Dimply Plum Cake

Michelle of Bake-en chose Dimply Plum Cake for this week's recipe challenge. I was very excited to bake this cake because I love plums. My favorite way, however, to really eat a plum is just fresh with salt on it. I know some of you will gag, but I'm a real salt lover. Salt makes almost any fruit taste better in my opinion.

Before I move on to the whats, whys, and how-to's of actually baking the cake, I have to brag and show off my new KA mixer! After three trips to the store returning first a Sunbeam, then a KA that was scratched, I finally got my sought after, shiny, bright red KA mixer that I have always wanted. I love it. Here it is:

I know. You aren't jealous because you ALL already have one! Well it is my first one so just be a tiny bit happy for me.

Now for the baking part. My plums must have been humongous because I only needed five plums to fill the top of the cake instead of the called for eight. Maybe it isn't the right season for plums because the store did not have a lot to choose from. I used the orange zest in it and the smell of the oranges and cardomom coming from my kitchen while the cake was baking was sending me into orbit trying to be patient the 40 minutes it was baking. I could not wait to try it. I almost put on some island music just to set the mood for my island smelling cake.

Finally, the timer went off and I ran to the kitchen to check out my masterpiece. I let it cool the allotted 15 minutes and then I arranged it on my serving plate. As I cut into it I noticed it was a bit crumbly. I cut myself a slice, dug my fork into it, took my first bite, and I am sorry to say I was disappointed. But in all fairness, I think I was expecting something sweeter. It would be great in the morning with your coffee. Okay - I know - that is what it really is, a coffee cake. I just was expecting something different. You know that feeling like when you are a child and you get your heart set on a Malibu Barbie and then you wake up Christmas morning and you have a wedding Barbie instead? It's not that you don't like the wedding Barbie, you just wanted something different. To be completely honest, I doubt I make this again, but then again I might if I specifically need a coffee cake. You know in recipes, as in life in general. . . you win some, you lose some. That is not to say my DH and I did not dig right in and eat about half the cake the first night! It doesn't go so well with wine. I'm sure coffee would be better with it.

This morning my cake was missing a few plums. When I asked the DH about it, he simply said they fell out when he was cutting his cake and he ate them. Now I have crater cake left over. . . talk about dimply. . . . . .