Original Plum Torte

I haven't made this recipe, but it is the plum torte recipe from Marian Burros that made the rounds of Jewish homes for two decades after its publication in the 1980s. R. made it last year and it was very good, if not as interesting as her plum-ginger torte. I am blogging this recipe here for future use and variation on the plum theme.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup unbleached flour, sifted
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• Pinch of salt (optional)
• 2 eggs
• 24 halves pitted purple plums
• Sugar, lemon juice and cinnamon for topping

Directions:

1.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.

Cream the sugar and butter in a bowl. Add the flour, baking powder, salt and eggs and beat well.

3.

Spoon the batter into a spring form of 8, 9 or 10 inches. Place the plum halves skin side up on top of the batter. Sprinkle lightly with sugar and lemon juice, depending on the sweetness of the fruit. Sprinkle with (about) 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, depending on how much you like cinnamon.

4.

Bake one hour, approximately. Remove and cool; refrigerate or freeze if desired. Or cool to lukewarm and serve plain or with whipped cream.

5.

To serve a torte that was frozen, defrost and reheat it briefly at 300 degrees.

YIELD

8 servings

• NOTE

  To freeze, double-wrap the tortes in foil, place in a plastic bag and seal.

• NOTE

  Nutritional analysis per serving: 278 calories, 13.3 grams total fat, 7.6 grams saturated fat, 99 milligrams cholesterol, 56 milligrams sodium, 3 grams protein, 38 grams carbohydrate

Here's a link to the best cake recipes from the NYTimes of the past couple years, for future perusal:
http://www.nytimes.com/info/cake-recipes/?inline=nyt-classifier