Friday, September 22, 2006

5767 since the creation of the world

Plum Cake

I am blessed to have married into this cake, which is not unlike Marion Burros's Original Plum Torte (thx chocolate lady). I bake almost no cakes, but my Jewishness demands holiday food preparations and this does the trick.

These are the verbatim instructions from the family recipe, which we have on a printout of an e-mail sent 9/7/1999.

USE A ROUND PAN;
1/2 c BUTTER
1/4 c SUGAR
1 EGG
1 c FLOUR
1/2 t SALT
1/2 t BAKING POWDER
1 t VANILLA
12-14 FRESH PRUNE PLUMS

CREAM BUTTER & SUGAR; ADD EGG; STIR IN FLOUR, SALT AND BAKING POWDER; VANILLA. PAT INTO BOTTOM OF 9" ROUND PAN; ARRANGE PLUM HALVES ON TOP; SPRINKLE WITH SUGAR; BAKE 350 DEGREES; 1 1/4 HOURS

GLAZE TOP: 1/2 c APRICOT JAM WHILE HOT

GOOD LUCK! LOVE, MOM

Shana Tova! Happy New Year!

7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Happy New Year. I make the Burros Plum Cake regularly myself.

4:44 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Shana Tova v' Metuka!

3:11 AM  
Blogger Margaret Polaneczky, MD (aka TBTAM) said...

Happy New Year, Haverchuck!

9:24 PM  
Blogger kspring said...

How I wish I had seen this recipe sooner. It looks marvelous!

Also inspired by Rosh Hashana, I tried to make a dessert -- a honeycake, recipe drawn from a well-known vegetarian cookbook. I figured, the author's Jewish, she knows what she's doing. Well, I followed the recipe precisely, and now I can say with certainty: there are few things more shameful than bringing a dry, slightly bitter honeycake to a Rosh Hashana potluck.

May your New Year be infinitely sweeter than my cake.

3:17 PM  
Blogger mzn said...

Oh, you really need to name names here, kat. Mollie Katzen?

9:07 PM  
Blogger the chocolate doctor מרת שאקאלאד said...

Happy New Year to you mzn, and to the whole plum-cake family.
Kat, Ouch! What a painful experience! Did you have some honeyed fig compote and honey vanilla ice cream to ladle onto the cake? That sometimes helps. I urge you to indulge me (and your fortunate guests) by trying this honeycake. Folks will just lose the power of speech.

1:47 AM  
Blogger kspring said...

I hope this post isn't yet dead.

mzn, well done -- you guessed the name.

the chocolate lady, thanks for your empathy! Indeed, we had vanilla ice cream, but folks chose wisely to scoop that over a lovely plum tart instead of the honeycake. Next year, i'm going with your recipe, the mere reading of which has caused me nearly to lose the power of speech.

1:52 PM  

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