixer while adding the brown sugar. Whip the eggs well until they become light and frothy.
Gradually add the room temperature milk, then slowly pour in the vegetable oil. Sprinkle with cocoa powder, in my case unsweetened, and continue mixing with the mixer. Now that all the liquids are well mixed, proceed with the flours. Weigh them and sift them gently directly into the bowl. Turn on the mixer again at the lowest power and blend the batter.
Grease the 25 cm loaf pan (find the purchase link here) with a brush of vegetable oil with a kitchen brush. Line it with a sheet of parchment paper. Pour the cocoa batter into the mold and level the top. Bake it and let it cook for 40 – 45 minutes, always do the skewer test before turning off the oven. Let the plumcake cool in the mold on the kitchen counter for at least an hour before placing it on the serving plate.
After this time, we can proceed with the second part of the recipe, the decoration of the dessert. Take the custard from the fridge and transfer it into a piping bag. Take the rum babas from the jar and drain the Fabbri 1905 cherries from their syrup.
Slice each rum baba almost in half, not cutting all the way through, just enough to keep it slightly open to hold the cream. Cut the cherries in half to place them as the heart of the rum baba. Wash the red currants as well. Arrange these ingredients on the counter.
Cut the top of the chocolate plumcake after transferring it to a plate or cutting board. Decorate the top with homemade custard; I chose a simple zigzag pattern since the rest of the decorative ingredients will go on top.
Place the rum babas, fill the center with cream, and add half a cherry. Distribute the red currants and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Our dessert is ready to be served to our family or guests during the holidays!
I wish you all bon appétit and remind you that I await you every morning in the Facebook group and fan page with the Recipe of the Day!
What to do with the top of the plumcake we cut? I served the remaining custard in small bowls, crumbling the chocolate plumcake I cut on top to enjoy these leftover desserts without waste.
Tips and Storage:
As I always recommend for baking, one of the main factors for success and especially for obtaining a soft and delicious cake is the temperature of the ingredients you will use. Therefore, the eggs and milk must be at room temperature. If you store eggs in the fridge, you should remember to take them out at least two hours before. The same goes for the milk.
Another factor not to be underestimated is the mixing of the batter, starting with the eggs that need to be well whipped with the sugar. I never exaggerate when I say that you need to work the batters for minutes. In the chocolate squares recipe, I wrote 10 minutes and I swear that I whisked those eggs for 10 minutes, and everyone noticed the difference, a cake so soft that the next day it seemed freshly baked.
As for storage, I can give you two tips: the first is to fill the plumcake with cream just before serving, considering that you will store the cream well in the fridge, the rum babas stay in the jar as do the cherries, while the currants can be kept in the fridge from the moment you buy them at the market or from the greengrocer.
The second tip is to store the leftover plumcake, after filling and serving it, in the fridge so that the cream does not suffer from temperature changes and spoil. Remember that there are always eggs in its preparation.
