Welcome once again to Tuesdays with Dorie. This week's fun-filled recipe is sponsored by Michelle from Bake-en! Okay. Not really sponsored. More like hosted. Chosen. Selected. You get the idea. You can find the recipe for Dorie's Dimply Plum Cake either on Michelle's site or in Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.
Dimply Plum Cake. Just saying it (or typing it) makes me happy. It sounds cute and plump and sweet and a teeny bit spicy. Because of that, I decided right off the bat that I couldn't just make a plain ol' 8" square cake. No, I had to bake it so that it would do the "cute" part justice. At least for me. No one else would notice or care, but that's okay. I figured my 4" springform pans would do the trick.
And speaking of cute and plump and sweet and a tiny bit spicy, Julia helped me bake this one. (I can say "plump" - I'm her mom. And she's four - of course there's a bit of plumpness here and there. Her plump, pinchable cheeks, for one.) Anyway, she helped up to a point and then decided she had done enough, so downstairs she went to nurse her sick Daddy. Or to torture him. The line blurs from time to time.
Anyway, the cake.
Very simple to put together. I already want to make it again using any one of Dorie's suggestions in the "playing around" section of her recipe.
First, you preheat the oven and grease and flour your pan(s).
You slice your plums in half and remove the pits.
You whisk together your dry ingredients. (But before you do that, you arrange them in their little mise en placed vessels so you can take their picture.)
You beat your butter, add your sugar...then the eggs, oil, vanilla and orange zest.
Then you gently mix in your dry ingredients.
Pour the batter into your pan(s). Smooth the batter. Arrange the halved plums, cut side up, on top of the batter.
(Symmetrical arrangement of the plums is optional.)
Pop them in the oven.
Cool on a rack.
And then benevolently summon your family members once you've taken all the photos you think you need.
"Is it ready yet?"
"Can I have a big piece?"
"I'm sooooooooo hungry!"
"Mo-ommmmmmm!"
"What's taking so long?"
They may whine, but this cake is worth the wait.
That's just my opinion, of course. If you want to know what all the other nineteenthousandbazillion Tuesdays with Dorie bakers did with this recipe, and read about what they thought of it, and see the photos they took, then you should probably start here.
And if you want to form your own opinion, go bake yourself a Dimply Plum Cake. The words are delicious. The cake itself is even better.
