I love plums. They always remind me of summers spent with my grandparents in California and long car rides with sticky fingers from eating the juiciest plums I’ve ever had in my life.
I love how food tends to evoke some sort of emotion or memory in all of us. It’s the thing that draws us all in together to share both the food and our lives with one another. Every good memory I have in life has some sort of food that was there, even if not consumed, and is tethered to that memory. Plums are one of those foods, bringing back memories of sleeping on the back porch bed that used to be my dad’s where I would shiver all night long and wake up sweating in the morning sun.
They represent jumping out of the pool on one of those hot summer days, grabbing a towel, and laying back in the sunshine to just let the juice dribble all over my bathing and my towel. They are reminders of my grandparents in every way, from the simple and delicious food they would make for us to the way they gardened as if it was second nature. Lord knows I can’t garden worth beans, but fresh plums bring me back to those memories every time!
This was my first time to ever bake with them rather than letting the sweet purple-golden juices be the only dessert I really need, and I have to say that it certainly is delicious! It comes together in no time, has a surprise ingredient, and a dense and airy texture that is punctuated by jewel-colored plum pieces. A better summer dessert has not existed! Suffice to say for the plum, natural and ripe and sweet. Duh 😉
FRESH PLUM CAKE
- 1 1/3 cups of cream cheese icing (I definitely prefer homemade, but you can certainly use store bought in a pinch)
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- pinch of salt
- 2 fresh plums, pit removed and cut into chunks
Preheat oven to 350. In a bowl combine the cream cheese icing, egg, and milk. Add the baking powder, salt, and flour. Mix until just combined. Very gently fold in the plums. Pour into a greased 8×4 loaf pan and bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Serve warm or at room temperature!
What’s a fond memory that food brings to you? I’d love to hear it!
Whoa-love the secret ingredient! This looks fantastic. Also brought me back to being a kid. 🙂
oh man that looks soo amazing! ive never heard of plums in cake but it sounds pretty awesome!
The cake is gorgous. Like really gorgous.
We have a plum tree. Bookmarking this one!
I love plums. The cake sounds great! Will try this. Thanks for sharing.
Well that looks amazing and so tastey. May have to try that this weekend.
My fond memory in regards to food is pretty much any seafood. My parents and I use to live right on the water in Virginia. Whew I can remember fishing and then heading home to eat all types of fish, shrimp and scallops but the best was raw oysters. My dad would shuck them when I was 5 or so and I would just eat and let’em slide down. They were/are so yummy. Also the smell of the water is such a refreshing and memorable smell.
Thanks for the recipe Heather! Cannot wait to try it.
This is truly one of the prettiest cakes I have seen. And your memories of plums and summertime were wonderful to read.
Yum! Looks great!
A food that evokes memories for me is crumble top blueberry muffins. My grandma used to bake a huge batch for us to have for breakfast. And even though they were HUGE, I always ate two because they were so delicious.
Yum, looks so good. This seems like the perfect kind of dessert to bring for a Sunday brunch
this looks beautiful and delicious – how can it not be with cream cheese icing! wow, I am going to make this one! I love plums, they remind me of childhood summertime also.
I love plums and remember having plum cake in Italy last year with my parents. Almost all my happy memories involve food too and the vacation I had last year in Italy was certainly filled with it 🙂
Never seen plums in a baked good I don’t think. Definitely looks like it works. Plums always remind me of summer too. Love them!
Such a pretty cake! Great use of a summer fruit!
i love the idea of having icing IN the cake! that’s different 🙂
Oh! That is quite honestly one of the prettiest looking cakes I’ve ever seen. I love how simple and bright it is, what stunning colors! Thank you for this recipe.
I think plum cakes are SO pretty!! Love stone fruits in the summertime 🙂
Icing in a cake?! I love that!
Such a pretty cake!!
Plums are so delicious! They remind me of my Nannie’s farm, where they had plum trees. We’d climb up as kids and eat them right off the branch. It doesn’t get much better than that… though your plum cake my rival it 😉