Mary Geis from Baltimore was looking for a recipe for a dessert that her mother made many years ago that was a kind of buttery shortcake topped with plum halves. She said it was not too sweet and instead was rather tart.

Patricia Battaglia from Kalama, Wash., saw the request and was reminded of a recipe for Pflaumenkuchen that her neighbor, Eva Estermann, made some years ago from the plums harvested from a huge Italian plum tree that was in Battaglia’s back yard when she lived in Novato, Calif. She said the tree produced more plums than they could possibly use and one year her neighbor took a couple of gallons of the plums and brought back a plate of this wonderful plum dessert made from a recipe that her mother had in Germany.

Battaglia said it isn’t really sweet but it is absolutely delicious. Feel free to substitute peaches, nectarines, apples or even a combination of fruits. Served warm from the oven with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, this makes a wonderful summer dessert.

Request

Beverly Casey from Knox, Ind., is looking for a “very old and very wonderful” recipe for a rum cake that was made by the Fingerhut Bakery in Chicago about 40 or 50 years ago. It was a single layer cake, which she thinks used rum-soaked pastry in the center of the very dense cake. It was frosted with a white glaze.