To me, late summer means plum cake! This is a sweet, dense cake topped with sliced, juicy Italian plums curled and tinged from just the right amount of time in the oven. It is usually available at German and Austrian bakeries, and is technically a kuchen. (Italian plums are an essential ingredient, as others tend to be too juicy.)
I know of three places it can reliably be obtained on the north side of Chicago...
Cafe Selmarie, 4729 North Lincoln Avenue - Chicago 60625 773-989-5595 (Theirs tend to be expensive.)
Dinkel's, 3329 North Lincoln Avenue - Chicago 60657 773-281-7300 (Theirs too.)
Schlegl's Bakery and Cafe, 3915 Touhy Avenue, Lincolnwood 60712 847-568-1750 (Best deal.)
But you'd better call to see if they have one. They only appear for a short time, and they get snapped up in a hurry. If you can't find a place to buy a plum cake, you can make one...
Plum Kuchen
1/4 lb butter
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg 1 tablespoon sour cream
1 pinch salt (only if you use unsalted butter)
1 teaspoon lemon, rind of
1 3/4 cups flour 1 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups Italian plums, pitted and sliced into thin wedges
For the topping:
6 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Directions:
1 In a large bowl, cream the butter, add the sugar, vanilla, egg, lemon peel, sour cream and salt (if desired).
2 Mix the flour and baking powder and add that into the mixture.
3 Grease the base of a round (or square) baking pan and spread the dough over the pan.
4 Liberally spread plums over the dough.
5 To make the optional topping, cream the butter, add flour, sugar and cinnamon.
6 Sprinkle over the plums and bake for 30-45 minutes in the middle rack at 375 F.
7 Be careful not to let the bottom burn!
And if you can't get quite the right ingredients, I suggest you make my famous bottom crust plum pie...
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