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Author Notes: We were visiting my parents in Maine, and my mother capped off dinner one night by bringing a family favorite, Italian prune plum torte, to the table. For the handful of you who may not already be familiar with Marian Burros' iconic cake, it is arguably the most famous recipe ever to grace the pages of the New York Times. By Amanda's count, it was re-printed a dozen times over just as many years, sometimes with modifications -- including one that calls for a little less sugar than the original (we tend to prefer this version in my family). —Merrill Stubbs
Serves: 8
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 1 hrs
Ingredients
-
1
cup all-purpose flour, sifted
-
1
teaspoon baking powder
-
1
pinch salt
-
3/4
cup sugar
-
1/2
cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
-
2
large eggs
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10
to 12 Italian prune plums, pitted and halved lengthwise
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1
pinch Turbinado sugar and ground cinnamon for sprinkling
Directions
- Heat the oven to 350° F. Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl and set aside.
- In the bowl of a standing mixer or handheld beaters, cream the sugar and butter until very light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula.
- Add the dry ingredients and the eggs all at once, and beat until combined, scraping down the bowl once or twice.
- Spread the batter into an 8 or 9-inch spring form pan. Arrange the plum halves, skin side up, on top of the batter in concentric circles. Sprinkle the batter and fruit lightly with turbinado sugar and cinnamon (I use about 2 teaspoons of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, but adjust these to your taste).
- Bake the torte for 40 to 50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Cool the cake in its pan on a rack for 10 minutes, and then release the spring and let it finish cooling just on the base. Once it's cool, serve as soon as possible. Or, you can double-wrap the torte in foil, put it in a sealed plastic bag and freeze (for up to one year!). Note: to serve a torte that has been frozen, defrost it completely and then reheat it for 5 to 10 minutes in a 300-degree oven.
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33 Reviews
I made this recipe GF dairy fee. It was wonderful! GF all purpose flour and Fleishmann's Original margarine (dairy free) - same amounts as in regular recipe. Sprinkle sugar, cinnamon, and lemon juice on top...enjoy! Made it with blueberries as well.
I froze a lot of cherries last year so I have been using them instead of plums. Here are my alterations using cherries: Thaw and drain the cherries (10-12 ounces), reserving the juice, about 3-4 tablespoons. Grate 1/2 tsp each, ginger root and lemon zest and add to butter when creaming. Add 1/4 tsp. cinnamon to dry ingredients. Add the juice from the cherries at the end of mixing process. The cherries tend to sink to the bottom during baking. I have made this cake at least 4 times since May. I have found that just about any fruit that can stand up to baking can be used with this cake. I have been making this cake since 2004 and it always draws compliments and requests for the recipe!
I have used frozen plums, apricots and peaches too, as well as fresh.
When it came to pouring the batter into a 9in springform, I was concerned that the batter wouldn't be enough to even cover the 9in springform so I decided to use a 9in tart pan. This appeared to be the just the right size as it's not very deep but as I started arranging the plum slices I knew it was too shallow as I could imagine the cake rising beyond the height of the tart pan. I ended up using only 4 cut up plums and that ended up covering most of the surface area of the batter (arranged these in concentric circles). As this was baked, the cake rose and went past the tart's rim but it did not spill over. The cake itself was very shallow given the amount of batter and the plums on top appear to weigh it down a bit. The ratio of plum to cake is about ~3:8 (0.40) which is perfect for me. Also the plums were pretty tart so adding the sugar on top of the batter and sliced plums helped balance the tartness and sweetness. Overall, I was pleased with the taste but surprised to see how shallow of a cake this ended up being (height was ~1in).
If you do try it, would love to hear what you observe!
I also think Italian prune plums grown in Idaho must be a different breed. 10-12 of them was more than enough for two cakes. I actually used 15 plums and made three total cakes; one a double-batch in a 10 inch springform which turned out the best of the three, since it was a thicker cake. For that one, I actually chopped the plums smaller than in half, since I found them hard to cut in the tender cake. But I still placed them skin side up around the surface. I am curious if anyone has had success just mixing in chunks.
Know also that it's difficult to remove the cake from the base of the springform, so I took to loosening it with a hard plastic spatula as soon as the cake was cool enough to handle. I might try parchment rounds in the future.