Croatian Plum (or Sour Cherry) Cake
Croatians love simplicity.
Prosciutto, cheese, bread, tomatoes, olives, wine.
Fruit can serve as dessert. Cheese can come with breakfast.
Croatian desserts mainly come from the two main cultural influences: Roman/Venetian and Austro-Hungarian. The latter is filled with tortes and custard and streusel. The former comes as simple, often fruit centric cakes.
This plum cake (which can also be made in the exact same way as a sour cherry cake) is a prime example. Myself, the Croatian New Yorker, I love making layer cakes and frosting/assembling grand designs, trying out new bread recipes, and obscure French delights. However, there is a certain pleasure I find in making a simple, tasty one layer cake: a loaf, a bundt, a round or, in this case, square cake based in fruit.
This cake is so simple to make, it brings up feelings of guilt for not trying harder. I try to make a simple baked good on Tuesdays and a Showstopper type bake on Sundays. I like rules, and constraints. I always wrote better words when a deadline loomed, even if I created it myself.
This cake made me worry that it wasn’t difficult enough to warrant a recipe. That’s the joy of Croatian baking. Amazing flavors abound with barely any trouble at all. Easygoing, like my Croatian, non-American side.
The flavors here are predominately the plum and accompanying walnut. With the cherry equivalent, you can keep the walnut partner or switch to almond or pecan. The best recipes are interchangeable and this one is that.
This is the kind of cake you can enjoy with coffee or tea in the afternoon, after a light summer dinner, or for breakfast and you won’t even feel that bad about it.
You can make this recipe with a mixer, hand mixer, or a good old fashioned bowl. More time to enjoy life and that’s what it’s all about.
Croatian Plum (or Sour Cherry) Cake
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup butter (softened)
For the Cake
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp lemon rind
- 1 tbsp orange rind
- 1.5 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 cup walnuts finely chopped
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3 cups sliced plums (can replace with sour cherries)
- 1 tbsp Croatian Sljivovica (plum brandy) -can replace with rum or brandy-
Instructions
For the cake
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease a square baking pan (9 x 9 or thereabouts).
- Slice the plums (I used red this time, but dark plums work great too) and set aside in a bowl. I drizzled a little Croatian Sljivovica (our plum brandy) over the fruit for flavor, and you can also do so with brandy or rum.
- Mix the flour, baking powder, lemon rind, orange rind, salt, and walnuts together. Set aside.
- Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add in the eggs, one at a time, followed by the vanilla extract. Slowly add in the flour mixture until incorporated.
- Spoon half of the batter into the pan and smooth out. Add half of the sliced plums (or cherries) evenly. Spoon the rest of the batter over the top and flatten out, using an offset spatula. Place the other half of the sliced fruit on top (I arranged into a fan with 3 slices in each corner; you can get creative in any way you like.)
- Bake for 50-55 minutes, making sure that the toothpick test comes out clean in the center of the cake.
- Allow to cool in the pan, and move to a wire rack after 20 minutes to cool completely.
- Serve with powdered sugar, ice cream, creme fraiche, whipped cream, or nothing at all. Makes for a great coffee break cake or a fine breakfast with fruit included!
Notes
- If you like, you can brush the plums on top of the cake with some apricot/plum/fruit jam tempered with warm water for an extra shine.
- Since the batter is very thick, spreading it in the pan, especially over the first layer of fruit, can prove tricky. If you use an offset spatula, you can dip it into warm water, which will help the batter flatten and move easily.
- You can also prepare this cake in a bundt pan, a loaf pan, or a round tin, just make sure to adjust your baking times according to size.