Summer Plum (or Raspberry/Blueberry) Torte, Easy and Elegant

What a treasure! One layer of luscious but simple plum-studded goodness, simple to make and a pleasure to share. No wonder it’s the New York Times’s most beloved and requested recipe! You need Summer Plum (or Raspberry/Blueberry) Torte in your repertoire, to vary and enjoy all year long!

The Torte

I love Lottie + Doof, a blog by a Chicago-based food writer and photographer named Tim Mazurek. It’s always gorgeous and interesting and the tone is gentle and inviting. Until an early September post, entitled The Torte, which began with an outright command: “Make this cake.”

Now, I don’t go letting just any food writer up and be the boss of me, but Lottie + Doof has my trust, and, entranced by the handsome image and confident in his intentions, I read on.

By the end of paragraph #3, I was completely on board. When I quickly got to the actual recipe, I did a little happy dance because I had EVERY SINGLE INGREDIENT ON HAND IN MY HOUSE for the Summer Plum (or Raspberry/Blueberry) Torte. Right then and THERE! I really like not having to go to the store or the market or the south forty when I am all fired up to make a certain dish which has caught my fancy.

A Sign!

It was a sign, and a good sign indeed. One centerpiece ingredient, plums, was in short supply in my kitchen, and what I had was on the last day of being lusciously-ripe as opposed to around-the-bend ripe.

But I had a handful of blackberries with which to fill in, and I figured super-ripe extra-juicy plums could be a plus and not a minus. (I was right about that.) In fact, my 8-inch spring form pan only allowed me room for most-but-not-all of the plums, and no blackberries, so I was truly on this recipe’s path.

Into the oven went my plum torte in my 8-inch spring-form pan, at 350 degrees F for around 50 minutes…

I left off the optional dusting of cinnamon and sugar over the top before baking, and tossed the lemon juice with the plums because I got so eager to have the cake ready that I presumed that was the plan. All this was absolutely fine.

Torte History

While the Summer Plum (or Raspberry/Blueberry) Torte (which I believe to mean “thick lovely single-layer Euro-cake which needs no icing and creates joy) baked, I finished reading and checked out Lottie + Doof’s inspiration, a recipe often featured in the New York Times since Marion Burros first published it there in 1981.

Turns out it was featured in the Elegant but Easy Cookbook, written by Ms. Burros and Lois Levine in 1960 and revised in the 1990’s. Ms. Burros credits her friend and co-author Lois Levine with the recipe, in this feature on the cake from The Splendid Table. 

Torte is Done!

“Ding!” and it was done, and then out it came, lovely and irresistible, though resist I did, until it cooled down. More fruit in bigger pieces would have been pleasing, but I was thrilled with how it looked. After it cooled I easily liberated it from the spring form pan, even though you neither grease the pan nor line it with parchment/waxed paper for this gem of a recipe.

I cut into the Summer Plum (or Raspberry/Blueberry) Torte as soon as it cooled down, and I liked it very much. He was absolutely right about it all. I also concur with Mr. Marzurek’s assessment that this is a recipe you will be able to remember without even looking back at the recipe, once you have made it about three times. He said two, but I’m working with me, and I think third time’s the charm.

Don’t Have a Springform Pan?

Then I started wondering if the spring form pan was a deal-breaker, since I know that not everyone who enjoys baking(or might if they tried it), has this fine piece of kitchen equipment. I got some raspberries to stretch the blackberries (worth trip to store), and went in for round #2 of the Summer Plum (or Raspberry/Blueberry) Torte.

It baked up beautifully, and could have handled even more berries than I put on it. I love the peekaboo quality, but I also love seeing lots of fruit beckoning when it’s serving time.

Ungreased and unsprung, this dense and friendly cake plopped right out and survived being turned back over, so if you were worried about the spring form pan issue, don’t be. A cake pan works fine. I’m fond of the 8-inch pans which make for a somewhat thicker torte.

But Mr. Mazurek used a larger spring form and his more svelte slice of plum torte looks quite marvelous.

This is one user-friendly, have-at-it, go-for-it, you-can-do-it Everything Cake.

Must Bake Cake

So you know what I’m going to say, right? Make This Summer Plum (or Raspberry/Blueberry) Torte Cake! You won’t be the first, fiftieth, or fifty-leventh-times-ten, but that’s all right. Good things should be shared, like deviled eggs, lemonade, tomato sandwiches, and apple pie. Join the Torte Club along with me and a dazzling array of my favorite food people who exult about it and offer variations and tips (freezes beautifully! Goes well with ice cream even better the second day!) in posts all along the information superhighway.

Read all about it: but first, stir this up and pop it in the oven. The more you read, the more you will want to make this cake.

Recipes for Summer Plum (or Raspberry/Blueberry) Torte:

So here is Lottie + Doof’s Recipe for The Torte.

And here is Marion Burros’s recipe for Plum Torte, published on Epicurious in 2003.