Late August and September are the season for damsons. The plums of this time are firm and slightly tart, and they hold their shape — which is why they make a pie that does not collapse on the plate.

The problem is almost always the same: golden on top, but a wet band of dough in the middle. Cooks blame the flour or the oven, change the recipe and start again.

In fact it is about the juice. A plum releases a lot of it while baking, and if that juice has nowhere to go it settles into the dough and stops it from cooking through.

What you need

  • damson plums — 500 g
  • flour — 200 g
  • sugar — 150 g plus a spoonful for dusting
  • butter — 120 g
  • eggs — 3
  • baking powder — 1 tsp
  • semolina or corn starch — 1 tbsp
  • vanilla sugar — 1 tsp
  • a pinch of salt
  • icing sugar to serve

How to make it

1. Dry the plums. Wash, halve and stone them. Lay the halves cut side up on kitchen paper for ten minutes so the excess moisture goes before the oven.

2. Melt the butter. Take it off the heat and let it cool to room temperature, otherwise it will scramble the eggs.

3. Whisk the base. Beat the eggs with the sugar and a pinch of salt for five minutes, until pale and airy and falling from the whisk in a ribbon.

4. Make the batter. Sift the flour with the baking powder into the eggs, pour in the butter and fold with a spatula from the bottom up so the foam survives.

5. Fill the tin. Line a 22–24 cm tin with paper, pour in the batter and level it.

6. Add the layer. Dust the surface of the batter evenly with a tablespoon of semolina or starch. It is this thin layer that takes up the juice the plums release, so the centre bakes through.

7. Arrange the plums. Place the halves cut side UP, pressing them lightly into the batter. Sprinkle with a spoonful of sugar.

8. Bake. At 175 °C for forty to forty-five minutes. Test with a skewer in the centre, between the plums.

9. Let it rest. Leave the cake in the tin for a quarter of an hour, then move it to a rack.

Serve warm with icing sugar. Covered with a towel the cake keeps for two days, and on the second day the flavour is deeper — the plum juice has had time to spread through the crumb.

Nota bene

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