As the two readers of this blog must know by now, I am addicted to cooking shows. With the recently added new Cooking Channel, there are even more shows to watch. Granted, the Cooking Channel is just running old programs, but, many are new to me. There are several that I really like. There is a show called Rachel Allen: Bake! that I enjoy and another about French cooking, but, my favorites are the old The French Chef and Cooking with Julia. I am absolutely delighted to watch Julia Child cook and interact with her guest chefs.

A recent show had chef Marcel Desaulniers as Julia’s guest. I own two of his cookbooks and I love them both, “Death by Chocolate” and “Chocolate Cakes.” This time Marcel made a plum cake with chocolate sauce. I was intrigued. I love plums, but, I find I barely use them when baking. I don’t actually know why that is. So when I saw Marcel and Julia make these little plum cakes I knew that this was something I was going to bake.

Now the recipe is for a plum cake with a chocolate sauce. For me, I just didn’t see the need for chocolate sauce. But, Paul felt that the plum cake could use ice cream, so we followed his advice and it was a perfect pairing. As an aside, Paul thinks everything could use ice cream!

The Recipe:

Plum Cake adapted from Marcel Desaulniers Baking With Julia

1/4 lb butter (1 stick)

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar plus additional for sprinkling

2 eggs

1 teaspoon orange zest

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup buttermilk

4 ripe but firm plums

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In the bowl of an electric mixer beat butter and white and brown sugars until sugars are dissolved, at least 3 minutes, stopping to scrape down bowl.

At eggs, one at a time and beat for 30 seconds after each addition. Add orange zest and vanilla and then add flour and beat for another minute. Pour in butter milk and baking soda and beat for 30 seconds. Remove bowl and continue to incorporate with a rubber spatula until smooth.

Spoon two tablespoons of batter into small souffle dishes or custard cups. Cut, plums in half removing seed. Push plums into batter, cut side up. Sprinkle brown sugar over the top of the plums and bake for 24 - 26 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.

At this point if you can run a knife around the edges and remove the cakes from the souffle dish. I used a small off set spatula, which worked fabulous. Or you can just put a scoop or two of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream right into the bowl, either way, it will be delicious.

Final Thoughts:

Wow, it is difficult to believe that this extremely simple recipe can pack such a powerful punch of flavor. This is so easy that it is ridiculous. We all loved this. I have to say I am not sure if I would add chocolate to this recipe. I didn’t think it needed it and when I don’t think there should be chocolate than perhaps it doesn’t. Yet, who am I to argue with Marcel Desaulniers? If he thinks that chocolate should be part of this dessert than perhaps I should heed his recipe.

Next time I will try the chocolate sauce, but, I have a feeling I will enjoy it much better sans the sauce. I, also, think that you could try other fruit, perhaps peaches or nectarines. This simple and homey, yet elegant dessert would be great for family and friends or special guests. Enjoy!