A Hot Summer and a Plum Cake
This summer has been one of the craziest on record (and that record being my record and anecdotal experience of course) as far as the weather goes. Record highs here with random torrential rain punctuated by 100+ temps makes for some very unpleasantly humid weather (which is unusual for the climate) while our neighbors are pummeled with equally unusual circumstances.
Gardening and growing flowers in particular has been a challenge due to a very early and hot spring followed by a wet and humid summer which unfortunately brought out a crop of burgeoning grasshoppers, snails and slugs that have continued to hit our plants again and again.
Seedlings in particular have been ravaged by snails, and it is getting to the point where I can’t even direct sow anything for fear of them getting mowed down by the snail population. Going on snail patrol at night and after rains seems to help, but there are still quite a few out there - it’s my hope that we will eventually wear down the numbers.
More distinctly, the summer is flying by. Perhaps it’s because I’m getting older or because perhaps my day job has been more busy as of late, but despite knowing that my schedule was busier it didn’t prevent the summer days from sliding right by.
How is it already August? I feel like I was just planning the designs for the summer garden yesterday! And now today I’m looking to plan the garden for next year and am planning on sowing seeds of hardy annuals, biennials and perennials to overwinter and bloom in 2023.
I have been therefore been feeling the need to live more in the moment. I think this is something that we’ve been experiencing personally since the pandemic, and more so with the very unpredictable times (that seem to become much more unpredictable by the month for better or for worse) and I am finding a distinct need to ground myself.
And what better way to ground yourself than in enjoying the summer? Particularly with a lovely new recipe for a plum cake.
We came across this plum cake recipe originally as the famous plume torte recipe in the NY times. Easy, simple and affordable, we both liked it but there was something about it that wasn’t quite there.
Don’t get me wrong, the original plum torte is delicious and is not something I would ever turn down. The best part about it I found was the exterior of the crust bakes up into this lovely thin and crunchy shell - similar in texture and experience to the crisp bottom of a thin chocolate chip cookie - that shatters when you cut into, which would most of the time give me anxiety but in this case is just part of the experience of eating a plum cake.
However, the bad thing is that the original recipe has you putting plum halves into the cake. I get that putting large pieces of plum is novel and it certainly looks pretty, but in my opinion it doesn’t work. When placing entire halves of plums onto a cake the experience is less pleasant when you have a gigantic large plum that you have to trudge through to get to the cake on the other side.
The second thing is that for some reason it’s hard to find ripe plums that aren’t starting to rot in this region of the world, and thus a lot of times the plums that go into the cake are on the more sour side. The sour plums remind me more of a rhubarb than anything else, which is not a bad thing at all - the sour, bright flavor is quite delightful when paired with the flaky, crispy sweet cake, but if you’re not a fan of rhubarb this could be a bad thing.
Don’t get me wrong - I can understand the appeal of it. And when paired with some vanilla ice cream it’s quite delicious and compliments each other well. But since my little brain can’t seem to get off the hamster wheel, we experimented around to try and find a better resolution to the whole plum-half issue, and find that slicing the plums works far better to create a more equitable plum-to-cake ratio and the flavor profile is better.
This cake is best served when fully cool, so make it ahead of time before serving it to guests (or yourself). I recommend enjoying it after a quick morning stroll in the garden after it has rained and you’ve built yourself an appetite while picking snails and deadheading the cosmos
Summer Plum Cake
INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 pinch salt
1 cup Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free Flour (you can use regular flour if you’re not gluten free, but the gluten-free flour gives the cake that wonderfully fragile flaky exterior and crunchy crust)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
6 small plums, pitted and sliced into 1/8 pieces
DIRECTIONS
Heat oven to 350 F
In a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until completely combined
Add the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon and mix until well combined
Butter a 9” springiform pan and place a circle of parchment paper on the base of the pan
Pour the batter into the pan in an even layer and smooth the top. Evenly distribute the plum slices on top of the batter.
Bake for 1 hour, then remove from the oven and let cool completely before slicing.
NOTES
You can also bake this in other sizes of pans - if the diameter is smaller than 9”, you’ll probably need to bake it for a bit longer to ensure it is done in the middle. If larger than 9”, bake for a shorter period of time to prevent it from drying out
If you don’t have plums, you can sub out other fruit including other stone fruits or berries
As mentioned, you can serve with vanilla ice cream (the perfect pairing) but you could also serve with some Greek yogurt or even mascarpone if you don’t do ice cream. Also best served with a cup of tea or coffee to drink alongside
This is a perfect and easy summer dessert to serve after dinner, but would work equally well for an afternoon tea in the garden or for brunch or breakfast. Be warned, it only has eight servings so it goes quickly!