I am calling this creation a “Olive Oil, Almond and Sweet Plum Cake” but what it actually is is what happens when you take two of Joanne Chang’s Recipes from Flour Love — the Plum Frangipane Tart (page 230) and the Olive Oil Cake with Fresh Grapes (page 297) and combine them. Turns out, it’s pretty spectacular as a combination — it’s mostly the Olive Oil Cake recipes, but instead of grapes, I used tiny sweet plums. I’m guessing it would also work really well with cherries (pitted) or gooseberries as well. At any rate, glorious inspiration for an otherwise unforgettable Monday.
Ingredients
3/4 cup plain whole milk Greek yogurt
3/4 cup olive oil
3/4 cup superfine sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 large egg yolks, at room temperature
1 tablespoon lemon zest
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup almond flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup very small (cherry-sized) plums, halved + pit removed
2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar, for garnish
Directions
Preheat oven to 325F. Line bottom of a 9-inch cake pan with a parchment circle.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the yogurt, olive oil, superfine sugar, whole eggs, egg yolks, lemon zest, lemon juice, and almond extract. In a large bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, almond flour, baking powder and salt. Pour to yogurt mixture into the flour mixture and fold them together until fully combined. Scrape the batter into the prepared cake pan. Place the plums cut side up in concentric circles on top of the batter.
Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes to 1 hour and 20 minutes, rotating the cake pan midway through the baking time, until the cake springs back when you press it in the middle and a cake tester inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and let cool completely in the pan on a wire rack. When cool. carefully invert the cake onto a flat plate and lift off the pan; peel off the parchment. Place a serving plate on top of the cake and turn it right side up so the grapes are on top.
Using a fine-mesh sieve, dust the cake evenly with the confectioners’ sugar to finish.
