Plum Nectarine Buttermilk Cake

By Maria Lichty

Updated April 28, 2011

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I am sure most of you have seen or even baked the fabulous Raspberry Buttermilk Cake from Gourmet. When I saw the recipe I immediately added it to my “must” bake list. I love baking with buttermilk and fresh fruit desserts are so good right now.

I didn’t have any raspberries, but I did have a drawer full of plums and nectarines. I decided to try those instead. I loved the color contrast of the two fruits. This cake is simple to throw together and doesn’t take long to bake. You don’t have to worry about frosting either. The fruit and sugary crust adds the perfect amount of sweetness.

I can’t wait to try this cake with other summer fruits. The possibilities are endless!


Plum Nectarine Buttermilk Cake
Adapted from Gourmet

1 cup all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

½ stick unsalted butter, softened

2/3 cup plus 1 ½ tablespoons sugar, divided

½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 large egg

½ cup well-shaken buttermilk

Plums and nectarines, chopped (I used a mix of the 2 fruits-to equal 1 ¼ cups)

Turbinado sugar (I added this)


Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle. Butter and flour a 9-inch round cake pan.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.


Beat butter and 2/3 cup sugar with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes, then beat in vanilla. Add egg and beat well.

At low speed, mix in flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour, and mixing until just combined.


Spoon batter into cake pan, smoothing top. Scatter chopped plums and nectarines evenly over top and sprinkle with remaining 1 ½ Tbsp sugar. I also used a little Turbinado sugar. Just sprinkle some over the cake if you wish. It gave it a nice extra sugary crunch.


Bake until cake is golden and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack and cool to warm, 10 to 15 minutes more. Invert onto a plate.

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Maria

I'm Maria and my husband is Josh. We share a love of cooking, baking, and entertaining. We enjoy creating recipes that are simple, fresh, and family friendly. We love sitting around the table with good food, good conversation, and good friends and family! Our kitchen is always open!
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Comments

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  1. mmm sounds so yummy- loving all these recipes with the fresh fruit 🙂 I am not a big frosting person so this sound like my kind of cake.

    You're right- our Josh's do seem similar!! Josh left just two pieces of key lime bar for me to freeze. I told him to share some with a friend he had coming over last night and he said no haha

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  4. This is a beautiful treat!!! Perfect for any summer day 🙂 Great combo too, plums and nectarines, yummy!!!

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  6. I've been eying that raspberry cake, but the plum and nectarine version sounds incredible as well. It's so great to know that this cake adapts well to other fruit. Thanks!

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  8. Looks delicious! I think I'd call this a coffeecake and serve it for breakfast. Maybe this weekend!

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  10. Wow! This looks so amazing! I am swimming in blackberries, so I might have to try them in here. This is getting made TODAY!

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  11. awesome idea of subbing plums and nectarines! I have peaches and apples at home…I bet those would be good too.

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  14. I'm all for versatility. have not tried this yet but I'm sure it's only a matter of time. Looks delicious!

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  15. This looks so good. I love baking with buttermilk too. Seems like anytime you use it or sour cream, it turns out to be an excellent dessert.

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  17. I love cakes with buttermilk in it. This looks like a good recipe and the first photo is drop dead good looking!

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  18. Looks gorgeous Marie. Buttermilk in bakes makes them ever so light! This cake is YUM!!

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  19. Yum, this looks awesome. I'd love a slice. I think I've made something similar but not this recipe. I've got a bit more blackberries I'm gonna use 'em up in this. Thanks!
    ~ingrid

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  21. I baked Gourmet's raspberry buttermilk cake shortly ago! sooo olovely but I can just imagine how it is with the plums and nectarines!!! It looks gorgeous!!! Love your fruit choices and the use of raw sugar! 🙂

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  23. Sounds yummy! We'll be getting lots of raspberries soon so I'll have to try it with the raspberries! Yum!

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  29. i've definitely come across a few of these, but yours looks particularly moist and i LOVE the colors provided by the fruits you used. lovely.

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  38. That looks fabulous! Reminds me of that Sour Cherry Almond Cake I made, mmmmmm! I bet yours tastes delicious!!

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  39. Beautiful… I love cakes made with buttermilk. Adding fruit is so perfect for the summer!

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  42. oooh, yum! I've seenmany versions of this cake with all types of berries and this loks equally delicious!

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  43. Yum! I have seen that cake and have been wanting to try it, but never would have thought to use stone fruit. Yours looks absolutely delish!! Also, I firmly believe that turbinado sugar makes everything better 🙂

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  44. You know, this just keeps popping up everywhere, and I (for once) have buttermilk on hand. Coincidence? Fate?

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  46. Wow, this color is awesome in this cake. Don't plums just bake up beautiful? If I was a fruit, and had to date another fruit, I think plums would be it.

    Ok, that was a random fact 🙂

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  47. I LOVE THIS CAKE. It's so easy and so good.

    I did mine with bluberries. It's great that it's so versatile. Your version is great for this season too.

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  51. mmm your cake looks so moist. Is it the buttermilk that makes it so fluffy or the baking soda. Looks delicious either way

    Jackie at PhamFatale.com

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  52. Julie and Julia is playing at 1:10 on Friday August 7 at the Century 16 Theaters on 3300 South and State. You're invited to come and see the movie with us and then meet back at my house after for pot-luck snacks and a lot of good dishing about the movie. (I'll be writing a piece for BlogHer.com about how food bloggers like the movie, so you might also get a chance to get some exposure for your blog.)

    Please e-mail me at kalynskitchen (at) comcast (dot) net if you can come and I'll write back and give you my home address. People can come to my house and drop off food before the show if you'd like, or just meet us at the theater about 12:45.

    I probably won't get this message to everyone, so feel free to invite other Utah food bloggers.

    Reply

  57. I've made that raspberry buttermilk cake 4 times already!
    Now I have ripe plums and peaches sitting here, fresh from the NJ shore today!
    I will be making this for company this weekend.
    Thanks for the inspiration!

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  58. I just made this tonight and it smells wonderful. Unfortunately I might have overcooked it a teeny tiny bit. For some reason I thought it said 10 inch pan. Yay, DUH! (I'm back)I just flipped it out of the pan, it's perfect! Thanks for giving me the push I needed to bake this!
    ~ingrid
    Oh, I used blackberries and raspberries.

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  59. what a great recipe i m loving all these recipes with fresh fruit and that cakes are so great thanks

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  61. This sounds so good! Somehow, I missed this in Gourmet. I love that the recipe uses buttermilk, which makes a really moist cake.

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  62. Ooh, I'm trying to "detox" from eating out so much over the past week, but now I want a big slice of this!!

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  64. I tried this cake w/ plums tonight and it came out wonderful!
    I will try it with other fruits too……I see you did the peach version today.
    It's in the recipe file to stay!

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  65. Maria,I just made this last night with fresh rasberries. It is to die for! I love it! Thanks for the great recipe.

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  68. This is an amazing recipe. I doubled it but used just 1 cup of sugar. Used 2 9″ round pans, baked at 375° for 35 minutes.
    I used plums and nectarines. The cake part was light and delicious and could be made alone or with any variety of inclusions.
    Thank you!!

    Reply

  69. MY 12 year old grandson and I made this. It was so delicious and moist. I didn’t have any Turbinado sugar but sprinkled brown sugar over the top of mine. My grandson said the cake was “AMAZING”. I will make it again.

    Reply