Late Summer Plum Cake
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Gently spiced, this jammy plum cake celebrates the summer-into-fall season. Serve it for brunch or dessert.
Taking a cue from Martha Stewart’s fresh strawberry cake (a favorite on this site), this plum cake is the perfect dessert for late summer when plums are at their prime. Tucked into the batter, the fruit bakes into rich, jammy pockets, while warm spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom add a hint of cozy fall flavors. Enjoy this dessert any time of day—plain and simple with a cup of coffee, or topped with whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
“A wonderful cake! The spices really make it stand out and the plums cut through to make the whole thing sing!”
What you’ll need to make Plum Cake
- Flour, baking powder, and salt – Your dry base to give the cake structure.
- Warm spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom) – Just enough to give the cake a cozy, fall-like flavor.
- Butter and sugar – Creamed together until light and fluffy for that tender crumb. A little sugar is also sprinkled over the top so the cake gets a caramelized finish.
- Egg and vanilla – Bind the batter and add depth of flavor.
- Milk – Any kind you have on hand works here; low-fat is fine.
- Plums – Ripe but firm, pitted and quartered so they bake into jammy little pockets.
- Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements
Step-By-Step Instructions
Step 1: Combine the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, and salt together. Set the mixture aside.
Step 2: Cream butter and sugar. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or beaters, beat the butter and 1 cup of the sugar until pale and fluffy—it should take a few minutes.
Step 3: Add the egg and vanilla. Beat on low speed until evenly combined.
Step 4: Add the dry ingredients and milk. Gradually add the flour mixture, alternating with the milk, and beat on low speed until smooth.
Step 5: Transfer the batter to the pan. Scrape the batter into a greased springform pan and smooth the top with an offset spatula. As you can see, the batter is quite thick.
Step 6: Top with plums. Arrange the sliced plums on top of the batter, skin side up, in a circular pattern so that they cover most of the cake. Then sprinkle the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar over the plums.
Step 7: Bake. Bake the cake for 60 to 70 minutes, until golden on top and set in the center.
Step 8: Cool and serve. Once the cake comes out of the oven, run a knife around the edges and release the springform side (leave the base in place). Let it cool completely on a rack, then slice and enjoy.
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Late Summer Plum Cake
Ingredients
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup and leveled-off
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ⅛ teaspoon cardamom
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for greasing the pan
- 1 cup + 2 tablespoons tablespoons sugar, divided
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup milk (any kind)
- 1 lb plums, pitted and quartered
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C) and set an oven rack in the middle position. Grease a 9-in (23-cm) springform pan. (Alternatively, the cake may be made in a 9-in/23-cm cake pan or pie pan and served directly from the pan.)
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, and salt.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or beaters, cream the butter and 1 cup (200 g) of the sugar until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and beat on low speed until well combined. Gradually add the flour mixture, alternating with the milk, and beat on low speed until smooth. (Note: the batter will be quite thick.)
- Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and smooth the top with an offset spatula. Arrange the plums on top, skin side up, in a circular pattern so that they mostly cover the batter. Sprinkle the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar over the plums.
- Bake for 60 to 70 minutes, until golden on top and set in the center.
- When the cake is hot out of the oven, run a knife around the edges of the pan and then remove the springform edge, leaving the base in place (if using a springform pan). Let the cake cool on a rack completely. Slice and serve with ice cream or whipped cream, if desired. The cake keeps well, loosely covered at room temperature, for several days.
Notes
Nutrition Information
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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Hi there I made this cake Having a surplus of Victoria plums from Borough market. It was delicious but it didn’t look like the picture or video.! I’m wondering if the quants from cups to Metric we’re re a bit out. There’s quite a lot of sugar for the amount of flour so I reduced that. Also I found a 20 inch springform was the right size as 23 Inc would’ve been a quite a small flattish cake. I shall definitely make it again and use this website.
Sorry you had a bit of a problem with this, Anne! I just reviewed the conversions to metric and made the slightest tweak to the weight of the flour (added 5 grams), but other than that it checks out. Glad you enjoyed it nevertheless. 🙂
Hi Jen,
Made this cake this morning. The house smells wonderful! Of course my husband & I tried a still warm piece—DELICIOUS! Thank you Jen!
😊 Mary
Jenn, Fantastic recipe; thank you.
I am fortunare to have a plum tree, so it was a delicious way use plums. Turned out perfect. I used heavy whipping cream instead of milk and used salted butter because that’s all I had. Omitted other salt in the recipe. It was a hit among friends; def keeper. Cheers.
Made this Plum Cake recipe yesterday and it was excellent! I used Italian plums halves to cover the cake. Came out amazing and was gone super quickly! Went out and bought more plums today to make another one! A keeper!!!
We just moved and got Italian Plums in our first local farmers market pick up box, and I found this recipe for using them. I haven’t unpacked the springform pans yet so I used a 9” layer cake pan and it came out perfectly. Love the recipe!
We have a bumper crop of plums this year and I decided to look for a recipe for a plum dessert. We’ve just taken the cake out of the oven and had a slice. This cake is absolutely delicious! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe.
Awesome cake. So easy. So moist.
Another winner from Jenn!! In my opinion, the ingredients that make this cake so delicious are butter and the combination of spices. Butter makes the cake tender and fine textured. Cardamon is one of my all-time favorite spices. The spice combination is perfect. I used a glass 9″x 9″ square pan instead of the spring-form pan. A scoop of vanilla ice cream on top made a delicious dessert. I think this cake would be delicious using peaches in place of the plums.
My kids and I didn’t think you could do better than the strawberry cake but this plum cake is amazing! The combination of the warm spices and the jammy plums was just divine. I made this in a ceramic pie dish and it came out perfect. Good vanilla ice cream was an awesome addition at the end. This is a definite keeper!
I brought this cake over to my MILs and they loved it, with or without whipped cream! I already have people asking me for this recipe.
Delicious and so easy!