Time to break the feed of earthy greens and native ingredients with some rich fruity-nutty indulgence: the plum almond cake.
I love, love, love this cake. I love it because it’s simple to make, wonderful with the ripest of sweet juicy summer fruit, but entirely happy with tart off-season plums (or, for us, the smaller, sour local varieties). It’s a perfect pairing with an afternoon coffee or an elaborate meal: rich enough to serve as a proper dessert and light enough to leave you wanting. It’s an everyday cake and a extraordinary cake both at once.
I’ve made it several times over the years, having first seen the recipe in Food and Wine in 2007–when I had a print subscription and we lived in Houston and the boys and I would roam the groceries before dinner snacking on samples (thank you, Whole Foods) and taking a walk where it was cool, in the summers, or just lit, in the winters. This cake was one of those magazine-flipping discoveries, and it’s been a treasure to which to return. But it’s not a cake I make often simply because its goodness comes from almonds–a whole cup’s worth… and that feels downright irresponsible when the environmental footprint of these precious nuts is so very large.
The “decision” we made, therefore, is to keep almonds around but to keep them special, really in keeping with Indian usage. Almonds are expensive, and thus used very sparingly in most Indian desserts. It’s not uncommon to gift elaborately packaged nut assortments for special occasions like Deepavali or at weddings: gestures of affluence, largesse, extravagance, reserved for those special moments. Daily use, if there is any, is limited to consuming a couple of soaked and peeled almonds in the early mornings: one of those “good for you” type things. Even so, it’s a habit of well-to-do families.
Confession: I love almonds in cakes generally, for the structure and texture they give the cake crumb, so it hasn’t been easy to regulate consumption, but it sure has felt right. Here’s the rustic chocolate almond torte that gets made once in a blue moon, too, and probably loved all the more because of it.
The Food and Wine recipe calls for almond paste, which sounds much more marzipaney to me. Instead, I’ve modified the recipe to use just whole almonds, pulsed into a paste.
The rest is a familiar process: cream fats and sugars, add eggs and flavorings, fold dry ingredients into wet–and then (the fun part) arrange the almonds atop in a spiral.
And bake for just over an hour until you get this…
Dusted with confectioner’s sugar (if you wish) and served with some thick cream or crème fraîche or just with nothing at all.
You’re welcome!
Plum Almond Cake
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup granulated sugar [add a ¼ cup more if your plums are tart]
- 1 cup almonds
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 6 eggs
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or brandy
- 3 large plums—halved, pitted and cut into wedges (16 per plum)
- Crème fraîche to serve
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°. Line a 9-inch pan with parchment; butter and flour the parchment.
- Mix the all-purpose flour with the baking powder and salt in a small bowl. Set aside.
- Pulse the almonds in the jar of a spice grinder until they become a powder, and then continue pulsing for a minute or so longer until the almond oils start to release slightly and the mixture becomes paste-like.
- In a large bowl, or using a stand mixer, beat the sugar with the ground almond paste.
- Add the butter, beating until fluffy.
- Add the eggs one by one, beating well each time.
- Add in the vanilla or brandy.
- Gently fold in the flour mixture.
- Pour the batter into the parchment-lined prepared pan. Arrange the plums over the top of the batter in a spiral.
- Bake for 1 hour and 5 minutes, or until the cake top is well-browned and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Cool the cake in the pan for a few minutes. Then run a knife around the edge, and invert the cake onto a plate—peel off the parchment—and then invert it again onto a wire rack to cool completely. Serve warm or at room temperature topped with crème fraîche.
