Tuesdays with Dorie: Dimply Plum Cake

Over the years, I've gotten pretty good at basic kitchen chemistry. Although I still can't remember whether fudgier brownies means more eggs or less, or anything that requires specific memorization, I'm getting pretty good at substitutions. I more or less know what effect new ingredients will have on a recipe, and I have a good sense of what will work and what will be a disaster. I can gauge batter texture and tell when it needs more liquid. This confidence can sometimes be overconfidence when I'm not paying attention, or when I have a persistent block against remembering the properties of an ingredient.

In this case, my nemesis is a truth that should be easy to remember after all my bread adventures: Whole wheat flour is more absorbent than white. It eats moisture, andwhen one substitutes it for 1/3 of the flour in a recipe, it's a good idea to add some more. This is what I did not do, and this is why my Dimply Plum Cake (actually made with peaches) was kind of terrible. About ten minutes into the baking, I realized what was going on, and poured a little milk over the top. This saved the top, but the bottom is still more biscuit-like than anything else, and the whole thing is kind of unappetizing. This is why I usually try to make a recipe as directed once before I muck around, but scarcity of ingredients made that tough last night. Maybe I'll make it again, but, to be honest, I got a sense of what it might be like and I think I'd prefer to put my fruit into the Yogurt Cake. Haven't made one of those in a while, actually. Hmm....