Almond and Plum Snack Cake – Dinner At Sheila’s

This beautiful Almond and Plum Snack Cake appears in the current issue of Food and Wine magazine.

This
recipe is just one of thousands of desserts prepared by professional pastry
chefs in Manhattan for what has become a baked good-fueled fundraiser.

Begun
by pastry chef Natasha Pickowicz, who directs the pastry program at
Altro Paradiso in Manhattan, Chef Pickowicz wanted to do something based
on her love of community to rally people together to raise funds for worthy causes.

From her first event in 2017 these pastry-chef led “bake sales” have sparked a national movement, gaining momentum in cities such as Denver, New Orleans, San Francisco, Detroit, Los Angeles, and Birmingham, Alabama.

They’ve become a powerful fundraising tool, collectively raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for causes that include AIDS organizations, women’s leadership programs, disaster relief, and-most recently bail funds for Black Lives Matter protesters.

It’s easy to see their appeal: For about $5.00, attendees can pick up a high-caliber dessert made by pastry chefs who work at fine-dining restaurants whose confections otherwise can only be accessed by a meal the cost of which would be unaffordable.

The modern bake sale has a lot in common with the original model: Bake sales originated in the 1800s as a way for women to organize and raise money for charitable causes.

During the Civil rights era, bake sales were a powerful political tool, helping to fund the Montgomery bus boycott when Georgia Gilmore, a cook and single mother, organized a robust underground network of black women to sell sweet potato pies and pound cakes door-to-door.

Here’s the recipe for this delicious snack cake…

Almond and Plum Snack Cake

(NYC’s Gramercy Tavern’s pastry chef Miro Uskokovic)

Ingredients

1 and ½ cup granulated sugar, divided

1 and ¼ cups unsalted butter (10oz), softened

8 oz. almond paste, crumbled (about 1 cup), divided

2 and ½ teaspoons baking powder

1 and ½ teaspoons kosher salt

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest, plus 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice, divided

4 large eggs

1cup sour cream

1 and ¾ cup bleached cake flour (such as Swans Down) (about 6 and 5/8 oz)

1 cup all-purpose flour (about 4 and ¼ oz)

4 medium -size red plums, cut into ¾-inch wedges (about 3 cups)

note: When I cut into my plums I discovered they were not the red plums, but yellow so next time I will double check when purchasing them. No real harm done, they were sweet, but the red would be more colorful.

Cooking Spray

½ cup sliced almonds (about 1 and ½ oz)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine 1 and ½ cups sugar, butter, almond paste, baking powder, salt, and lemon zest in bowl of a food processor.

Process until light, creamy, and smooth, about 45 seconds.

With processor running, add eggs, 1 at a time, incorporating fully after each addition (mixture should look thick and fluffy).

Add sour cream, and process until fully incorporated, about 30 seconds, stopping to scrape bowl as needed.

2. Whisk together cake four and all-purpose flour in a large bowl. Add sugar mixture to flour mixture; whisk just until all dry ingredients are incorporated. Using a rubber spatula, fold batter to thoroughly combine ingredients.