<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> Dear List: Italian prune plums are in the markets. Here is my adaptation of a magnificent plum cake--the kind of homemade cake that made "the green-eyed dragon with the thirteen tails" (who could perfectly well digest "little boys, puppy dogs, and big, fat snails") keel over and die. I count this cake among the best things ever to come out of a kitchen. It takes about 1 hour 15 minutes 3/4 cup sugar (I use 1/3 cup and still find it sweet) 1/2 cup unsalted butter (I use I Can't Believe it's not butter) 1 cup flour--I use roughly 2 parts brown rice flour, 2 parts corn meal, 1 part rice bran, 1 part tapioca flour 1/4 tsp xantham gum 1 tsp baking powder pinch of salt (optional) 2 eggs 24 halves pitted purple plum Sugar, lemon juice, and cinammon for topping. 1.Preheat oven to 350. 2. Cream sugar and butter in a bowl. Add dry ingredients and eggs. Beat well. 3. Spoon the batter into a spring form pan (I line mine with foil to avoid potential contamination). Place the plum halves skin side up on top of the batter. Sprinkle with sugar, juice and 1 tsp cinammmon to taste. 4. Bake about one hour. This can be frozen (double-wrapped in foil, and put in a sealed plastic bag.) Yield: 8 servings. Can be made with apples and cranberries: Replace plums with 2 to 3 apples, peeled, seeded and quartered, and 1/2 cup raw cranberries. This cake is absolutely divine. I cannot let summer end without it.