Plum Torte Cake Buckle Heavenly Thing

Write this recipe down on a little sheet of paper and put it on your fridge.  That's what I did.  After I had already made it twice.  Now, that I've made it five times in the span of about two weeks, I can pat myself on the back and say, smart girl, you are.  This is one for the books.

This recipe - which I didn't even know was famous, but apparently, it is - is worth the hype, even if you didn't know it had any hype.  The plums (or peaches, or nectarines... really this is the easiest recipe ever to alter) bake up into these delicious sweet/tart pockets of jam that perfectly complement the light, fragrant, moist crumb of this cake.  Torte.  Buckle.  Heavenly thing, whatever you want to call it.

I can't say much more about this because I have already rambled on too much, but it's so easy to make, you might as well make two, because you're turning on your oven anyway, and you'll regret it if you don't.  Slice the extra one and store the slices in little ziplock baggies in the freezer.  Pull out anytime you need a snack or want to add an extra treat to someone's (aka your own, if you live alone, like I do) lunch.

Bring this to any birthday party, baby shower, picnic, or dinner party and it'll be a hit.  It's easy, elegant, and requires no additional side servings of whipped cream, coffee, or ice cream to be a hit.  But what the heck, it doesn't hurt to add them if you want.

As if typical of me, I took no pictures of this cake any of the times I made it, and now I am sitting in my apartment without enough eggs to make another cake in order to take a picture of it, so the lovely illustration above was done by yours truly for the benefit of whoever is reading this.  I hope you appreciate my artist representation.  If you want pretty pictures of this torte, go here, which the blog where I actually got the idea to make this recipe.

Heavenly Plum Thing

barely adapted from Marian Burro's recipe

½ cup salted butter, softened

¾ cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional, but why leave it out?)

1 cup unbleached all purpose flour, sifted

1 teaspoon baking powder

Pinch of salt  (not optional)

3-5 large plums or peaches, or 8-12 small plums (really just use your judgement here, this isn't hard)

1-2 teaspoons raw sugar (optional)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat your oven to 350F.

Cream the sugar and butter in a bowl.

Add the salt, eggs, and vanilla and beat well.  Let it all get very fluffy.

Add the flour and baking powder, and mix well.

Spoon the batter into a spring form of 8 or 9 inches.

Place the plum halves skin side up on top of the batter. Sprinkle lightly with cinnamon and raw sugar.

Bake one hour, approximately.

Remove and cool.

Eat.  Enjoy.

Repeat as many times as necessary.