Forever Loves
The sweets of my childhood remain my all-time favorite desserts. Lemon meringue pie, ambrosia, peach cobbler, bread pudding, and key lime pie keep me drawing from a well so deep of memories, enough for a lifetime.
It surprises no one that all of these are fruit desserts; even my luscious bread pudding is studded with rum-soaked raisins. Fruit drives it all by its bright and tart notes and a more complex sweetness than plain sugar could ever give.
There’s one dessert that tops them all, my mom’s prune cake. Uhm uhm uhm. My love was, of course, inevitable. I was the kid who loved prune juice, the stewed prunes on my tray in old-fashioned cafeterias, and dried fruit plumped up in compote. While I like plums, I adore prunes. They make everything better.
As we write our second cookbook, my mom and I will again include the original prune cake recipe and then bravely (with hubris?) add at least one variation of this family favorite. Here is a peek of the new recipe in progress.
While warm, a vanilla-kissed syrup is poured over the cake, rendering it like an English pudding. I like it best slightly warm but others swear it’s better cold. I’ll let you be the judge. It may require tasting it repeatedly at every temperature. Ah, what price for art!
