Sponge Plum Cake--Almond Flavored

Plum cakes are among my favorite fall cake desserts. They remind me of my childhood and the cakes I was eating this time of the year in Poland. So I wanted to share a plum cake recipe, which requires Italian, or as we call them in Poland, Hungarian plums. Unfortunately, they have not yet showed up in our area food stores this season. So instead I had to make this cake with whichever plums were available and I could only imagine how much better it would taste with the proper Italian plums, which are perfect for cakes and preserves.

It is not a typical plum cake which I make most often, meaning obviously a tart, but I was curious to try this new recipe which seemed interesting from the combination of plums, almond sponge cake, and sugar crumbs on top.

The cake turned out almost perfect. "Almost" because plums were a bit too hard and not as mushy and moist as the Italian plums become when baked. Nevertheless, it was still a very nice fall dessert which I will make again when I get the true Italian plums.

Sponge Plum Cake
(For a 9 by 12-inch baking form)

Ingredients:
2 lb of Italian plums, cut in half, stones removed,
2 sticks of butter, plus an extra tbsp. to grease the baking form,
1 and 1/3 cup sugar,
5 eggs,
1 and 1/2 cup all purpose flour,
2 tsp baking powder,
1 and 1/2 cup ground almonds (almond flour),
4 tbsp preferably almond liqueur as Amaretto, or any liqueur or rum,
1/2 cup sparkling water.

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 325F.
2. To make sugar crumbs, place one stick of butter, 1/3 cup sugar, and 1/2 cup flour in a medium bowl and, working with fingers, make sugar crumbles. Put them in a refrigerator while preparing the rest of the cake.
3. Place one stick of butter and a cup of sugar in a bowl of a standing mixer and run the engine until the ingredients combine into smooth batter. Add one after one eggs while beating the batter in between.
4. Add liqueur and beat gain the batter.
5. Sift flour and baking powder into the batter. Mix again all the ingredients.
6. Finally pour in ground almonds and sparkling water. Mix the batter for the last time.
7. Grease the baking form with butter and sprinkle with flour, preferably Wondra. Spread the batter on the form and arrange plum halves (or quarters if plums are bigger) on top.

8. Sprinkle plums with sugar crumbs.

9. Put the cake in the oven. Bake for 45-50 minutes until cake become brownish and sugar crumbs become slightly gold.
10. Let it cool and serve.

Yogurt Plum Cake--A Simple Autumn Dessert

From what I know about the culinary world, I would risk a statement that only Polish and French, and perhaps also Italians and Hungarians, have such a great affection for plums. This may apply to all kind of plums, but in particular to these oval and dark purple one with the blueish coating on their skin, which in Poland we call Hungarian plums, and here they are called Italian plums. In France, I often ate them in classic tarts on a short or puff pastry crust. But once, many years ago, a French friend made a cake with a plum preserve. I still remember how exquisitely delicious it was--with a very thin and buttery crust that immediately dissolved in the mouth and long-cooked preserve or rather a plum butter on top. I always promise myself to email her and ask about her recipe.

When Italian plums are picked at their ripest stage, they have most aroma and flesh, and least juice of all the plums I tried. This quality makes them perfect for baking, preserving, and using for all kinds of cooking. Unlike other plums that grow all over the world and are often available all year round, Italian plums appear in my food store only for a short time in mid-September and mid-October. So I thought that they were already gone, but today I found them again in one of the stores. I bought two pounds of them and made this simple cake.

Yogurt Plum Cake

Ingredients:
2 lb Italian plums, washed,

3 eggs,
1/2 cup (150g) natural yogurt,
1 and 1/2 cup flour (250g) all purpose flour,
2 cups (300g) powdered sugar,
1/2 cup (150ml) vegetable oil,
1 and 1/4 oz (7g) sachet dry yeasts,
1 tsp vanilla extract,
juice from one lemon,
1 tbsp butter to grease the baking tin,
2 tbsp fine corn meal.

Preparation:
1. Cut washed plums in half alongside and remove the pit.
2. Preheat oven to 400 F (200 C).
3. Separate egg yolks and whites. Beat the yolks with powdered sugar until almost white. Add to that mixture yogurt, oil and lemon juice. Mix.
4. In a separate bowl combine flour and yeast and add to the batter. Mix until it becomes smooth.
5. Beat the whites until stiff. Using spatula fold them into the batter.
6. Grease the baking tin (about 9 by 13 inches) with butter. Sprinkle it with corn meal and spread the batter all over it. Place halves of plums on top, skin up.

7. Bake for about 35-40 minutes, until the cake is set and light gold.

Serve dusted with icing sugar.

Plum Cake--A Never Ending Story

When I read other, already famous food blogs, I get very jealous these days. Most of them, like Orangette, Mowielicious, or Smitten Kitchen have already published their recipes for plum cake--the perfect fall dessert. And I still look at my recently made pictures and ideas and cannot decide which one I should share.

The only excuse for sitting on the fence for so long is that in Poland we probably have one of the richest collections of plum recipes in the world. We make many plum cakes, either with a yeast- or a baking powder-based crust. Some are soft and spongy, and some are crunchy. We also make potato dumplings with plums inside, which we serve with butter, cinamon, and sugar. (These are my favorite and I have to be restrained when I start eating them.) We prepare plums in cooked desserts, we make a plum jam spread, and preserve them in vinegar as meat accompaniment. We also make a Christmas soup with dried plums (prunes) and, like many other nations in that region, we also produce a plum vodka, called Slivovica.

There are also many different kinds of plums being cultivated in Poland, and when I think of what was growing in my family garden I could easily name at least five different types--tiny, yellow ones called Mirabelle, big and round, which here are called simply Black, oval and dark Italian or as we called them Hungarian (in various sizes), which are most popular for making preserves, round and pinkish as those that here are called Satsuma plums, and several others that I simply do not see anywhere else in the world.

I simply love them for their sweetness and the sophisticated, yet subtle taste, and their unlimited culinary uses.

My today's recipe was not the one that was most popular in my home, as we made mostly tarts with Italian plums (I will post a recipe for that in the future), but I finally decided on this cake, because it is very universal as any available kind of plums can be used to make it.

Plum Cake
(For the 11'' baking tin)

Ingredients:
All the ingredients should be in room temperature.
2 lb any ripe plums,
4 eggs,
1 stick butter,
1 cup sugar for the cake and 3 tbsp for the topping,
1 2/3 cup flour,
1 tbsp corn starch,
2 tsp baking powder,
4-5 tbsp sour cream,
1 tbsp vanilla extract,
2 tbsp slivered almonds (optional).

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 250F.
2. Grease baking pan with butter.
3. If you use Italian plums just cut them in halves and remove stones, any bigger plums you should cut in quarters.
4. Using a mixer beat together butter and sugar until smooth.
5. Add flour, corn starch, baking powder, and vanilla extract (at the very end), and mix.
6. Add 2 whole eggs and 2 yolks (save the two remaining whites) and beat with a mixer until all the ingredients are combined into a perfect blend.
7. Add sour cream to it and beat together again.
8. Spread a batter on the baking tin.
9. Put plums pieces on top pushing them half way into the batter.

10. Bake for about 30-40 min.
11. Meanwhile, whip the two remaining whites until almost stiff. Add a tbsp of sugar and beat again. Add the second spoon of sugar, beat and eventually add the third one until you obtain a smooth meringue frosting. Spread the forsting on the cake, scatter almonds, and bake for 10-15 minutes, until the top becomes gold.

This cake is nothing fancy, but believe me, it is very comforting on a cool fall day with a cup of coffee or lemon tea.