Dining with the Bloggers - November 23rd

Today is Dining with the Bloggers day. Today is Wednesday, also - so who better to cook with than The Wednesday Chef?

Luisa started her blog just a couple of months ago. She had this great idea of wanting to tell people how the recipes in the papers REALLY come out - when do they suck and when do they shine? Where do you have to watch your steps, and when is it as easy as pie? I don't get the newspapers she does, but I know exactly what it's like not having anyone to ask about a certain recipe - and I know about having too many clippings laying around too - so I love this approach to food blogging. She's focusing on LA and NY Times, but dashes of to other recipes every now and again. Some I'd love to try would be Regan Daley's Poached Quinces or Marcella Hassan's Sicilian Pesto - or, turning back to LA times, the I-can-almost-smell-it-from-here Garlicky Braised Cauliflower with Capers - this I GOTTA try!

This time though, because lately ALL of my DwB posts has been featuring something sweet, and because I like sweet things so much, I found this: Marian Burros' Plum Torte was what I'd noticed and what I was going to make. Luisa hadn't been totally convinced about the torte, and I can understand, seeing what she's grown up with (yeah, you'll have to check her post for that one!) but she wanted to know if anyone else had better experience with it. A lot of her commenters sure did, her friends loved it, and well - I'm a convert too!

Juicy plums on top of a simple butter-sugar-eggs-flour batter, that ends up with a texture (and to me taste too) somewhat like marzipan. I'd be tempted to substitute a bit of the flour with almond flour or ground almonds next time. Oh yes, and I might try making it with the plums underneath the batter - that was suggested in the comments. I really liked the simplicity of this cake, as well as how easy it was to do. Served with a bit of thick creme fraiche on the side - or just as a nice big slab standing over the sink, as I did - it is all bliss...

Now what HAVE Cathy been up to??