The last plums of the season

Late summer/early fall is my favorite time of year. One of the things I look forward to is the arrival of Italian prune plums and Stanley plums. I've never met anyone who knows as much about fruit as Chuck from Agriberry Farm in Hanover, and he sells beautiful plums (among other things) from his stand at the City Market. So when plums are in season, I buy them from Chuck and make lots of plum cakes.

I used to make a Rustic Plum Torte by Cook's Illustrated. It's delicious but a little fussy so I was looking for something simpler that I could throw together often during the short plum season. It didn't take long to find Marian Burros's famous Plum Torte (original article and recipe), which is the most requested recipe in the history of the New York Times.

Italian Plum Cake

Fig Cake

Apricot Cake

 

Italian Plum Cake

adapted from Marian Burros (various recipes)

There are many variations of this recipe, all of which call for it to be made in an ungreased springform pan. That's fine, unless you accidentally bake it at 425 degrees, like I did once (you remember all that cussing, don't you?), in which case you will be scraping the burnt mess out of your pan for days (thanks, Mom). So now I grease the pan lightly. The original recipe also says to use plum halves, placed skin-side up on the cake. That works, too (see the picture of the fig cake above), but I like to use quarters so you get some plum in every bite instead of a big mouthful of plum in every other bite. Recipes using a cup of flour or less are especially easy to convert to gluten-free and this one's no exception. It's actually easier that way because you can mix the batter like crazy after adding the dry ingredients and not worry about developing too much gluten. This cake also works well with other fruit, including the figs and the apricots in the cakes pictured above.

125 grams (~1 cup) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
a large pinch of fine sea salt
150 grams (¾ cup) granulated sugar, plus 1 tablespoon (12 grams)
½ teaspoon cinnamon
113 grams (½ cup/1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs (~57 grams each in the shell)
227 grams/8 ounces (6 or 7) Italian prune plums, halved lengthwise along the crease, pitted, and halved lengthwise again (see note)

    1. Place a rack in the center of the oven; heat to 350 degrees. Spray an 8- or 9-inch springform pan with nonstick cooking spray.
    2. Sift the flour with the baking powder into a small bowl. Stir in the salt (it won't go through the sifter if you're using anything coarser than table salt). Mix the 1 tablespoon of sugar with the cinnamon in a small ramekin.
    3. Cream the remaining ¾ cup sugar and butter in a bowl or stand mixer on medium speed (4 on our KitchenAid) until light and fluffy. Add the dry ingredients and the eggs and beat well.
    4. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan with a rubber spatula and smooth it out a bit. Place the plum quarters on top of the batter in a neat pattern. Sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar mixture evenly over the top.
    5. Bake until the cake is golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 40 to 50 minutes depending on the size of the pan. Release the sides of the springform pan and allow to cool some or completely. Serve warm or at room temperature. We usually go through the whole cake at one sitting.

For a gluten-free cake:
Substitute 125 grams gluten-free flour blend for the all-purpose flour. In step 2, sift in ¼ teaspoon xanthan gum along with the flour blend and baking powder.