Squishy squish.  A great one for kids to help out with. I must be a kid.

Take ripe plums and squish each one through the hands till the stone is separated out; set the stones aside as you go.  Your blender will thank you.  Measure about a small flattened-off teaspoonful of sugar per plum’s worth, more if you like it less tart; stir sugar and plum guts, including the skins, and zap till it all boils for two minutes or more.  If you want, you can mix a little cornstarch in with the sugar before mixing to help smooth the texture, but it’ll be fairly thick as it is.

After it boils, you put it in a blender or cuisinart till smooth. Voila. A rich, gorgeous, scrumptious plum sauce with almost zero effort. Don’t miss out on the skins; they add the tartness and the depth of flavor, a sour cherry effect.  Pour over ice cream or cake.  Pureed blueberries and sugar is also an option, but then you really will need that cornstarch, the amount depending on how much you cook up.

Now for the California Backyard Cake:

Oven at 350.

Have a bowl ready with 2 c flour and 2 tsp baking powder.

A second bowl with 2 c sugar and 1/2 tsp salt.

A measuring cup with 1 c freshly squeezed Meyer lemon juice (or I suppose 1/2 c OJ and 1/2 c juice from average grocery store lemons, Meyers being a hybrid, but that’s just a guess. I use what I’ve got growing out here.)  Add 1/4 c oil or butter–the original Cretty Bocker 1950 1st Ed. Inexpensive Sponge Cake recipe said 2 tbl, but that makes for a fairly dry cake. On the other hand, if you want to use the leftovers as toast, or to have it as low fat as possible, hey, go for it.  I’m just telling you how I like it better. (Note: 6/11/12: I used a full stick and then sprinkled the top with 10 oz raspberries and ~1/4 c brown sugar on that, and I will definitely do it that way again.)

Beat four eggs for about four or five minutes, till very light.  Add a tsp of vanilla. Have the lemon juice and oil or butter come to boiling in the meantime.  Add the sugar/salt to the egg mixture; then slooowly pour in the boiling lemon juice.  Quickly beat the flour mixture in and put the 13×9″ Pam’d pan in the oven for 25-30 minutes. (30 in mine.)

Serve with plum sauce poured over each piece. Yes, that’s a lot of tartness.  If you want it sweet, you can mix the plum sauce with powdered sugar to make a frosting to coat it instead.

Happy summer! (Trying not to drip plum sauce on the keyboard.) Cake and sauce shown in their natural state two minutes after it emerged from the oven, when I couldn’t even move the pan yet for the photo without oven mitts.  Ya gotta watch those indoor squirrel types–they’re dedicated to the cause.