Dimply Plum Cake-Tuesdays with Dorie

Michelle over at Bake-en chose the Dimply Plum Cake, a great dessert to kick off Fall. I love all the variations of color in the different varieties of the plum family. My grocery store had pluots, called dinosaur plums, which are a cross between an apricot and a plum, black plums, a variety of red plum and prune plums. While the large plums looked very nice nestled in the cake, I chose the prune plum for it's small size and black, purple color. The prune plums were quite easy to pit by cutting through the seam to halve them and rotating the plum slightly enabled the pit to be easily removed.

When selecting plums, look for good color, no bruises or spots with a slight firmness when lightly pressed. Avoid over ripe plums as well as plums that are too hard. Store plums at room temperature until they are ripe, then store ripened plums in the refrigerator until ready to use.

As Dorie suggested, you can use many different stone fruits to make this simple cake. The cake is quite dense and should be eaten the day it is made as it tends to dry out quickly. An apple glaze brushed on top of the cooled cake gave it a nice sheen and added a little more sweetness to the cake. The whipped topping is a combination of sweetened whipped cream and sour cream, similar to a creme fraiche. The topping has more depth than just plain whipped cream and I use it frequently to top fruit desserts. Be sure to check out all the lovely Dimply Plum Cakes on the TWD site. Michelle will have the full recipe on her blog, Bake-En. Or you can buy the book, "Baking From My Home to Yours" by Dorie Greenspan.