Brandied Plum Cake
This. Cake. It’s so good! This is the perfect end-of-summer dessert to celebrate plum season. This cake is fluffy yet old-fashioned, sweet with a little bit of tart. The plums melt in your mouth and the cake is light enough to eat all day in this late summer heat.
The story
So…I started this off with a nice, long rant about how quickly we went from adoring teachers (via memes and tweets, not any actual actions) to seeing them as selfish for being uncertain about reentering the classroom. But I realized my rant got a little self-righteous and condescending, so I deleted it. Just know this: there is no easy solution to this situation. There never was since the day we finally realized COVID-19 had arrived.
But teachers are working harder than they ever have to make sure your child gets the best education possible and feels loved, connected, supported, and valued.
Feel free to comment if you’d like to hear more of my take on this.
For now, I’m going to talk about brandied plum cake because it’s so good I made it twice in one week and managed to make it even better the second time. I love plums, but I don’t think of them as a baking fruit. You just eat them and love them, right? That’s what my daughter does—she’s obsessed and would like them whole so she can remove the pit with her 22-month-old hands, thank you. 🙄😬 But we got SO many off my husband’s YiaYia’s tree that I had to start looking into plum baking.
Weirdly, plums aren’t super common in pies and tarts like I expected. They’re not in a lot of desserts, partly because their season is so short. But in my mind they’re great for baking because they’re a mix of sweet and tart.
This cake brings out the best of plums. Cooking them in brandy softens them just a tad before they bake into the perfect texture to melt into the cake. There’s nothing worse than a cake with soggy fruit, and most people don’t care for underripe or raw-tasting fruit in their cake. It’s just weird. The brown sugar and cinnamon also help bring a rich spiciness to the cake, which balances with the plums perfectly. And the overall texture is divine; it’s fluffy yet very moist.
How to make this recipe
First you need very ripe plums. Ideally they’ll be about the size of a golf ball. Cut them in half and remove the pit (see tips below for how to know if the plum is ripe enough). Place plum halves cut side down in a frying pan (cast iron or nonstick both work). Pour the brandy over it and cook on medium heat, shaking the pan or gently nudging the plums every so often just so they don’t stick to the pan. Don’t stir them or mess with them too much or they’ll get mushy.
Once the plums begin to soften just a little bit (still firm, but some splitting along the very edge of the skin and slightly less firm than when you started), remove from heat and let cool while you make the rest of the cake.
Combine all of the dry ingredients in a food processor or blender. Pulse or blend just a few seconds to get everything mixed up and the same size (if needed—sometimes almond flour is a little chunky). You’ll know it’s all mixed in when the cinnamon color is evenly spread throughout the dry mixture.
Add butter cubes and pulse (or blend and stop if using a blender) several times to get a wet sand texture.
Add eggs and vanilla and blend just until mostly mixed. If there are some dry bits along the very edges, don’t worry.
Using a rubber spatula, scrape as much of the batter into a prepared springform pan as you can (I had to scrape around the blades—so annoying). If you see some dry pieces, spread them around with the spatula, but don’t worry. They’ll mix as the cake bakes. Spread batter evenly in the pan.
Add cooled plums, skin side down. Leave the brandy-plum sauce in the pan—you can pour it over the cake when you serve it or use it on your pancakes in the morning!
Bake just until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Be careful not to over bake.
Enjoy!
Tips for this dessert
Use fairly ripe—but not overly ripe—plums
This shouldn’t be a battle of you vs. the plums. If your hands look like something out of a horror movie, you may need to let the plums ripen in a paper bag on the counter a day or two.
On the flip side, if the plums are overly ripe and beginning to get soft, be very gentle with them and cook on medium-low heat for just a few minutes so you don’t turn them to mush. Don’t stir them either way! That’s how I wound up with brandied plum jam the first time I tried making this cake.
Add some jam or honey if the plums are out of season
While you need the plums to be ripe enough to slice in half without maiming them, you might find that ripe plums that aren’t in season just don’t taste as good as those fresh plums that practically fall off your tree. In that event, you could add about a teaspoon of any kind of jam or honey to the pan along with the brandy and mix them together before adding the plums. It will help sweeten them up just enough to make them meld well with the cake.
Make your own almond flour
If you can’t find almond flour or thought you had some but don’t (story of my life), you can make your own by pulsing about 1/3 cup sliced or slivered almonds or about 1/2 cup whole almonds until the texture of almond meal (not quite as fine as all purpose flour). Just be sure to measure or weigh your final product to ensure you have the right amount.
Cinnamon is optional
I made this cake twice in one week. Partly because I had an excess of plums. Partly because I just really, really liked it. The second time around I added cinnamon. It was so good! But we’re in an intense heat wave here (like, it’s currently 104* and today’s the cool day of the week), and cinnamon just isn’t my jam in hot weather. It’s a warming spice that I prefer to eat during cold weather. So, it’s up to you, but if you’re a cinnamon fan, I highly recommend it.
Don’t over bake
That’s kind of the story with any cake. But part of the appeal of this cake is how moist it manages to be while also being fluffy. You’ll lose that if you bake it too long, so just watch it carefully.
Brandied Plum Cake
- prep time: 15 minutes
- cook time: 35-45 minutes
- total time: 1 hour, plus cooling time
Servings: 6-8
Ingredients:
- about a pound of very ripe plums (see note)--or enough plum halves to fill a 9” pan without crowding
- about ¼ cup brandy or other dark liquor
- ¼ cup (35g) almond flour/meal
- ¾ cup (100g) all purpose flour
- ¾ cup (175g) packed light brown sugar (can sub dark brown or regular granulated sugar)
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons (85g) butter, slightly softened and cut into several cubes
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 325 and grease a 9” springform pan with butter or baking spray.
- Cut plums in half and remove the pit. If this becomes a battle, you may need to let the plums ripen in a paper bag on the counter for a day or two. Place plums cut side down in a 9” (or thereabouts) frying pan (cast iron and nonstick both work--cast iron just requires more attention and possibly more liquid). You want to fill the pan without squishing the plums.
- Pour the brandy over the plums and cook them on medium heat, shaking the pan slightly or nudging the plums from time to time (gently, you don’t want them to get mushy) to keep them from sticking. Cook until the brandy reduces slightly and the plums just begin to soften. You still want them firm, but less firm than when you started. Once you see a split on the edge of the skins of most plums, they should be done. Set aside to cool while you prepare the batter.
- In a food processor or blender, combine almond flour, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt. Pulse a few times until well-mixed (you’ll see the cinnamon color has spread evenly). Add the butter and pulse until the texture of wet sand (past the texture of cutting butter into pie crust). Add the eggs and vanilla and blend just until mixed. Don’t worry about some dry pieces along the edge, spreading the batter into the pan will mix them in.
- Pour batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly. You’ll need a rubber spatula to get all the batter out of the processor. Add the plums skin side down in any pattern you like, filling most of the space but leaving a bit of batter visible.
- Place pan on a cookie sheet in case of leaks (I’ve never had any, but better safe than sorry) and bake for 30-40 minutes, until the edges start to brown, the top is golden brown, and just until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool completely in the pan, at least 30 minutes to an hour.
Enjoy! Cover leftovers with foil or plastic wrap and store on the counter for 2-3 days.