Rustic Plum Cake

I know you're thinking, "Plums? In a cake? Nah, I'll just have the standard chocolate-with-chocolate frosting." Well, my friend, you would've made the wrong choice. This cake is super good, and easy to boot, since you make the batter in a food processor. The recipe is from Cook's Illustrated, but I ran short on, or didn't have some ingredients, so I improvised.

2T red currant or seedless raspberry jam (I had huckleberry jam from the mother-in-law's trip through Montana)
3T brandy (I used water--you basically just need something to dilute the jam to make syrup)
1 pound Italian prune plums, halved and pitted (This is about 12 plums. Italian plums are the little sort of oblong ones)

3/4 c. sugar
1/3 c. slivered almonds (I didn't have quite enough, so I filled out the amount with walnuts, no harm done)
3/4 c. all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the pan
1/2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
6T unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces, softened but still cool
1 large egg plus 1 large yolk
1 t. vanilla extract
1/4 t. almond extract (optional: I left it out)

1. Cook jam and brandy/water in a 10-inch skillet 2-3 minutes until reduced to a thick syrup. They say to use nonstick, but I don't have one of those, and my regular old stainless-steel worked fine. Remove skillet from heat and place the plums cut-side down in the syrup. Return skillet to medium heat and cook until plums start to release their juices and a thick syrup forms again, about 5 minutes. While this is going on, shake the pan a few times to keep the plums from sticking. Cool plums in the pan while you make the batter.

2. Put oven rack in the middle and preheat to 350. Grease and flour a 9" springform pan. If you don't have a springform pan, just use a regular 9" cake pan like I did, but make sure you cover all inside surfaces well in the greasing-and-flouring process.

3. In a food processor, process almonds and sugar together until the nuts are finely ground. Add flour, baking powder, and salt, and pulse to combine. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse sand, about ten 1-second pulses. This may take a little longer if, like me, you were impatient and didn't let the butter soften enough. Add eggs, vanilla, and almond extract (if you're using it), and process until smooth, about 5 seconds, scraping the bowl if necessary. This batter is quite thick.

4. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, and spread it around evenly with a spatula. You really have to make sure you keep the batter ahead of the spatula and push it to the edges of the pan. Now, for the plums! Stir them around a bit to get them coated with syrup. By hand, or with a spoon, place the plums one at a time into the batter, cut side up. 12 should be just enough to cover the surface with two concentric circles and one in the middle.

5. Bake 40-50 minutes, or until a wooden skewer or toothpick comes out with a few crumbs attached. If you used a cake pan like I did, let the cake cool for 15-30 min. before you do the magic flip. Invert a dinner plate or cooling rack or other big flat surface onto the pan, then flip both over so the cake falls out upside down onto the plate. Repeat with a serving platter so the cake ends up right side up and ready to serve. Dust it with some confectioner's sugar while you're at it.