Dimply Plum Cake
(Gâteau aux Prunes) There are a lot of fresh temperate-climate fruits I haven't tasted. Nectarines, quinces, blueberries, raspberries, and peaches, to name a few (though I've had a lot of canned peaches in my life). And me being moderately clueless about which season does which fruit ripen, I have to snatch every opportunity to try them when someone imports them, which is what happened last weekend, when I saw peaches and plums on display. I could have gone with the US white peaches, but there's something so... ravishing about the deep purple of the plums. Before I started this blog, I'd already made a Plum Galette, so I had to try something new. Me being afraid of failure, I approached a reliable source: Dorie Greenspan. She recently posted her recipe for Dimply Plum Cake on Serious Eats and I just had to try it.
The recipe in the link above is pretty straightforward, but I incorporated a few steps that just made common baker sense. First, I sifted the dry ingredients together before mixing them. Second, I folded in the dry ingredients instead of using the mixer. Also, I only had 4 largish plums, so to make a perfect square number on top, I cut each into quarters, and these are not so much "dimply." It did, however, make a beautiful pattern on top that reminds me of Japanese prints. Not entirely Hokusai, but he keeps popping into my head, so I'm sticking with it.