New York Times Plum Torte...an end of summer must

Once the Italian plums are seen in the market I must make the timeless New York Times Plum Torte. It is easy and so delicious. It has been featured in the Times by Marion Burros every year since 1981. It is delicious. You can also make it with apples and cranberries, sliced peaches and blueberries, cherries, all kinds of things. There are several versions of it floating around. One I saw has the plums skin side down and one skin side up. This time I decided to bake it skin side down...
I first learned of this recipe from my dear friend Ernie who is one of the best bakers on the planet. Thanks Ernie!

Original Plum Torte
adapted from the NYTimes recipe

Total time: 1 hour 15 minutes
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup unbleached flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
2 eggs
24 halves pitted Italian purple plums (prune plums)
Sugar and cinnamon for topping.
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cream sugar and butter in a bowl. Add flour, baking powder, salt and eggs, and beat well.
3. Spoon the batter into a buttered spring form of 8 or 9  inches. Place the plum halves skin side up on top of the batter. Sprinkle lightly with sugar, depending on the sweetness of the fruit. Sprinkle with about 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, or to taste.
4. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Remove and cool; refrigerate or freeze if desired (but first, double-wrap the tortes in foil, place in a plastic bag, and seal). Or cool to lukewarm, and serve.
5. To serve a torte that has been frozen, defrost and reheat it briefly at 300 degrees.
Yield: 8 servings.
VARIATIONS: To make an apple-cranberry torte, follow directions for plum torte but peel, seed, quarter and slice two or three large baking apples. Arrange 1/2 cup of raw cranberries over the batter and top with the apple slices. Sprinkle generously with cinnamon; squeeze 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of lemon juice over the apples. Sprinkle with sugar. (I find that a quick baking apple works best with this, a Macintosh is fine, and two are more than enough, you do not want to overload this torte with too much fruit)
Alternately, slice two peaches or nectarines and arrange over the batter and sprinkle a 1/2 cup of blueberries over the batter and follow with cinnamon and sugar. I often will use some Demerera sugar over the fruit for a nice little crunch.

I find that in my oven I need to bake this for an hour. Start checking in yours at 40 minutes and go from there.

It is nice to have a little stash of these in the freezer...a taste of summer on a cold winters day...

We do love it best right out of the oven after it has cooled just a little bit....A little vanilla ice cream never hurt anyone either.