Quick Almond and Plum Cake

| September 19, 2011

Episode 124: Sweet Endings
Recipe: Quick Almond and Plum Cake

It takes just a few seconds to mix the flour, sugar, and almonds for this fast food-processor cake, and then you blend in the remaining ingredients. You can bake the cake in a springform pan or in a loaf pan, like a pound cake.

Made without the plum topping, the cake freezes well. (It is best not to freeze the cake with the fruit, since it becomes mushy when defrosted.) For best results, wrap the cake carefully in plastic wrap and aluminum foil before freezing it, and defrost it in the refrigerator while still wrapped.

Quick Almond and Plum Cake

Serves 6 to 8

CAKE
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup unblanched whole almonds
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons canola oil
2 large eggs
1/3 cup milk

TOPPING
4–6 ripe plums, preferably Black Friar or Santa Rosa (1 1/4 pounds)
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup plum jam
1 tablespoon plum brandy or Calvados

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, with a rack in the center. Butter a 9-inch springform pan with 1/2 teaspoon of the butter.

FOR THE CAKE: Process the flour, almonds, sugar, and baking powder in a food processor until the mixture is a coarse powder. Add the vanilla, the remaining butter, the oil, and eggs and process for a few seconds, just until incorporated. Add the milk and process for a few seconds, until the mixture is smooth. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

FOR THE TOPPING: Using the point of a sharp knife, remove the pit from the stem end of each plum. (If the plums are not fully ripened and feel hard, prick them all over with the point of a sharp knife to soften them.) Rinse the whole plums well under cold water. While they are still wet, roll them in the sugar. Arrange the plums on top of the cake, spacing them evenly, and push them down into the batter until the bottom half of each is immersed.

Place the cake on a cookie sheet and bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until puffy and nicely browned on top. Cool on a rack to lukewarm.

Mix the plum jam and brandy together in a small bowl and brush the top of the lukewarm cake with the mixture. Remove the sides of the pan and cut the cake into 6 to 8 wedges, so that each serving contains at least half a plum. Serve warm or just at room temperature.

Copyright © 2011 by Jacques Pépin. Used by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.

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Category: dessert, fruit, nuts, Recipes

About the Author ()

I was the Senior Digital Producer for KQED Food up until July, 2018.  Since 2001, I designed, produced, managed and contributed to mostly food-related websites and blogs for KQED including: KQED.org; KQED Food; Bay Area Bites; Check, Please! Bay Area;  Taste This; Celebrity Chefs; seven of Jacques Pepin's TV series websites; and Joanne Weir's Cooking in the City. I initiated the majority of KQED Food's social media feeds and maintained them up until 2017.  As far as content creation,  photography is my passion and I also shoot video and write stories. My photos have been used in articles for KQED Food, News, Arts, and Science as well as for promotional purposes in print and online. Professional education and training includes: clinical psychology, photography, commercial cooking, web design, information architecture and UX.

Comments (5)

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  1. Russ says:

    This is a terrific cake! I’ve made it many times in its previous, mini-sized incarnation, as part of one of chef’s “Fast Food…” series. Comes together in minutes, and the original version bakes great in a toaster oven! Scaled up, the smaller recipe makes a wonderful summer cake with fresh apricots and cherries baked in it, and with a little sugar and sliced almonds on top, for some crunch.

  2. harry styles says:

    I wanna make this cake.so.badly but I have no eggs and no money to buy with. 🙁

  3. Qing says:

    Excellent cake! This will definitely be in my recipe collection from now on. Quick, easy, tasty, a recipe doesn’t get better than this. And it’s super forgiving. I picked up the wrong measuring cup for sugar and milk and ended up with a batter that has 1 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of milk. Still the cake came out GREAT. I also didn’t grind the almonds as finely as the direction says but didn’t mind biting on the small pieces of almonds at all. They actually gave the cake an interesting texture. Jacques Pepin is my all time favorite chef and I’ve never been disappointed with his recipes.

  4. mpdg says:

    Can you substitute other fruit – such as pears?

    • drinkmorecoffee says:

      Yes you can! I just tried this recipe using Bosc pears and it came out great. I also substituted the plum jam and brandy for some homemade apple-cranberry jam and it tasted lovely, if I do say so myself.