Plum Moelleux Cake

This Plum Moelleux Cake recipe was destined to be shared quickly on my Instagram… But following the success of it, I decided to share it on the blog as well, so no one misses out on the goodness!

A “moelleux” is a French cake made with the simplest of ingredients and a generous amount of butter, for a melt-in-your-mouth texture. The crumb is rich and a little dense, which makes it the perfect vessel for ripe Summer fruits likes blueberries, apricots and plums. I make this recipe with apricots every Summer, but this year called for plums – and it was just as irresistible.

Cooking notes: 

• The plums can be replaced by other stone fruits such as peaches, apricots and cherries. Blueberries are a great choice as well. However, other Summer berries such as raspberries or blackberries may be too delicate and will likely break apart when folded into the thick/dense batter. 
• Make sure the butter is at room temperature. It should be soft in order to be mixed into the batter easily. 

I hope you’ll love this Plum Moelleux Cake as much as I do! If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment. 

You may also like:

• Orange Yogurt Cake 
• Lemon Poppy seed Yogurt Cake 
• Blueberry Almond Financiers
• Blueberry Lemon Yogurt Cake

Plum Moelleux Cake

Print Recipe

Serves: 8 Prep Time: 15 Minutes Cooking Time: 55 Minutes 55 Minutes

Nutrition facts: 200 calories 20 grams fat

Rating: 4.3/5

( 21 voted )

Ingredients

4 plums, (pit removed) sliced into thin slices
3/4 cup (150g) white sugar
¼ cup (50g) brown sugar + 1 tbsp (for sprinkling)
1 ¾ cup (220g) all purpose flour
½ tsp salt
2 tsp (8g) baking powder
1 cup (2 sicks/225g) unsalted butter, cubed & at room temp.
4 large eggs

Instructions

Pre-heat your oven to 180C/350F with a rack in the middle. Line up a 9” cake pan with parchement paper.

Step 1 - In a large bowl, combine the two sugars, flour, salt and baking powder. Add the cubed butter with a spatula and mix until just incorporated. Add the 4 eggs and mix until just incorporated.

Step 2 - Gently fold ¾ of the plum slices into the batter and transfer into the cake pan. Smooth out the top with the back of a spoon and top with the rest of the plum slices, placed in a circular pattern.

Step 3 - Bake for 50-55 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Enjoy still warm. 

This recipe was inspired by Francois-Regis Gaudry’s recipe of “Moelleux a l’Abricot”. I bake mine in a 9′ circular cake pan (instead of a gratin dish). I switched the apricots for plums, reduced the amount of sugar and substituted some white sugar for brown sugar. I replaced the “sachet de levure” (which is commonly used in France) by baking powder, and slightly adjusted the amount of flour and butter as well.

Did you make this recipe?

I’d love to know how it turned out! Please let me know by leaving a comment below, rate the recipe and/or share a photo on Instagram: tag @pardonyourfrench  and hashtag it #pardonyourfrench. This post may contain affiliate links. Please see my Privacy Policy & Disclosure page for more details.