Izzy and I are back in the kitchen. Madison is getting hot and all of these summer fruits are back on our table again – peachers, plums, nectarines – but we laid our eyes on their cousin – the pluots. Our task was to make something with them. After we thought about it for awhile (pluots are incredibly versatile) we settled for a vegan pluot upside-down cake.

As with plums and peaches, pluots are bipolar. They can be sweet and oozing juice or rock-hard, bite-me-if-you-dare sour. Good news is that when you cook them down, they surrender and reveal their true flavor: soft and sweet with just a pinch of sour. We added them to a basic vanilla cake, flipped it and hello new summer fruit crush.

Recipe adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World

7-8 plouts or plums, sliced
1 Tablespoon coconut oil
juice of 1 lemon
1 cup soy (or other non-dairy) milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 cups AP flour
2 Tablespoons corn starch
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Make it

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Combine the soy milk and apple cider vinegar in a bowl and set aside a few minutes until the mixture curdles. Combine the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cornstarch) in a large bowl and mix. Add in the soy milk mixture, vanilla, and oil and stir well. Set aside.

2. Heat the coconut oil in a medium skillet. Add the lemon juice and pluots and sauté 4-5 minutes, until tender and bubbling.

3. Pour the cooked pluot into a cake pan. Spread evenly then pour in the cake batter. Put in the oven for 25-30 minutes at 350º, or until golden and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Set aside to cool. Once cooled, pop it out of the form, flip, and voilà!

photos by pretty talk

adapted recipe by Izzy Darby.

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