Republishing from 2009 (because it's that good!): September Plums

Wow, this was first published in 2009, one year after I started writing The Cook's Tour. I'm embarrassed by the photo that accompanied this post (above), which did not show the beauty of this cake (suggestion: ignore the photo and make this cake!) I've learned alot in these last eight years about photographing food, and blogging in general, and I thank you for joining me on the "tour" as we've traveled the globe (literally and figuratively) eating and discovering. 

I also noticed from the original post that there was no "print" option for the recipe (because I didn't know how to do that back then!). So I've added the print version for this recipe here and below.

If you are celebrating Rosh Hashana this week, I wish you a sweet New Year! 

Original Post:
Otherwise known as Italian Prune Plums. They are only available for a short period of time, right around mid-September so when I see them, I grab them. These little babies are full of purpley-sweet deliciousness. With beautiful gold flesh, they make terrific desserts. For me, the arrival of these plums heralds the coming of Fall.

One of my favorite prune plum recipes comes from a recipe my late mother-in-law made for years: Viennese Plum Cake. She clipped it from a newspaper who knows how long ago. The Xeroxed copy I have is wrinkled and stained from over-use (is there such a thing as over-use with good recipes?).

This is a perfect example of a cake that is good "plain or fancy." It is excellent as a simple coffee cake with no adornment whatsoever, but with a quick whip of some vanilla-tinged heavy cream, you could dress it up and serve it to some lucky dinner guests. And it is really fast to put together -- I made it Thursday night in about 15 minutes (not including baking time, obviously). Delicious warm out of the oven and at room temp. You cannot go wrong with this cake!

Viennese Plum Cake

1/2 C butter at room temp

1/2 C sugar

2 eggs

1/4 t salt

1 C flour

1 t baking powder

16 medium-sized Italian prune plums - washed, halved, pitted

1/2 C sugar

2 t cinnamon

1 TB butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour an 8x8 square pan.

Cream together butter and sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time. Blend together salt, flour and baking powder in small bowl. Combine flour mixture with butter mixture. Spread dough evenly in prepared pan. Place plums skin side down on top of batter.

Mix together cinnamon/sugar combination; sprinkle over plums (this mixture seems like too much, but use it all). Dot with butter. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until top is golden.

Wrapped well, it keeps for 4-5 days (this is just an estimate because it never lasts that long).
Print version.