Rustic Plum Cake

My CSA gave us a bunch of those prune plums and my Cook's illustrated cookbook has a yummy sounding recipe that I can now try!


As usual, I love their little notes at the beginning of the recipe. For this one it says

To get to an easy-to-make plum cake recipe with a hefty plum presence, we settled on a batter in which ground almonds replaced some of the flour, for a moist, rich cake that was strong enough to hold the plums aloft. Although Italian plums are well suited to baking, their season is too short to make them a practical choice. Instead, for our plum cake recipe, we poached supermarket plums in a few tablespoons of jam and brandy to brighten their flavor and keep them moist.

Oh boy - sounds great! It also gives us this information

This recipe works best with Italian plums, which are also called prune plums. If substituting regular red or black plums, use an equal weight of plums, cut them into eighths, and stir them a few times while cooking. Arrange slices, slightly overlapped, in two rings over surface of cake. Do not use canned Italian plums. Blanched whole almonds can be used but must be processed 30 seconds longer until finely ground. The brandy can be omitted, but then you will need to melt the jam with 1 tablespoon water before adding the plums. Don’t add the leftover plum cooking liquid to the cake before baking; reserve it and serve with the finished cake or over ice cream. The cake can be served with lightly sweetened whipped cream.

Recipe can be found in the cookbook or via this link here.

So you start with some ripe prune plums, 2 tablespoons of jam (I used homemade jostaberry & bumped it up to 3 tablespoons) and 3 tablespoons of brandy.


The jam & brandy go into a skillet on medium heat until it thickens a bit.


Then you add the plums (cut in half, pitted &  face down) in skillet. Shaking pan gently so plums don't stick and cook about 5 minutes. Then let cool as you make the cake.



Get that 9 inch springform pan ready and oven pre-heated to 350.


Process the sugar & almonds in a food processor until the nuts are finely ground (about 1 minute). Add flour, baking powder, and salt - pulsing to combine (5 pulses).


Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse sand, about 20 pulses.


Pour batter into prepared pan. Smooth top with rubber spatula. Stir plums to coat with syrup. Arrange plum halves, skin side down, evenly over the surface of the batter. Spoon syrup onto halves.

Wow - this is super easy, no bowls for mixing - just the food processor. Well and that little bit with the skillet at the beginning.



Bake until cake is golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out with a few crumbs attached, about 40-50 minute.


Run thin knife around sides of cake pan to loosen. Cool in pan on wire rack until just warm or to room temperature, at least 30 minutes. Dust with confectioner's sugar and serve. Yum!

postscript - what to do with the leftover yummy syrup in the skillet and that egg yolk? I added another egg to the yolk and whipped it up. Poured it into the pan (reheated pan first of course) and made a delicious omelet for my lunch

I added a few sprinkles of shredded sharp provolone cheese before closing up my omelet. Great leftovers solution! Delicious!