Thanks so much for the update, georgysmom2. I have purchased the ingredients and plan to make today. This info helps tremendously.

The cake is very simple to make. Mixed all the dry ingredients together with whisk. Beat sugar and oil together with hand mixer....didn't even have to pull out the Kitchen-Aid stand one. Greased and floured the 8" pan. Forgot to mention that I baked it at 325 for 40 minutes. Set the timer first for 30 min. and checked with toothpick at 5 min. intervals. 40 minutes was perfect with my oven.

Sounds yummy-----And you are not sharing the recipe???

salonva.....recipe is on Rob's post, Help deciphering a recipe. I don't have it handy right now but if you have trouble deciphering, I'll get back to you. A more comprehensive description is a response to that post by ci_lantro.

Thank you so much for posting the recipe link.

Pioneer Woman has a nice recipe online.

I have bought the ingredients and want to try it soon.

Pioneer Woman's recipe is the same as Rob's with ci_lantro's icing. ci_lantro's cake calls for 3 C. of flour, Rob's and Pioneer Woman's calls for 1 1/2 C. of flour. I made it with the 3 C. flour, halving the recipe for an 8" square pan. I did note that ci_lantro said to cook icing to soft ball stage, Pioneer Woman said do NOT let it reach soft ball stage just let it get to caramel color. I thought the cake did not need the icing but will try icing once again following P.W.'s directions. I do not have a soft ball stage marker on my new thermometer (had one on the old one) and forgot I could test by dropping in cold water, hence I overcooked the icing which is why I know the cake is very good without it. :-))))

The only reason I made this cake was because I love prunes and had never heard of a prune cake until rob's post. As I said in an earlier post, if you get the Sunsweet Amazin prunes, there is no need to cook them, they are very soft, not dry and hard. I just cut them up as is and added to batter. I did include the nuts, too.

I made pioneer womans cake and it is good, but next time I will double the spices since we prefer a strongly spiced cake. My buttermilk icing tastes really good, but after two days of being leftover, the icing is beginning to sugar out.

That business of cooking sugar to the right temp to get it to do what you want it to do and not letting any crystals form is all about pure chemistry. Adding corn syrup adds an element into the syrup that interferes with the molecules locking together and making crystals. Adding an acid does this as well.

You could make this same soda/buttermilk cake batter and omit the prunes, but add raisins and nuts and increase the spices and use a sweet cream cheese on top of it or a dusting of powdered sugar, or nothing at all.

The prunes are good in it, but is really able to be configured differently.

Glad that the OP mentioned this cake. Havn't thought about it in ages and was looking for something different. I try to keep hubs with a little tidbit of something that he enjoys every evening. He has only a small piece each evening and this cake keeps well since it is moist.