Cakey Plum Cobbler

This one is for my mom.

The running joke in my family is that my mother is a less-than-stellar cook because she recklessly substitutes ingredients in what are otherwise recipes followed with precision and care. Writing this now, I can't actually recall a specific instance when this wanton replacing took place, proof positive that if you ever make a mistake in my family, you can expect it to follow you around for the rest of your natural life. One time, one dash of tarragon in place of oregano, and she's forever marked as the nutty professor in the kitchen.

And so, in solidarity, I baked this cake for her. This cake that began as a clafouti.

Having never made clafouti, I didn't have a very good understanding of what it actually was. This was made clear by the fact that I only had about 4 tablespoons of milk left--I misread the recipe, and thought it said 1/3 cup instead of 3/4 cup. It was 9:30am and my hungry family would be knocking at my door in an hour. There was going to be no custard in my house that morning.

I did a quick search for plum + brunch and found a recipe for plum bread, which, thanks to my lack of ingredients and ancestral ingeuity, turned into this moist, sweet cakey plum cobbler. The plums oozed and bubbled their way to the top of the cake, giving it a tart and shiny crust. The inside was just barely done, not doughy, but juicy.

My experience is that playing with cake can be dangerous business, especially when folks are counting on you for a meal. But I also knew that the worse case scenario was that we pick up some cruellers from Donuts Plus if it didn't work. That, and I would be forever marked by my family as a kitchen disaster, of which I would be in good company.

Cakey Plum Cobbler

Adapted from Diana's Desserts

1 cup butter

2 cups sugar

1tsp vanilla

3 eggs

2 cups flour

1 cup almond meal

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 cup mashed bananna

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour cake pan.

Dice plums.

Cream butter, sugar and vanilla until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time.

Sift flour, salt, and baking powder

Blend in banannas and almond meal

Pour in cake pan and bake 55 minutes or until knife comes out clean.

Dust with powdered sugar and serve warm!

Inspiration

If I needed an excuse to get back into blogging, this is it. Three boxes of groceries from Mediterranean Imports arrived at my door yesterday [thanks to Mama Z's long haul from Cincinnati]. My kitchen is now fully stocked with a dizzying array of grains, beans, nuts, olives, pastes, dried fruits, and rices.

My dad's care packages explain a lot about the origins of my neuroses, such as my tendency for excess and my inability to throw anything away. Much hilarity ensued when I opened one of the boxes to find an ENTIRE CASE of almond meal. Other weirdly wonderful items included several packages of dense, cinnamon dusted muffins suitable for passover, about a pound of aleppo pepper, 192 boullion cubes, and an unlabled, unidentifiable can. Does anyone have ideas for what to do with two boxes of Jordanian cream soup stock?

So, back to blogging it is. It will have to fit it in somewhere between working, biking, reading, sewing, cooking, hanging out, snuggling and watching the second season of The Wire. But, my motto is, with cranberry beans, all things are possible.