Original Plum Torte Recipe (2024)

Hi - I'd like clarification on the flour --- 1 C flour, sifted - is that one cup of flour and sift and add, or sift the flour to equal one cup of flour - makes a difference. Thank you.

In 1988 my Toronto newspaper was about to post me to Beijing as a foreign correspondent. Alas, my house wasn't selling. I'd read that the fragrance of baking helps so I bought a frozen loaf of bread, and warmed it in the oven. No sale. Desperate, I baked this torte for an open house. Ta-dah! With the kitchen infused with the sweet perfume of Original Plum Torte, the house sold.

Sifted flour means sift then measure.
Flour, sifted means measure them sift.

Hello, i'm from Russion Federation. This is exellent. I'm cooced it every weekend. My children very liked this pie. I not very well know English. Sorry for mistake. From Russia with love ;)

Made this last night after tasting the one made by our daughter. Used raspberries and blackberries, one basket each, instead of plumbs, and 1/3 c. cornmeal and 2/3 c. flour. Fantastic!!! The cornmeal adds a very sophisticated "Italian" character to it, very slight crunch, and amazing flavor. Topped with coarse sugar before baking. Did this in a motorhome convection oven for 50 minutes. Perfect dessert with whipped cream, flavored with a few pureed berries and sugar/vanilla. So easy!

This was GREAT. Sliced the plums and arranged them in a fan pattern -- better than halves because prettier and more evenly distributed over cake. Added lemon zest and sliced slivered almonds. Next time I would toss the plums in the lemon juice, lemon zest, sugar, almonds, and cinnamon, because the cinnamon and the zest clumped up when sprinkled. Will also experiment with other fruits.

A nice recipe for Obstkuchen, the German-speaking bakers' classic! I grew up on this cake and have been making it for many, many years now. It can be made with any neutral vegetable oil too. Use any kind of nice fruit or berries, just make sure that they are firm, otherwise they can release too much juice during baking. Also, grease the the round or square pan, line the bottom with parchment and grease that one too. No springform required, but it's nice if you have one.

A 9" pan gives greater height and moisture to the tart than a 10" pan.

Note: My Mom makes this all the time and it's a family and guest favorite. It freezes PHENOMENALLY well--her usual tactic is to wait until it's cool, then into the fridge, THEN when it's really cool you wrap it first in plastic wrap and then in foil REALLY well, like you're launching it into space, and then into the freezer. Also works for leftover torte. If you have more than 1 springform pan make 2 and freeze one for Emergency Company Cake.

A delicious and indeed elegant torte. I have made it twice with these alterations: 50% almond meal; 50%brown sugar and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. It also freezes well.

Torte, schmorte. It's a delicious, homey dessert you can bake in just about anything - though a springform pan does make for a somewhat ritzier presentation - and top with whatever fruit is in season. My Polish mother made it in a rectangular metal pan all summer long (mmm...placek!), though the household favorite WAS the Italian/prune plum iteration. She used grated lemon rind and 1 t. vanilla in the batter, tightly-spaced skin-side down fruit, and ground cloves instead of cinnamon atop.

Springform or not, shouldn't we grease (butter) the pan?

Dear god, this is good.

My favorite recipe from NYT - annual ritual for 20 years!
Baked with - apricots, apples and cranberries when off season.
Also used half whole wheat flour and was perfect. This year sliced the plums thinly and layerd tightly like rose petals - still the best.

Delicious. An excellent way to use up plums. This was so easy to make and utterly delightful.

I’ve made this cake several times before, but today my plums sank to the bottom. Any idea why that could have happened? The only thing different that I did was after creaming the sugar and butter together, I added the eggs and beat them in the sugar and butter mixture, and then folded in the flour. Also used regular all purpose flour in stead of unbleached flour. Could that have made the batter lighter and the plums sank because of it? Would love to get some feedback.

Slightly overdone after 50 mins. Next time check at 45.Made with cherries instead of plums. Added 1 tsp of almond extract to batter, in addition to 1 tsp of vanilla. Topped with sugar, cinnamon, and lime juice (instead of lemon) before baking.

Added 1 tsp cinnamon, omitted lemon juice, 3/4 cup sugar, cooked for 55 min. Used 4 plums that filled pan, next time would do more like 6 and squeeze as much in as possible

I am making this torte for the second time. It is so easy and delicious.

I can fully understand the reader pushback in 1989. I made this in late Summer ’23 for the first time with an assortment of fresh, local plums (some of them harvested by us!), and I was simply blown away by how good this was. It will definitely be an annual ritual for us, too, from now on!

Agree with replacing 1/3 flour with cornmeal. Lemon zest on the top with the sugar instead of lemon juice. No cinnamon. Strawberries hulled and placed point-up. Only had medium eggs so added an extra egg white. Only 3/4 cup sugar.

Eh. Nothing special, very dense. Followed to the letter, just used brown sugar instead of regular.

Idk why there was no instruction to grease the pan beforehand.

Hi there! Thoughts on using olive oil instead of butter? If a thumbs up, what would the measurements be?Thanks!

We loved this when made according to the recipe, although with the smaller amount of sugar and the plums sliced. Then I swapped half the flour for almond flour and it reached a whole new level. I have an adult daughter who has always claimed not to like cake. Last visit, she took the whole uneaten portion home with her. Even she loves it!

Has anyone ever added cardamom?

Very good. We substitute corn meal for half of the flour. Wonderful….

The effort to taste ratio of this tart makes it the perfect dessert. I had out of season plums and this still came out delicious. 55 minutes cook time was perfect for me. I added sugar and lemon to plums on bowl before topping. This would work with any stone fruit. Batter is chewy and delicious.

Each time I make this, my plums sink into the torte, leaving only a trace of bubbly plum juice or a sink of cinnamon behind. The torte isn’t crashing, it’s just eating the plums up like quick sand. Still tasty, just different. Does anyone else have this happen reliably? Could it be a high altitude thing?