Plum Cake

So lets talk about plum cake.
It's soft, it's pretty, it's sweet, it's tart. With all of the great stone fruit out right now, I decided to make this lovely cake that I found at Bellaeats.
You should too! It's really great for a light dessert or even good with coffee for breakfast in the morning. Also it tastes better the next day so it would be a great one to bake the day before a dinner party or cookout and then bring it the next day when all of the juicy plumness has been absorbed into the cake. Oh and you can substitute the plums for any stone fruit (meaning any fruit that has a hard seed in the middle like peaches, nectarines, apricots, ecc) but I find it works best with plums because they are slightly tart and that contrasts wonderfully with the sweet cake.

Plum Cake

Ingredients:
*1 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature, for the pan
*2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
*1 tsp baking powder
*1 tsp fine sea salt
*zest from 1 lemon
*1 cup sugar
*3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temp
*3 eggs
*1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
*2 1/2 cups stone fruit, halved the sliced to about 1/4" thick (I used 4 large-ish plums)
*juice from 1/2 a lemon
*1-2 tbsp granulated sugar
*1 tbsp turbinado sugar
*1/4 cup sliced almonds, chopped a bit

To prepare:
1. Mix the flour, salt, baking powder and lemon zest together in a bowl, set aside.
2. In a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium high speed for 3-5 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add the eggs 1 at a time, beating well and scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Add the vanilla and mix.
3. Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture and stir just until a smooth dough forms. Pull together in a ball (it will be very sticky- don't worry) and wrap with plastic wrap. Flatten into a disk about 1-inch thick and freeze for 30 minutes.
4. While the dough rests, place the sliced plums in a bowl and drizzle with lemon juice and 1-2 tbsp sugar, depending on the sweetness of your fruit. Let it sit until the dough is read.
5. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Butter a 10" spring-form pan. Remove the dough from the freezer and divide it into 2 equal parts. Pat one piece into the bottom of the buttered pan, making sure to cover the surface evenly. Spread your fruit over the dough, distributing evenly. break the remaining dough into 1-inch globs and distribute evenly over the surface of the fruit. Sprinkly wth turbinado sugar and the almonds.
6. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until bubbly and golden.

Enjoy with tea or coffee!