This plum cornmeal cake is a great summertime dessert!

I feel like plums are a way underused stone fruit, but it’s time to change that up. And this cake is the perfect way to do just that!

INGREDIENTS

– 4-5 plums, cut into 1/2-inch slices
– 2 tbsp light brown sugar
– 1 tsp ground cinnamon
– 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
– 1/2 cup cornmeal
– 3/4 cup granulated sugar
– 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
– 1 tsp kosher salt
– 8 tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
– 2 large eggs
– 1 tsp vanilla extract
– 1 cup buttermilk

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Lightly brush butter inside an 8-inch round cake pan. Line the bottom with parchment and brush with butter. Lay pieces of sliced plum around the pan covering the bottom. Sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, combine the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Whisk to combine.
4. In a separate bowl, combine the melted butter, eggs, vanilla extract, and buttermilk. Whisk until smooth and add to the dry ingredients.
5. Whisk until just combined with a few dry streaks remaining and pour over the prepared plums. Smooth to an even layer and bake in preheated oven until a wooden skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean, 40-55 minutes.
6. Remove from oven and cool in pan for 15 minutes. Invert onto serving dish and discard parchment paper. This can be served warm or at room temperature.

If you want the taste of summer and you want to use the seasonal fruit of a good plum, this upside down cornmeal cake is the way to go because uh you’ve never had anything better. Plums have a short season. So, you want to make sure they’re ripe. And my tree is producing so many this year. So, just slice them in half lengthwise. And you can get different colors. Don’t worry about what plum you have. Take out the pit and then just slice them into nice wedges. I usually quarter each half to get a total of eight slices per plum. Line the plums up in this parchment lined greased cake pan. I don’t overlap them. I just put them right beside each other. I feel like peaches, they get all the attention right now. I mean, their marketing team is really good. Plums, they need some new marketing. And guess what? This cake is the gateway to get into plums. They’re really delicious. And it’s a great way just to enjoy maybe a fruit you don’t have all the time. There’s lots of varieties of plums. And you can even go and use a plum cot. It’s a plum and an apricot. You can use any of those. Really, this works with any stone fruit. And it’s going to be delicious every time. When I get to the center, you might have to just kind of overlap so they look nice. If you want that nice concentric circle cuz it just presents better once it comes out. Before we’re done, we top them with some brown sugar. Think caramelly, just beautiful molasses notes and it adds a little bit of sweetness. You see those cakes that make a caramel and put them on top of the fruit? They’re delicious, but this kind of just cuts out the fact of making a caramel that gives you a little bit a little bit of that idea. I like a little bit of cinnamon on top. If you don’t, just leave it off. Now, we make a cake starting with a half cup cornmeal. Yeah, it sounds weird, but it has that great texture and it has a little bit of that sweetness and flavor that comes through. One and 1/2 cups of flour, 3/4 cup of sugar, 2 and 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder, teaspoon of salt, and whisk it all together. Add in all the wet ingredients. So, we’re going to do a cup of buttermilk. It gives it the best tenderness and flavor. One stick or eight tablespoons of butter that’s melted, slightly cooled. Two eggs and a teaspoon of vanilla. I don’t measure that. Why would you? And then whisk it all together. Pour it on top of the plums and smooth it out. It self-levels, but you can give it a tap just to make sure there’s no air bubbles. Put it in a 350°ree oven until this golden brown and a skewer inserted comes out mostly clean. 40 to 55 minutes. I let it cool for 15 minutes, then invert it onto a plate. Moment of truth, friends. This is exactly what we’re going for. Kale, do you want a little bite? Yeah, you can have a bite. Honestly, you could let it fully cool, but come on. Who wants to wait when it looks this good? Look at that. That is perfect. Summer fruit isn’t going to know what’s coming when you make this. Take a bite. You wouldn’t think the cornmeal would do something. It does, and it’s good.