Plum or Apple Torte (or other fruit)

Imagine this with plums, not apples, although the apples were delicious too. This recipe is from Marian Burros, courtesy of the NYT.  Delicious, especially with a cup of coffee. Plums can be replaced with any seasonal fruit. I have made it with Italian prunes (not enough juice so use a different plum), pears, and apples, all of which were delicious. The notes say to experiment with spices, herbs and extracts: vanilla extract, almond extract, nutmeg, ginger, cardamom, rosemary, orange or lemon zest.

My favorite apple, so far, for this recipe is Honeycrisp or Cosmic Crisp. No to Granny Smith and Opel .

INGREDIENTS
¾ cup sugar (can add another ¼c. depending on depending on sweetness of the fruit)
½ cup unsalted butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup unbleached flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt 
2 eggs
Fruit: 24 halves pitted purple plums | 2 large apples, peeled & sliced | 2-3 pears, sliced
Sugar, lemon juice and cinnamon, for topping

Brown sugar for topping

PREPARATION

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cream the sugar and butter in a bowl. Add the flour, baking powder, salt and eggs and beat well.
3. Spoon the batter into an 9" springform pan or removable bottom cake pan (or 8" or 9" cake pan, or square pan, but I prefer a 9" removable bottom cake pan as it allows it to not rise as tall and to have more fruit). 
4. Place the plum halves skin side up or other fruit as desired on top of the batter. Sprinkle lightly with sugar and lemon juice, depending on the sweetness of the fruit. Sprinkle with about 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, depending on how much you like cinnamon. Lightly sprinkle some brown sugar over the fruit.
5. Bake 1 hour, approximately. Remove and cool; refrigerate or freeze if desired. Or cool to lukewarm and serve plain or with whipped cream. (To serve a torte that was frozen, defrost and reheat it briefly at 300 degrees.)