September Santa Rosa Plum Skillet Cake

I have been trying to buy up every last peach, tomato, berry and plum, because in a few weeks, there will be nothing, and we will be in butternut squash and Brussels sprouts mode (not such a bad thing).

Hurry up and make these last summer fruit cobblers, crisps and cakes.
September in NJ is the BEST time for produce.

I bought these just picked Santa Rosa plums at my favorite farm market, and since I was not familiar with this red variety of thick skinned plums, was not sure what I was going to do with them.

I had heard they were watery and not great for baking, but I beg to differ.

I made this Santa Rosa Plum Cornmeal Skillet Cake and it was fantastic.

Not too sweet, and just right for breakfast.
I am making it again to bring to my mom's this weekend for Rosh Hashanah.

If you don't have buttermilk, then use regular milk with some lemon juice mixed in. I had the buttermilk leftover from that fig upside down cake, so I used it.

You can use any variety of plums here, but this variety was lovely.

Plum Cornmeal Skillet Cake:

about 8 ripe red-fleshed plums, such as Santa Rosa, quartered
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
a pinch of kosher salt
1/2 cup cornmeal
6 ounces (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1/3 cup buttermilk or whole milk
1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 tsp almond extract
2 tbsp brown sugar for sprinkling the top of the plums

Mix the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt together in a large bowl.

In another bowl, mix the eggs with the butter and sugar, extract and the rest of the ingredients.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, incorporating to make a nice batter.

Pour into a well greased 9" cast iron skillet (you can also bake this in a springform pan).

Lay quartered plums concentrically into the batter and sprinkle with brown sugar.

Since I baked it in cast iron, I set my oven to 325F, but if you bake it in a cake tin, then turn the temp to 350F.

Bake for approximately 50 minutes.

Delicious warm w/ vanilla ice cream.

I love September.