Cakes.

After thirty or forty jars of jam and sauce, it was super fun to do some baking. These simple German-style plum cakes don’t use up a lot of plums but they’re easy to make and they do freeze well (or so I’ve read–this is my first time making them!), so I ended up making five of them. Good thing we have a lot of freezer space!

I did a little experimenting to get to a cake I was really happy with, and here’s what I thought worked best:

Pflaumkuchen

1/2 C. butter, softened
3/4 C. sugar
2 eggs
1 C. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
pinch of salt
~15 plums, halved and pitted

Preheat oven to 350F.
Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl. Add the eggs and beat thoroughly. Add the flour, baking powder, vanilla and salt and mix well. Spoon the mixture into a 10″ springform pan. Place one half plum face-down in the center, and arranged the other halves face-up in concentric circles around the center.
Bake 45 minutes, until top is golden brown and a knife or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Remove springform and allow to cool.
If freezing, be sure to let it cool completely before wrapping with plastic wrap or another airtight packaging.

I haven’t thawed one yet, so I can’t say how good they are after freezing. The internet seems to think they stay pretty good, so, y’know, take that for what it’s worth. I did read that you should NOT re-heat them after freezing, just thaw for several hours and serve at room temperature.

Anyone have experience freezing/thawing cakes? Any tips? I’m out of my element here, but I’m really hopeful for delicious pflaumkuchen whenever I feel like. Maybe served with a little plum sorbet?

While I was at it, I made a tart, too. This one also supposedly freezes well, but I’m not so sure.

I had seen something similar in a few places, so I just kind of made this one up as I went. I made a pie dough (my recipe is here, if you want it–I just use the basic pie dough from Joy of Cooking). After letting the dough chill for 30 mins., I rolled it out placed it in the pan, and then let that chill for another hour or so.

Then I quartered a whole bunch of plums and arranged them “artfully” in the dish:

I baked it at 375F for 50 minutes or so. The plums cooked and released their juices and turned pink. So easy, so delicious. It doesn’t keep super well, though, so I had Ben take it to work to have hungry farmers finish it off.

And the best news is: there’s just one more plum post left, I promise. Then we can all get back to the fun stuff.