Jo's Torte

This recipe is from an old, popular cookbook, Elegant But Easy. It's a lovely, very flexible dessert. Marian Burros, one of the authors, published a plum cake version in the NYTimes and it's legendary - the most popular recipe in NYTImes history. Jo Rosen served it to us, and I have made it dozens of times since. I like to make it in a glass-bottom spring form. I also purchased a bunch of smaller springform pans since it seems like we never actually finish a whole cake these days.

Dough:
1 c sugar
1/2 c butter (one stick) or 1/2 c olive oil
1 c. flour, sifted
1 t. baking powder
2 eggs
salt

Preheat oven to 350.

Cream sugar and butter.  Add flour, baking powder, salt and eggs.  Wet your hands and spread into a 9" springform  or a combination of smaller springform pans, evening the batter with a spatula.  I invested in a nonstick springform pan which works wonderfully. In a pinch you can use a pyrex rectangular pan but it's not as pretty.

Filling:
Fruit: choose one, or mixture of

• 1 pint blueberries - you can add about 25% more blueberries for a deeper dish. Frozen are fine.
• 2020 Pandemic - 1 pint blackberries + 1 ripe peach, baked in a 9" pan so it's higher. Needs at least 45 minutes. Gayanne's favorite is blackberries.
• 2023 Bumper Crop of strawberries in Chestertown version: a pint of sliced strawberries. Take a half pint extra strawberries and use Aunt Sally's trick, blend them with sugar and a little mint, for a sauce. Divine!
• 1.5 lbs Italian plums, pitted and quartered; they are yellow green when fresh but turn purple when baked * - see note at the bottom - substitute 1½ T. brandy for the lemon juice - This is nearly identilcal to the NYTime version here. There are tons of updates here. 
• Sliced, peeled apples
• Sliced apples or pears (2 medium) plus a half bag of cranberries, skip the lemon juice ; add extra sugar
• Sliced peaches 
• 1 can pumpkin + sugar + pumpkin pie spice + egg + soymilk or soy powder
• Sliced, peeled pears (about 3) brushed with a mixture of lemon curd, almond extract, and cinnamon
• or, if nothing is in season, or you need to save time, use a can of sliced apples or canned pie filling.

Lemon juice  (~ half a lemon squeezed, or bottled to taste)
Sugar

Cinnamon - use a heavy hand.

Flour, if fruit is very juicy like plums or peaches.  

Add fruit to top, covering the entire surface.  The fruit will sink into the torte - no need to worry about the aesthetics.

Sprinkle top with a little sugar, some lemon juice; cinnamon, sifting on a little extra flour for very juicy fruits like peaches or plums.  If you're using a two-part torte pan be sure to support it from the edges when you transfer it to the oven.

Bake at 350 for 40 to 45 minutes, til top is nicely browned.  When the cake is cool, detach the outer rim of the pan.
It's an easy recipe to double; it freezes well.
It's nice to have a footed cake plate for this - it's a beautiful presentation.

*Italian, or prune, plums are very juicy.

Abba likes this better than a traditional zwetchgenkuchen, plum open-face pie.
Prune plums are in season around the High Holidays, so it's a tradition, at least in Yekkeh (German Jewish) families, to make them for Rosh Hashanah. I posted some friends' versions here.

Chestertown 2021: I found a very similar recipe online, looking for raspberries since we have so so many at 8221. Here's a video of it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgU2Q7SB87c

Basically, you spread half the batter, spread the raspberries on it, and then cover them with dollops of the remaining dough so you can still see the raspberries. 

150 g butter/margarine 150 g caster sugar 150 g ground almonds 150 g self raising flour 1 egg 1 tsp ground cinnamon 220 g raspberries