cake

Cinnamon Plum Cake

/ Shane / Leave a comment

The first Friday of the month is reserved for recipes. You can see additional First Friday Food posts here.

The Reason:

I don’t remember if we made this the first time because we had plums, or if we bought plums to make it. But I can definitely tell you the second time, we definitely bought plums to make it.

I had another recipe for this week, but I was hoping to get this one out before the plums were completely done for the season!

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The Journey:

I’m kind of ambivalent towards plums. I’ve got nothing against them, but I don’t usually feel like sitting down and just eating a plum, you know? HOWEVER, it turns out that if you put them in a CAKE, that’s a whole different story.

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So, this recipe calls for 1 tablespoon of cinnamon, which is sort of an unprecedented amount of cinnamon. You may think that’s a typo, and it is. Kind of. From Smitten Kitchen:

I received a note from Amanda Hesser over the weekend giving me a heads-up that the 1 tablespoon listed in the Essential New York Times Cookbook was actually a typo, and should have been 1 teaspoon. In fact, the very original version in the Times had 1 tablespoon too, but all of the future ones had only 1 teaspoon, suggesting that it had been a typo there too.

Having made the 1 tablespoon version (repeatedly), I can tell you that I wouldn’t have it any other way. It is a lot of cinnamon, and I wouldn’t have thought cinnamon + plums = magic, but in fact, cinnamon + plums = magic.

2015_09_19_2326The Verdict:

I feel like this is a fancy-pants dessert that you could impress with at a party, and yet it is so delicious and easy to make, so you won’t mind just making it for yourself at home.

It is also the only dessert I know where you can literally PUT IN YOUR THUMB AND PULL OUT A PLUM. That’s got to count for something.

 The Recipe:

Recipe from Smitten Kitchen:

  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • Large pinch of salt
  • 1 cup granulated sugar plus 1 to 2 tablespoon (depending on sweetness of plums)
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 2 large eggs
  • 12 smallish plums (Italian purple if you can get them), halved and pitted
  • 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  1. Heat oven to 350°F.
  2. Sift or whisk together flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.
  3. In a larger bowl, cream butter and 1 cup sugar together with an electric mixer until fluffy and light in color. Add the eggs, one at a time and scraping down the bowl, then the dry ingredients, mixing until just combined.
  4. Spoon batter into a greased, 9-inch springform pan and smooth the top. Arrange the plums, skin side up, all over the batter, covering it. Sprinkle the top with lemon juice, then cinnamon, then remaining sugar.
  5. Bake until cake is golden and a toothpick inserted into a center part of the cake comes out free of batter (but of course not plum juice), about 45 to 50 minutes. Cool on rack.
  6. Leave it covered at room temperature overnight.

Rich Almond Cake

/ Shane / Leave a comment

The Reason:

The reason is that this cake is easy to make and tastes like heaven. However, the original source mentions this as something that even an un-skilled chef could make for Valentines Day, so this is also timely. On one hand, the girl of your dreams will be very impressed with your mad cooking skillz. On the other hand, she will probably marry you on the spot, and then you’ll have to explain that you don’t actually have mad cooking skillz, unless of course she wants to eat Rich Almond Cake every day for the rest of her life, which she probably will.

The Journey:

Eating this cake reminds me of eating my mom’s almond sugar cookie dough raw (this is a good thing). If you like almonds, you will love this cake. Even if you don’t, you will love this cake. And it’s so easy to make, it really only takes a few minutes.

Sara happens to love this cake so much, that she literally finds it irresistible. I offer the following photo as proof:

“So good it makes me want to lick a listeria filled beater.”

The Verdict:

What more can I say about it? Serve it with real, home-made whipped cream. If you use cool whip Sara will hunt you down and kill you. Her words, not mine.

The Recipe:

Recipe by way of Get Rich Slowly.

  • 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
  • 3/4 cup real butter, melted
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3 Tablespoons sliced almonds (for garnish)
  • 1 Tablespoon granulated sugar (for garnish)
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Use butter wrappers to generously grease a 9″ round cake pan.
  3. With a mixer, blend together the sugar and melted butter.
  4. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat in.
  5. Stir in extracts.
  6. Add salt and flour and mix until everything is incorporated.
  7. Spread batter in the pan and sprinkle the top with sliced almonds and sugar.
  8. Bake 30-35 minutes, or until golden brown.
  9. Cool completely on a wire rack before removing from pan.
  10. Serve with homemade whipped cream (or prepare to die)