Hope for Humanity Plum Cake

This isn’t a secret recipe, but it is a coveted one. The recipe is credited to Marian Burros, who was a food reporter for the New York Times (now retired) and who first published this in 1983. She called it a Purple Plum Torte. People have lost their nuts over it ever since. I changed the name because eating this cake makes me think there could be hope for us after all.

It’s a very adaptable recipe. I usually wait until fall for the fantastic Italian plums to be ripe before I make plum cake, but you can make it with almost any good baking fruit and get a wonderful result. If you’re feeling a bit wild-west in your kitchen go for apple blueberry, or mango blackberry!

Combine Dry:

1 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder (aluminum free)

½ – 1 tsp salt

Set aside

Combine:

¾ – 1 cup sugar (depending on the sweetness of your plums)

½ cup butter

2 eggs

Whisk sugar, butter, and eggs together. Slowly add the dry. Mix until just combined. Pour into square or round pan that is well greased with butter. Cut plums in half and remove pits. Arrange plums, skin side up, on the batter.

Sprinkle on top of plums and batter:

2 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp cinnamon

Bake at 350 F until toothpick comes out clean.