Bake with only sweet, somewhat overripe plums. I was impatient and made my favourite plum dessert this summer a bit too early and then thoroughly regretted it. It turned out quite sour, but what was worse, it lacked that rich plum flavour we love so much. After making a mental note to myself never to bake with plums not fully ripe, I waited with this plum cake until the last minute and in fact we just finished it yesterday.
Ah the booziness of this cake was intoxicating! Potentially it could be made with canned or frozen plums, but it would not be nearly as good as with the fresh fruit. In the absence of fresh, ripe plums, I would bake this cake with maybe 4 to 6 apples. Don’t add seasoning if using plums, you want to taste the fruit, not the seasoning. But if using apples, I think adding a bit of cinnamon would be a good idea.
BOOZY PLUM CAKE
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
10 to 12 fully ripe fresh plums, cut in half
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
3 Tbsp Frangelico or rum [not a rum extract]
sprinkling of icing sugar for the top
• Preheat oven to 375F.
• Line a 9 inch spring form round cake pan with parchment paper.
• Beat the butter and sugar until frothy.
• Add the eggs one by one beating well after each addition.
• Add your choice of booze and beat well.
• Lower the speed of the beater and gradually add and the baking powder.
• Beat to combine, but do not overbeat. If in doubt, stir the flour into the butter mixture with a wooden spoon.
• Put 2/3 of the batter into the spring-form pan. [I added only half and the fruit made its way down in the pan.]
• Arrange the plums with the cut side up on the top.
• Spoon the leftover batter on the top apple slices over top and bake it for about 50-60 minutes.
• Remove from the oven and let the cake cool at least half an hour before slicing.
• Sprinkle the top with icing sugar and serve the plum cake with sweetened whipped cream or ice cream.
