Almond Plum-Cherry Buckle.... a mouthful

I couldn't resist the grocery aisle full of sweetly scented plums (that's for you Lindsay), and even though I was shopping on a budget - these are in season, so luckily it wasn't going to really affect my spending too much. But - what should I now do with
all these plums? I mean, I love to think I'm the kind of person who has this lovely basket of fruit that sits on my kitchen counter and whenever I get a sweet tooth I reach for some fruit.. but no, fruit never really satisfies my sweet tooth and I tend to skip over it. I usually end up cutting it up and putting it in my oatmeal or yogurt. Unfortunately ever since the flood, ants have taken up some kitchen front property in my cabinets and every 2 weeks they show up in large numbers and feed on their sweet sweet poison... and slowly taper off and are gone completely... and then it rains! And they are back!! Ahhh I've chosen to just live with it because no matter how hard I fight them, I can't win. So - long story short, ants = no fruit on the counters.

So! To satisfy my sweet tooth with fruit, I bake with fruit! I found a recipe on epicurious for an Almond-Plum Buckle... so I thought - thats it! I didn't want a tart with a heavy shortbread crust and loads of mascarpone (although, that would be nice) but no - I'm kinda trying to watch my diet these days, so I needed something a little healthier. So I came across this recipe, which uses ground almonds and I substituted some wheat flour in as well... and I guess in my head, that means its "healthier". Oh - and I originally thought I wouldn't have enough plums, so I labored over a bowl of cherries with an unwound paperclip and began the task of pitting cherries to throw in with it to make sure I would be covered in the fruit to cake ratio. Well - turns out I was wrong, I only used half of the plums! Figured I'd throw in some cherries anyway. On to the recipe!

Almond Plum-Cherry Buckle
adapted from epicurious.com
Serves 8-10

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup whole almonds (about 2 1/2 ounces)
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
  
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup plus 4 teaspoons sugar, divided
  
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup buttermilk
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 4 plums, any variety, halved, pitted and then each half cut into 4 slices*
  
• 15 cherries, pitted
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions:

1. Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F. Spray 9-inch-diameter spring-form pan with 2-inch-high sides with nonstick spray. Line bottom of pan with parchment paper round.

2. Finely grind almonds in processor**. Transfer to medium bowl; whisk in flours, baking powder, and salt. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until fluffy. Add 1 cup sugar; beat until well blended. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Alternate flour mixture and buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour. Mix just until incorporated. Beat in vanilla and almond extract.

3. Transfer batter to prepared pan; spread evenly and smooth top with spatula. Gently press plum slices, flesh side down, into batter in spoke pattern around outer rim and center of cake, placing close together. Fill gaps with cherries. Mix cinnamon and 4 teaspoons sugar in small bowl. Sprinkle over plums and cherries.

4. Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Cool cake in pan on rack 20 minutes. Run small knife between cake and pan sides to loosen. Now you can either leave the cake on the springform pan plate or you can invert cake onto platter; remove parchment paper. Place another platter atop cake. Using both hands, hold both platters firmly together and invert cake, plum side up. Cool cake completely. Cut into wedges. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream (or healthy - some fro-yo! ugh I hate that word) or slightly sweetened whipped cream... or do like my mom and put cool whip on it, because yeah - thats healthy.. mmmm chemicals.

*The original recipe called for 1 1/4lbs plums, about 8 medium sized one. I had about 1lb, which was 5 plums... and I bet I only used 3-4 of them. So, use your judgement.. I'm sure you'll be able to eat the leftovers with no problem.

**The almonds... oh the almonds... these suckers are LOUD in the food processor. Just be warned. One option you can do is just pick up a bag of almond flour from Trader Joe's. I had almonds handy so I didn't bother making the trip to the store.

Ok - so there ya have it. My buckle is still cooling on the countertop, so once I get before/after photos up I'll post them as well as how delicious it is... it smells wonderful, so I can only hope it tastes equally as good.

Enjoy!
Lauren