Plum tray bake with a cheesecake ripple

There was a rumor on Twitter last month saying that delicious would end – I was in complete panic because I find the tool extremely useful; luckily, it appears to be just that: a rumor.

How else would I have “remembered” this delicious cake – I mean, extremely delicious – bookmarked on Oct, 7, 2008? ;)

Plum tray bake with a cheesecake ripple
adapted from here

Cheesecake ripple:
200g cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or extract
3 tablespoons caster (superfine) sugar

Cake:
3 eggs
175g unsalted butter, softened
1 cup (175g) light brown sugar, packed
1 ½ cups (210g) all purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
generous pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
400g ripe plums, halved, stoned and roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Butter a 28x18cm shallow baking pan, line with baking parchment, making sure that the paper comes higher than the rim of the pan, and butter the paper as well.
In a medium bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese until soft and creamy. Add the vanilla bean paste or extract and caster sugar and beat until smooth. Set aside.
Place the eggs, butter, brown sugar, flour, baking powder, salt and vanilla in a separate bowl. Beat for about 2 minutes until pale and creamy.
Spread half of the cake batter mixture onto the base of the prepared pan, then dollop half of the cream cheese mixture over it, spreading an uneven swirl through the base mixture. Scatter with half of the plums. Spoon the remaining cake batter on top and dot with the rest of the cream cheese.
Scatter with the remaining plums then bake for about 45 minutes until risen and just firm to touch – when cooked, the surface of this tray bake should feel just firm to the touch, but bear in mind that it will firm-up slightly as it cools; if over baked, it will lose its moist texture.
Leave to cool in the pan before cutting into pieces. Serve warm or cold, with ice cream.

Serves 10 – I made 2/3 of the recipe above and used a 20cm (8in) square pan