Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Dimply Plum Cake (TWD)

Finally, we're breaking away from cookies this week! The Tuesdays With Dorie bakers worked on some really delicious cookie recipes for the past few weeks (the Granola Grabbers and Malted Whopper Cookies were terrific!), and I welcomed the break to do something different.

Michelle of Bake-en selected Dimply Plum Cake as this week's recipe. It was a really timely pick as we now have an opportunity use the last of the summer fruits before we head into autumn.

I've previously made this recipe using an 8x8 pan with wonderful results, so this time around I wanted to see how this cake would fare in a mini loaf pan, which had compartments for 8 minis (I reduced the oven to 325F and baked 20-25 minutes). This was a great opportunity to use another fruit, so I decided to make the original recipe as well as one of Dorie's suggested variations.

I made the base dough with any flavors/spices, divided the base dough in half and then added the appropriate spices/flavors. I ended up making the following variations:

- plums, lemon and cardamom
- peaches, lemon and basil (continue to scroll down to see pics)

Instead of using plum halves, I sliced the plums into quarters and laid down three pieces of fruit per mini-loaf. I guess this loaf took the description dimply pretty seriously:

The minis turned out just as wonderfully as a whole cake. I actually think that they held up better as time passed. This cake kinda turns to mush after a couple of days...the mini loafs held up for 4 days.

The fruit turns "jammy" and the flavors intensify after baking in the oven:

I love this cake, as the fruit on top tells you exactly what you're eating:
The peach version was an unexpected and delicious surprise, as it calls for some chopped basil in the dough. The basil lent a sweet, herbaceous flavor that complemented wonderfully with the sweet peaches.
This is a wonderful breakfast treat, and it comes together in a snap. For the recipe, check out Michelle's site. To see what the other TWD bakers created, check out the blogroll.



20 comments:

Marthe said...

Your cakes look really cute!! I absolutely loved this cake.

Anonymous said...

I love the photos! The peach version looks especially good, though that may be because I disliked my plum cake so much. Really beautiful photos -

The Food Librarian said...

Love these mini-loaves! I ended up making a cute 4" cake. The basil and peach combo sounds great!

chocolatechic said...

Glad to see someone use the basil.

I wasn't brave enough.

CB said...

Love those loaves! So cute! I totally have to go buy loaf pans now. Great job!
Clara @ iheartfood4thought

vibi said...

Wow! The colors in your pictures are amazing... what a feast for the eyes, apparently for the tastebuds also! LOL
The textures of the peel and batter gives an amazing feeling of rusticity!
Wonderful job you done...

marae said...

i love the idea of peaches and basil...yum!! i did apples and cinnamon, i'm so basic. fab job!

Amy of Sing For Your Supper said...

Mmmmm - this looks wonderful! I love your mini-loaves!

-Amy
www.singforyoursupperblog.com

Susan @ SGCC said...

They all look beautiful! The photos are really lovely! Great job!

Di said...

I love the mini loaves, and both variations look wonderful. Yum!

steph- whisk/spoon said...

they look beautiful! i'd like one of each!

Unknown said...

Both variations look wonderful! Good job making both of them! I am afraid of the peach and basil combo.

Engineer Baker said...

Wow, those look fabulous! The crumb on that cake looks perfect.

PheMom said...

I think this is exactly how I would make it next time and with the peaches - yours looks beautiful!

Pamela said...

They both look really lovely. The basil addition sounds very interesting and surprising. But it looks so good.

Carol Peterman/TableFare said...

Your mini loves are wonderful. There is something incredibly appealing about the rectangle shape with this cake and the smaller pieces of fruit make the tops beautiful.

Rachel said...

Your cake is beautiful! I am new to TWD and am so inspired by your photos--everything you make looks delicious.

Rigby said...

Peaches look wonderful! I will have to try that!

Anonymous said...

Everything about this plum cake is beautiful. Anything mini is a treasure. Peaches and basil-interesting combination, I couldn't choose a favorite.

Anonymous said...

This looks great! I love the peach versions people have been making!

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