Plum Cake, or a Lucky Mistake

     I have been spending a lot of time putting up bounty lately.  Summer tomato sauce, tomato basil soup, blueberries and plums into the freezer, and so on.  I have been (mostly) staying ahead of said bounty, but the plums have caught me unawares.  I thought I had a bit more time, but evidently not.  And with a vacation looming, I am feeling guilty guilty guilty.  But the freezer is filling up, and I still have more.
     The other thing I have been doing is watching all of the episodes of The Great British Bake Off.  I even succumbed to accepting a (cough) pirated thumb drive with the elusive 3rd season yesterday.  I cannot reveal my sources.  GBBO is an incredible obsession.  This cooking/reality show where one home baker gets eliminated each week is all the rage in Britain, and PBS has taken it on, but has mysteriously only started with Season 4, calling Season 1, and making obsessives like me go crazy trying to find You Tube versions of the first 3 seasons.  All this has forced me to pursue a life of crime.  It's for a good cause!  I aspire to avoid soggy bottoms and improve my piping skills.  One never knows where this might lead!  But first, the plums.
     I had a solution for a couple cups of of them today, which has Bryce eating thirds for breakfast and demanding that I bake another cake.  I found a couple recipes for fruit filled cakes, one on Food 52, one in Alana Chernila's latest book, The Homemake Kitchen.  But the first called for peaches, the second for rhubarb.  Not my fruit problem right now.
     So, I ended up largely going with a Food 52 version, but made what would later be called a happy mistake.  Alana's version calls for 8T of butter, Food 52 for 6.  Oops, I used the 8T and had to adapt my recipe even more than I was expecting.  Also, frankly it was too sweet.  I already cut the sugar a bit, but would cut it even more.  The result:  a tender buttery cake with a crunchy top, that had NO trouble being consumed for breakfast.  Even though the fruit sunk to the bottom (a sin in Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood's eyes, but who cares?  I'm not on that reality show!) it is definitely worth a repeat.

Summer Plum Cake

heavily adapted from Food 52's version of Simple Summer Peach Cake

2 c. plums, pitted and sliced 1/2" thick

2T sugar

1/2t nutmeg

         

8T unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 c sugar (consider decreasing somewhat)

1 egg

1/2 c buttermilk (or thin yogurt, or clabbered milk, I used clabbered milk)

1/2 t vanilla

1/4 t almond extract

1 c + 2 T flour

1/2 c almond flour

1/4 t salt

1/4 t baking soda

1 t baking powder

Turbinado sugar

Toss plums, 2T sugar and nutmeg together, and set aside.

Preheat oven to 350F.  Butter a 9" square baking dish

Cream butter and 3/4c sugar together, add egg, then buttermilk.  Add extracts.  

Whisk dry ingredients together and add to butter mixture, stir until combined.  Scrape into prepared pan and spread out batter.  

Drain the plums (juice will not be used), and place them over the surface of the batter, press them slightly into the batter.  Sprinkle with Turbinado sugar.  

Bake 40 minutes, or until golden brown on top, pulling away from the sides, and a cake tester/thin knife/toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool x 10 minutes, then let the crowds at it!