Recipe right at the top! Scroll down for frugal entertaining tips and how to make this plum cake for $2.03—for the whole cake!
Plum Cake
Cheap and easy plum cake serves 12 for less than $3!
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup butter 1 stick
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 cup flour
- 4–12 fresh or frozen plums halved or sliced; remove pits.
Topping
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
Instructions
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Grease and flour 9" or 10" springform pan.
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Stir together sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla, baking powder, salt.
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Stir in flour.
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Add batter to pan. Batter will be thick.
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Slice plums (remove pits); arrange over batter in pan, skin side up.
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Sprinkle cinnamon sugar topping over the top and bake for 1 hour at 350°.
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Let cool completely before cutting for clean slices.
Serving notes
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If serving from kitchen, remove springform pan ring and cut into slices from springform pan base; transfer slices to plates with cake server.
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If serving at dining table or on a buffet, remove springform pan ring. Loosen cake from springform base with spatula. Cover top with parchment, then cutting board, invert, and transfer right side up onto serving platter. Cut into slices, or lay knife and cake server next to serving platter if guests will serve themselves.
Recipe Notes
For cost breakdown please visit AllDayMom.com/plum-cake-recipe.
This post includes affiliate links to Amazon. This is not a sponsored post! All products linked are products I buy for my family.
Plum Cake Recipe Frugal Entertaining Tips and Tricks!
Do you use organic ingredients for party recipes?
I try to cook with organic or at least non-GMO ingredients at home, within reason. But, for entertaining, church potlucks, food to take to someone else’s party, etc., I do use cheaper ingredients.
For instance, I never cook with canola oil at home, but I have a big jug of it to use when we make boxed brownies. If I take boxed brownies to a potluck, I’m pretty sure that people who eat brownies at potlucks don’t care that the brownies were made with cheap canola oil instead of expensive avocado oil!
Sometimes that feels jerky, like I should give my very best, but the reality is that most party foods are already junk food! I don’t like spending extra money on organics in situations where nobody cares if the food is organic! (Some day I’ll tell the story about my $92 pastured Thanksgiving turkey.)
If you do want to use your fancy organic baking ingredients when you entertain, go for it! It is still much cheaper to make a cake with organic ingredients than to buy a cake! Even if I used ALL organic ingredients for this Plum Cake, it would only cost $5! You can’t buy a crappy, GMO-filled cake at any grocery store bakery that serves 12 for just $5!
This is an easy coffee cake that looks expensive but is not!
My mom makes this plum cake with fresh plums from her tree for the grandkids and it’s one of my kids’ favorite desserts.
I used just 4 plums in the plum cake in the photo, but you can use as many as a dozen plums in one cake! My kids like more plums-to-batter, and I like more batter-to-plums.
The plum cake does slice more easily with fewer plums; with more plums, you can scoop the cake while it’s hot and serve with ice cream, like a cobbler!
At the end of summer, plums are super cheap, $1 per pound or less (usually about 4 large plums per pound). Cut plums in half, pit, and freeze them so you can make plum cake any time of year!
If you don’t have a springform pan, here’s what you can do:
The plum cake looks prettiest and cuts neatly when it’s baked in a springform pan (this is the springform pan I use, works great and only $12!) but you can bake it in a cake pan or casserole dish too. If you’re not using a springform pan, make sure to line the dish with parchment all the way up the sides. After the cake has cooled, pull the parchment up to lift the cake out of the pan and onto the counter, and then cut it.
I buy organic ceylon cinnamon from Amazon for $15 a pound, and it lasts me about a year. To compare, a 1.5 oz jar of organic cinnamon from Walmart is “only” $3.97 but that actually costs $42 per pound! Always buy your spices in bulk. I freeze bulk spices in quart size freezer bags, and keep a small amount in the pantry.
Here is the cost breakdown of this Plum Cake recipe!
- The first recipe cost ($2.91) is based on the ingredients I use at home.
- The second recipe cost ($2.03) is based on sale prices for baking ingredients that ALWAYS go on sale during Thanksgiving/Christmas time at just about every grocery store.
Note that I don’t use vanilla in this Plum Cake recipe.
The cinnamon topping, butter, and plums are very flavorful, so vanilla is a waste of ingredients and money in this recipe. A teaspoon of pure vanilla extract from Costco (best value anywhere!) would add 38 cents to this recipe—that’s 13% more money, with no difference in taste!
As I make it: Plum Cake for $2.91
12 slices from 10” springform pan; $0.27 per serving.
Sugar $0.25 at $2 per 4 lbs (C&H Non GMO; Winco)
Butter $0.63 at $2.50 per 1 lb (Costco)
Eggs $0.46 at $2.79 per dozen (organic; Costco)
Baking powder $0.04 at $1.82 per can (Rumford Non GMO; Winco)
Flour $0.25 at $1 per lb (organic; Fry’s)
Plums $1.00 at $1 per lb (everywhere)
2 Tbsp sugar $0.04 at $2 per 4 lbs (C&H Non GMO; Winco)
1 Tbsp cinnamon $0.24 at $15 per lb (organic, Amazon)
Make it cheaper: Plum Cake for $2.03
12 slices from 10” springform pan; $0.17 per serving.
Sugar $0.12 at $1 per 4 lbs
Butter $0.50 at $2 per 1 lb
Eggs $0.17 at $1 per dozen
Baking powder $0.04 at $1.82 per can (Rumford Non GMO; Winco)
Flour $0.05 at $1 per 5 lbs
Plums $1.00 at $1 per lb
2 Tbsp sugar $0.02 at $1 per 4 lbs
1 Tbsp cinnamon $0.13 at $0.50 per oz (Walmart)
What’s your favorite frugal entertaining dessert?
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