This week’s TWD was chosen by Michelle of Bake-En: dimply plum cake! This cake is in the breakfast section of Dorie’s book and while I’m generally a fan of baked fruit, I was a bit skeptical about plums (or any of the other variations Dorie mentions – peaches, nectarines, etc). I guess when I think about baked fruit the things that come to mind are apples or blueberries or bananas, not plums. Perhaps I’m just not very adventurous. Fortunately, being a part of TWD broadens my horizons by forcing me to try recipes I might otherwise just pass by.
I only made one change to this week’s recipe. One of the optional ingredients is cardamom and since I didn’t have any I left it out. Reading some of the other girls’ entries it looks like I could have played around by adding a pinch of cinnamon so perhaps I’ll try that next time. I used the italian prune plums Dorie suggests and couldn’t get over how cute they were. I’ve never noticed them in the grocery store before but I think they were perfect for this cake. I wound up only using 6 instead of the 8 the recipe calls for but after seeing how the cake baked up I definitely could have fit all 8.
This ended up being a really wonderful little cake! I loved the batter…. The brown sugar in the recipe really made it smell and taste wonderful! I definitely would have enjoyed a bit more plum but I really only have myself to blame for that since I did not use all 8 plums. I had my piece when the cake came out of the oven and thought the texture was good, but perhaps a bit crumbly. I’m giving the rest of the cake away today so I’ll be curious to hear how the texture has changed since I made it yesterday.
Check out the recipe at Michelle’s blog and head over to TWD to see how the other cakes turned out!
Lemon Bars
Glazed Grapefruit Cake
Orange Sherbet
Meyer Lemon Pound Cake
I love that 2nd photo – you can see the bits of orange zest, nice!
Nice looking cake. I really liked it a little crumbly the first day. My husband had it with coffee for breakfast the next day, and he thought the texture was great.
That looks picture perfect, like it came straight from the book!
I didn’t have cardamom either but I did use cinnamon since I like it so much.
i always just use half cinnamon, half nutmeg instead of cardamom. i agree with you, recipes like this i would usually pass over but now i look at ones like this differently since being in the group.
This recipe caught me by surprise also – pleasantly! I’ll have to look for those adorable little plums. I realized afterwards that I could have squoze more plum on top, and I’ll do that next time. I love how you sliced one piece per plum!
Nancy
I like your little plums. I’ve never used (or seen) Italian plums but will be on the lookout for them next season. The cake looks yummy!!
Your cake looks great with those little plums- nice job!
This looks wonderful — your pictures are stunning! I love it when we are pleasantly surprised by a recipe we would not have chosen ourselves. I think that’s the best part of TWD. Glad you liked it! Your pictures make me want to make it again (with better fruit!)
I used nutmeg instead, I wasn’t going to buy cardamom for that small of an amount! And I loved it the second day – it’s very moist.
Mine was a bit dry, but the flavor was delicious. My husband loved this cake!
Looks wonderful, and all of your pictures are great. I don’t think this one would have ever gotten made without TWD. I’m so glad I tried it.
I hope you tried it the next day. I thought the texture improved. Great looking cake.
OK, regarding the texture next day…it was actually both. The closer you got to the plums, the more moist the cake. It never got to the point where it was dry or too crumbly tho, it held together well when we had it. The flavor was awesome! I enjoyed the orange zest, I think it reminds me a lot of my Mom’s and Grandmothers Norwegian coffee cakes they used to make. Cardamom is actually another oft used spice in Norwegian baking…does this Dorrie person happen to reside in North Dakota or Minnesota?
I like the way your cake turned out! Nice photos.
Your cake looks so moist and beautiful! Well done!
it looks so tasty, glad you branched out! 🙂 it was my first time eating italian prune plums too, they were adorable!
Those little plums are adorable!
Rick – glad you enjoyed it! As far as I know Dorie doesn’t live in North Dakota or Minnesota but maybe she has some Norwegian or Scandinavian relatives?
Your cake looks lovely. I wish I could have found good plums here…