solution: plum cake

My truck blew up. A week before Christmas. Because of course it did.

I went out at 10pm to rescue Mike from the side of the highway - me in reindeer pajamas, him in full kilt and jacket, carrying an empty beer keg. You're welcome, passers-by. *

This morning I made a plum cake for everyone before going to work. This is foolproof comfort food. Quick to prepare (and quiet, if everyone is still in bed) and very, very good. We make this at least once a month.

Plum cake

5 plums (or whatever soft fruit you have on hand)
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or whatever pie spices you've got - ginger, cloves, nutmeg, etc)

1 stick butter, cut into 4 pieces (salted butter is best)

1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp of salt (more if you're using unsalted butter)
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract

Turn the on oven to 350. (I use a toaster oven.)

Chop up the plums into about 6 pieces (discard the stones, obviously), get a medium-sized mixing bowl, and toss the fruit with the 1/2 cup sugar and spices. Set them aside to get syruppy.

Put the butter in a medium baking dish or deep pie pan and put it in the hot oven to melt.

In another bowl, whisk together dry ingredients, add milk and extracts, and whisk until smooth. Give your fruit a stir to make sure it's getting syruppy (I add some vanilla if it's looking dry - depends on the fruit). When the butter is bubbly and hot, take the pan out of the oven, give your batter a quick stir, and pour the batter over the hot butter. The edges may sizzle and start to cook, that's fine. Drop the fruit all over the batter and pour the syrup over the top. Pop the pan back into the oven and bake for 50 minutes, until the cake is golden and bubbly and beautiful.

Let it cool for about 10 minutes, so the remaining butter settles in and the syrup thickens. You're supposed to flip it over onto a platter for presentation, but who needs to dirty another dish? Just spoon it out onto plates and eat it. The edges are crispy, the middle is tender, the fruit is sweet, it's delicious.



* The man was coming back from a retirement party. He had brewed a keg of Hefeweisen and had to do a highland dance. There was a bagpiper. Then he blew out my radiator. And the towing insurance expired 3 hour earlier, Eastern Standard Time. Naturally. It's fine. It's fiiiiiine. PLUM CAKE.

** I feel I should add here that he did not drink a keg of Hefeweisen. There were 200 people at a party with free drinks, he barely got to taste it to make sure it wouldn't poison everyone.