Italian Plum Torte

This plum cake recipe comes from one of my favorite magazines – Chocolatier (which seems to be published under a new name now – Dessert Professional since its merge with Pastry Art Design and Frozen Desserts magazines). The two main reasons why I was first drawn to this recipe were how elegant the cake looks and how ridiculously simple it is to make. The prep is practically fuss-free and the taste? Divine! Below is the recipe (published December 2002):

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
¾ cup plus 1½ tablespoons granulated sugar, divided
2 large eggs
8-10 Italian plums, halved and pitted
or 5 large red or black plums, cut in quarters and pitted
¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Heavy cream for serving

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F. Butter and flour 8″ springform pan; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. In a 5-quart bowl of a heavy-duty electric mixer, using paddle attachment, cream butter and ¾ cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add dry ingredients and mix on medium speed for 1 minute, scraping down sides of bowl with a rubber spatula. Scrape batter into prepared pan, leveling top with spatula. Arrange plum quarters or halves on top. Combine remaining 1½ tablespoons sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle on top. Bake for 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean. Cool on rack for 20 minutes. Run a sharp, flexible knife around edge of torte. Remove side of springform pan and serve torte warm with a drizzle of heavy cream on top.

Note: I have used just a regular, non-springform pan sucessfully; just make sure you butter and flour the pan well. Also, I normally use about 3-4 red or black plums, sliced and pitted (shown above), and if the plums are sweet, I would reduce the sugar used to sprinkle the top of the plums to as little as ½ – ¾ tablespoon. As usual, due to personal preference, I omitted the ground cinnamon. The cake is delicious served room temperature as well. Enjoy!