Dorie Greenspan's Dimply Plum Cake

I wanted to do my best not to sigh all over this post, but I'm afraid I can't help myself. Summer is over and I'm just not ready. We went upstate for the long weekend, to Beacon, where we lounged and lazed and marveled at the weather and wondered where the time went. Wasn't it just yesterday that we were in Italy with my family? Wasn't it just yesterday that we celebrated Independence Day on my back patio? We lost a few weeks there to the apartment hunt and to the packing and the move and then the unpacking. But still, did it all have to end so quickly?

There was a chill in the air upstate, a little frisson of fall that raised the hairs on my arms at moments and made the sheets cold at night. One farmer at the greenmarket was selling the very last of her blueberries, while another had the first cold-weather squashes on display. We could see tinges of red in the tips of leaves around us, just a pale wash, mind you, but it was there nonetheless.  And when I stood in a friend's wild garden on Sunday, with the still-hot sun shining down on us and the crickets singing and little frogs rubbing themselves up against the rocks, I found myself overcome with melancholy, feeling almost robbed.

Give me a few days and I'll come around, I always do. I'll revel in the crisp air, make plans for apple-picking, watch old Woody Allen movies in the afternoon, take a walk through Central Park with a hot cup of tea and my sweetheart, bake bread and feel reborn. I'll forget about humidity and sticky skin, I won't hear the crickets anymore, there'll be Thanksgiving to look forward to, and then suddenly Christmas (it seems impossible), too.

But until I come around, give me a few more days of summer, please. Just a few more hot afternoons, a few more incandescent sunsets, a few more drippy peaches and sun-warmed tomatoes. It's all I ask for to smooth the transition, to leave this season behind without looking back.

On Friday, just before leaving, I made Dorie's Dimply Plum Cake, a charming recipe name if I ever heard one. A simply spiced, hardy batter bakes up around halved Italian prune plums, turning golden while the plums fill with a nice, sour juice. Cooled, we set it in the backseat of the car as we navigated the roads around New York City by night. The next morning, when we awoke in that quiet, verdant getaway of ours, we ate fat wedges of it on the porch, squinting into the sunshine, swirls of steam coming off our coffee mugs.

I know, I know, I still have to retry The Plum Torte, but Dorie's version was a hit - not too sweet, not too heavy, the agreeably tart plums perfectly silky against the sturdy crumb. This is, in my book, a breakfast cake or a snacking one, meant for starting the day or punctuating it gently in the afternoon. Plums are the last fruits of summer here that neatly straddle the fall, which is perhaps why I felt so fondly towards this cake. Be that as it may, it's going into my permanent repertoire, paving the way for juicy apple cakes and fragrant quince pies.

Not yet, not yet, but soon.

Dimply Plum Cake
Serves 8

1 1/2 cups all purpose four
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/3 cup canola oil
Grated zest of one lemon (I left this out, by accident, mostly)
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
8 purple or red plums, halved and pitted

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter an 8x8 baking dish or a glass pie plate and set aside.

2. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and ground cardamom.

3. In a stand mixer, cream the butter with the brown sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the oil, lemon zest and vanilla. Reduce the speed and add the flour mixture. Pour the batter in the prepared dish, smooth the top and arrange the plums on top, cut side up.

4. Bake for about 40 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool for at least 15 minutes before serving.

Comments

[Molly]

Oh my friend, I'm right there with you, sighing and sighing and sighing. This morning it's drizzly and fall-like in Seattle, and little yellow leaves have fallen all over our car and the sidewalk next to it. It's not fair.

*However,* I made an apple crisp last night to eat while we watched my favorite Seattle movie, Singles, and you know, it didn't feel half bad. I could get used to fall, if it means more apple crisp...

[Casey]

I've come relatively late in my baking life to Dorie's recipes but I'm ecstatic with the results I'm getting. This cake looks wonderful; I wish I had a slice RIGHT NOW.

[ann]

Oh man Luisa, I share your sentiment completely. I can't for the life of me figure out where all the time went. Does this mean we're getting old?
lucky for us September is the most glorious month in NYC. I can't wait for some quality stoop sitting and cheese making. people who feel "the most wonderful time of the year" is in December are silly.
Where did you get prune plums?

[anne]

Here in Florida we have miles and miles of warm weather ahead of us. But I will live vicariously through your beautiful descriptions.

[Julie]

Mmmm...I just posted about a fairly similar fruit-topped torte. But I think next time I should definitely add cardamom, a la Dorie and Luisa...

[Hillary]

I know I've seen this on another blog before...but it's a great cake! It's terrible that summer is ending, I feel like it was hardly ever here!

[Lydia]

I love Fall, apples, cinnamon, pumpkin... and to me plums are the herald of that wonderful time of year. So I am ready, and what better way to celebrate the changing season than with Dorie and prune plums? I hope my cake looks half as beautiful as yours.

[deb]

What an adorable cake! I already wonder how it would work with wee pears (I can't resist buying them) or tiny apples, as fall is inevitable so I might as well plan ahead. It is arriving all too soon, though, I agree.

[Mary]

You've captured it so well, the nostalgia for the summer past, the anticipation of the fall to come. What better way to mark this moment than this cake? Just perfect Luisa.

[radish]

This looks delicious! I am too a bit unready for fall - it sounds wonderful, but the summer's gone by too fast, and I want another few weeks. I went running on early Sunday morning in Boston and it was close to 50 degrees - very different than summer mornings!

[Kevin]

I'm going to finish posting my comment, get in the kitchen, and make this. It's true.

[Kevin]

It's in the oven.

[Mercedes]

Oh so well said. I keep telling myself summer technically isn't over yet, but just the word september is enough to make me shudder. The amount of meetings filling up my schedule just makes it worse.
I love these kind of cakes, in fact, I'd much rather have something like this after dinner than one of those big layered cake monstrocities. My mom calls it "another one of your cakes," i.e. something un-iced and not too sweet. There's just nothing like a sturdy piece of cake with a bit of fruit.

[LyB]

Just imagine when September rolls around and you have kids to send off to school, then it hits you how fast time flies... It hits you like a ton of bricks! ;)
Beautiful looking cake, the pictures and description are making me wish I had plums to make this right now!

[Luisa]

Molly - Singles! Can you believe I only saw that for the first time this year? What a hoot, I loved it.

As for apple crisps, I GUESS I could get used to eating them again ;). Though, frankly, I'm way more interested in Brandon's soba salad right now!

Casey - Dorie is a baking genius, isn't she? Everything of hers is just so good. Plus, she's awfully sweet to boot. :)

Ann - I bought my prune plums at the Greenmarket in Union Square. As for this getting old business, I'm sticking my fingers in my ears and humming NOW. This is, after all, the year I turn 30. GASP.

Anne - thank you!

Julie - cardamom is such a heavenly thing. Makes everything it touches taste a little bit better. Seriously, I think I need to start the Official Cardamom Appreciation Club.

Hillary - it is a super cake! Definitely one for the recipe files.

Lydia - thank you!

Deb - you might want to poach the Seckel pears (are those the ones you're talking about?) before you put them in the cake or else cut them up fine, because they might not soften enough otherwise, but I'll bet this cake would stand up beautifully to them and other fruit, too.

Mary - thank you!

Radish - yikes, that's chilly. Just a few more weeks, I agree...

Kevin - hooray! You are a man with convictions ;). Hope you liked it.

Mercedes - there really is nothing like it, right? I agree that a piece of this is always preferable to a towering, iced thing.

LyB - I can't imagine! :) If you don't have plums, you could try another fruit, perhaps.

[Dorie]

Luisa, as you always do, you write so touchingly and evocatively about what so many of us have on our minds. (Don't you think the end of summer used to be easier when there was the start of school to look forward to?) Funny, like you, I made a Dimply Plum Cake this weekend -- we had it at breakfast, then nibbled it throughout the day. I'm so glad you liked the cake - it's one of my favorites.

[Luisa]

Thank you, Dorie! I can't wait to make it again and again. (And yes, I agree about the school bit, though all the academics I know seem to dread September more than anyone else!)

[lindy]

I'm looking at some Damson plums, and I feel a cake coming on. I think the cardamon is a particulary genius idea.

[misha]

looks scrumptious, like a clafouti.

[Cyndi]

I love Dorie Greenspan and I love this simple cake. I made it with freshly ground cardamom and lemon extract in place of the vanilla. Also used bread flour because it was all I had on hand. The texture was wonderful and served with freshly whipped cream. Lightly sweet and absolutely delicious. I have since made 3 more in one week!!!

[Stef]

Your cake looked so good that I made it into cupcakes!

http://www.cupcakeproject.com/2008/08/plum-cupcakes-almost-like-plum-tarts.html

Thanks for sharing the recipe.

[johanna]

dorie greenspan's recipes have never failed me. i love her blog as much as i love yours. the cake is in he oven! yours looked so pretty i baked my in a glass pie plate too - looks very french, i think.