Cake of the Week was from the "easy list" in the back of Rose's Heavenly Cakes, and I was very grateful for it. Baking time is a little short right now--I was in San Diego last week, and I leave for Albuquerque next Sunday. (I'm also about 6 weeks behind on my fellow Heavenly Cake Bakers' blog posts, though I hope to catch up with everyone's doings before too long. Maybe in September...)This Plum and Blueberry Upside-Down Torte is indeed easy, with the most difficult part of the baking being a caramel. The most difficult non-baking part would be finding the recommended greengage plums, which I failed to turn up in any of the places I go for more exotic or upscale produce in Atlanta. I even looked while in San Diego, in case southern California ran to such things when Atlanta did not, but no. Red plums, black, green, purple, but no greengage. I ended up with a green plum variety and a red plum, and used the green ones. I suspect my palate couldn't tell the difference once baked up with the cake anyway.
The cake process is in three stages: make a caramel and pour it in the cake pan. Arrange the plums on top, then spread lots of blueberries over the plums. Then make a quick butter cake batter in the food processor (dry stuff first, blend in butter, then add eggs and vanilla and zap until mixed) and dollop that over the fruit, smooth it out, and bake.
The cake is turned out to give the "upside down" fruit topping, and Rose recommends baking it a day ahead to let it moisten evenly. Hard though it was when the smell of the warm fruit was wafting through the kitchen, that's what I did, so I baked on Saturday and we cut the cake on Sunday evening.
Taste results: a hit all round. I made a little whipped cream to serve with it, but even without I think this would be a favorite. Sister-in-law inadvertently ate one bite of cake alone and found it dry, but my brother felt the cake was just what was wanted to go with its fruit topping, or for a stand-alone shortcake treatment, perhaps. The kids all requested that I save another piece for them instead of taking it all to the office. I did take the remains to the office, and it got more praises there. I'll definitely make this one again.
Turned out beautifully! I wish I had thought about whipping cream. Very few places here knew what greengage plums even are. Whole Foods didn't have a clue. By the time I found some, I felt like I could write a thesis on greengage plums!
ReplyDeleteMy grandkids liked this cake, too, although on took off the plums but liked the blueberries.
Like Vicki.. I searched for those green plums all over the place without any luck... but my replacements (Pluot) apparently did great!
ReplyDeleteVicki.. this is what I love about cooking with this group the amount of information you learn about the different (new) ingredients that Rose is exposing us to.
I thought all green plums are greenage plums till i saw your post..and you used green plums and yet not greenage. Hmm... now i am curious what greenage plums are.
ReplyDeleteGreengage and green plums are new to me, too, but from Googling I gather that not all green plums are greengages. (Though as 'gage' means plum, it's certainly confusing.) The green plums I found were slightly oval and had a pointed end, and it appears that greengages are round. The pointy ones apparently show up in Asian markets, and that's where I found mine.
ReplyDeleteב''ה
ReplyDeleteLove that picture of the blueberries and the green plums. The top picture of the cake looks nice too!
I think your cake looks stunning! I know it was delicious as well.
ReplyDelete