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This flexible fruit dessert ends summer on a sweet note

Recipe: Cherry cornmeal torte can be adapted to other fruit

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED SEP 14, 2025

Cherry cornmeal torte salutes the end of summer. This recipe also works well with other fruit. For fall, try figs or Italian plums. Debbie Arrington

It’s the end of summer – and the start of fall baking season. This rustic torte celebrates both.

Cherries last for weeks off the tree, but like summer itself, they don’t last forever. My last cherries went into this dessert, giving bursts of juicy flavor.

This versatile torte can be adapted to other fruit, too, such as peaches, nectarines, plums, pluots, blackberries, blueberries or strawberries. (Chop larger fruit into chunks the size of halved cherries.) Frozen or canned cherries, defrosted and/or drained, can be substituted for fresh cherries, too.

Cherries scattered across an unbaked torte — Arrange cherries skin side up before baking.

This torte recipe itself is a variation of the New York Times’ beloved Original Plum Torte, a staple since the early 1980s. The cornmeal gives it added texture and a pleasant crunch. Almond extract complements the cherries.

Enjoy before summer fruit, like the season, is just a memory.

Cherry cornmeal torte

Makes 8 servings

Ingredients:

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

½ teaspoon almond extract

1/3 cup cornmeal

2/3 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

3 cups cherries, pitted and halved

Sugar for topping

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Butter a 10-inch round baking dish or pie plate. Set aside.

Round baked torte — The cherries may hide in the batter during baking,
but they're an integral part of this torte.

In a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer, cream together softened butter and sugar until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Add extract; beat some more.

Sift together cornmeal, flour, baking powder and salt. Slowly add dry ingredients to butter-sugar mixture, beating until smooth.

Spoon batter into prepared baking dish, smoothing to cover bottom of dish.

Arrange cherries evenly over batter, skin side up. Sprinkle sugar over top.

Place baking dish on center rack of preheated oven. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until golden brown.

Remove torte from the oven and let cool on a rack. Serve warm or at room temperature with whipped cream, if desired.

Refrigerate any leftovers.

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RECIPE

A recipe for preparing delicious meals from the bounty of the garden.

Keywords:

recipe recipes summer fruit dessert cherries backyard produce farmers markets torte baking produce management September Sacramento gardening

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Garden checklist for week of May 17

With an eye on warmer weather to come, continue to work on the summer vegetable garden:

* Remember to irrigate your tender transplants. The wind can quickly dry out young plants. Seedlings need consistent moisture. Deep watering will help build strong roots and healthy plants. Water early in the morning for best results.

* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. Time to set out those tomato transplants along with peppers and eggplants. Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.

* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.

* Harvest lettuce, peas and green onions.

* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters. (You also can transplant seedlings for many of the same flowers.)

* Plant dahlia tubers.

* Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, calibrachoa, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, rudbeckia and verbena.

* Keep an eye out for slugs, snails, earwigs and aphids that want to dine on tender new growth.

* Feed summer bloomers with a balanced fertilizer.

* For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers on roses as well as other flowering plants.

* Put your veggie garden on a regular diet. Set up a monthly feeding program, and keep track on your calendar. Make sure to water your garden before applying any fertilizer to prevent “burning” your plants.

* As spring-flowering shrubs finish blooming, give them a little pruning to shape them, removing old and dead wood. Lightly trim azaleas, fuchsias and marguerites for bushier plants.

* Don’t forget to weed! Those invaders are growing fast.

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