I am so happy, so excited, so THANKFUL for the amount of support, congratulatory messages, and welcome back wishes that I received from all of you on my “Where I’ve Been” post! THANK YOU so much. Your support is going to make this transition that much easier for me. And hopefully I will feel less guilty for dedicating a few hours a week to myself – that is, to my blog. You know what I’m talking about. 🙂
Now, lets talk cake!
I have this small tree in my backyard – it is a Plum Fruit Tree.
Every summer, come July, I go to it just about every day in hopes of finding at least a bud, if not anything else. But, my tree never disappoints. I have to give away so much of these juicy plums because I can’t keep up with it, and I hate to see my homegrown fruit rot. To make things more interesting, I have this little helper do the picking for me:
Child Labor. Oh well. I’ll take all the help I can get. 😉
Apart from using these plums for the obvious jams, pies, and cobblers, I also throw them in this moist, fluffy cake. It is SO good!
Martha Stewart gave me the recipe. Well, not personally, but you know… In my head she is my friend. No, nothing creepy, just a friend that lends me a recipe when I’m truly in need of using up all of my fresh produce, or whatever else I just picked from my garden.
However, I did make some changes to this cake; yogurt instead of sour cream, and granulated sugar instead of brown sugar. I also used a different variety of plums, but you can use the store bought plums – I believe those are called Laroda Plums. I’m not sure what mine are… There’s over 100 varieties and most of them look the same so I never bothered to ask. If you can tell by the photos what type of a plum tree I have in my backyard, please let me know.
Plum Cake
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 stick butter
- 1 1/2 cup flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoon lemon zest
- 1/4 cup yogurt
- 6-8 small plums
- powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375.
- Butter a 9-inch round springform pan and set aside. If you don’t have a springform pan, you can use a regular round cake pan, but be sure to butter it and line it with parchment paper.
- In a medium-sized bowl combine the flour, baking soda, and salt.
- In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add in the eggs, one by one, and continue to mix.
- Beat in the vanilla and lemon zest, followed by half of the flour mixture. Mix until blended.
- Pour in the yogurt and the rest of the flour mixture. Beat until combined.
- Pour the batter into the cake pan and smooth the top with either a cake spatula or a knife.
- Toss the halved plums in 2 tablespoons of flour until well coated, then place them on top of the cake batter.
- Bake the cake for 30 minutes. Remove the cake from the oven, tent a piece of foil and loosely place on top of the cake. Return it to the oven for another 20 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Allow it to cool completely before removing it from the pan.
- Dust with powdered sugar before serving.
Nutrition
Nutritional info is an estimate and provided as courtesy. Values may vary according to the ingredients and tools used. Please use your preferred nutritional calculator for more detailed info.
This looks fabulous! So glad you’re back. 🙂 I was actually just thinking of you the other day too. The recipe for stuffed pumpkin popped in my mind the day it felt like fall. 😉
This looks delicious! And what a cute plum-picking helper you have. 🙂
Awww…that form of child labor is the cutest! 😉
I wish i had a plum tree too…it would be fun to see fruits showing up in the summer time. This cake was a beautful way to use up those plums!
And dont worry … Martha stewart is a very good friend in ths crazy head of mine too 😛
I now know what to do with the massive amount of plums I have. We came across “vampire plums” at a market and bought way too many. This would be a perfect way to use them.
ps so glad you’re back. xx
Love that first photo! Mouth-watering…
Plum cake always reminds me of my nana and her plum tree – we’d go over in the summer and pick the plums (child labour – LOL!) and we’d make a cake together. One of my favourite childhood memories. This looks looks lovely!
So glad you are back, missed you while you were away!! What a gorgeous cake. You didn’t lose your photography skills while you were gone 🙂
I love cakes like this–gorgeous plums! We have a little plum tree that has yet to produce any fruit. Hoping that next year it will come through.
What a lovely cake! (The photos are lovely as well!) Glad to see you make some time for yourself, it is such an important part of mommyhood! Love the plum cake!