Stone Fruit Skillet Cake
Made in a 12" skillet, this cast iron cake is large and in charge, the giant coffee-cake-style treat is certainly meant for a crowd. The crumb is perfectly spiced, delicate and rich, with just the right amount of caramelization around the edges. You couldn't make a flawless layer cake in a skillet, that's the truth, and you wouldn't get the same result baking this rustic wonder in a glass or aluminum baking pan. The cast iron cake is flawless in that it cannot be reproduced without its namesake.
Stone fruit is diced small, and mixed with butter, sugar and spices, for a warm, aromatic component; reminiscent of the fruit on the bottom of an upside-down cake.
I used pluots when recipe testing. Pluots are a hybrid fruit - a combination of plums and apricots - though much more akin to a plum, if you ask me. I would describe a pluot as a smaller, more tart plum. Plums and hybrid plum varieties are my personal favorite stone fruit for baking. I love to bake with plums because the skins are thin, and less tough than a peach, or nectarine. I leave the skins on plums in almost all recipes, simplifying the process, and that's exactly what I did here. So whether you have some pluots lying around that you don't quite know what to do with, or you're using up the last nectarines of the summer, this large fruit coffee cake is just what you need!
Thanks for reading.
Signed,
The Mellow Baker