Prune and Armagnac Cake: From Moosewood Restaurant Cooks for a Crowd. This is a terrific cake! They suggest serving it with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. Here are my notes on the recipe: Use the largest mixing bowl you have. This recipe creates an enormous amount of batter. If using the regular Kitchenaid bowl, use the splash guard and start it up really slowly, especially after adding the buttermilk. The recipe calls for 10 in Bundt pans. Mine say 12 cup on the bottom. Don't use anything smaller. When it says generously butter the pans, take that to heart - about 1.5 Tbsp per pan. Weighing the prunes gives you more prunes than measuring 4 cups. I just use regular inexpensive brandy that I buy for baking. Cardamom seeds are available at Yaranush (down Central Ave toward the County Center.) There is a lot of glaze and I use it all. I apply it with a pastry brush, just kind of slopping it on. Ok. Enough. Here's the recipe: 1 qt (2lb) pitted prunes 1/2 C (3oz) Armagnac or cognac 1 qt Water 2 C Vegetable Oil 1 qt (4C) Brown Sugar 10 large Eggs 2 Tbsp Vanilla Extract 1.5 Qt(6C) Pastry flour (I just use what-ever-they-sell-at- Costco flour) 2 Tbsp Baking soda 2 tsp Salt 1 tsp Ground Allspice 2 tsp Ground Nutmeg 2 tsp Ground Cloves 1 tsp Ground Cardamom 4 tsp Cinnamon 3 C Buttermilk Glaze: 2 C Sugar 4 Tbsp(1/4C)Lemon Juice 1/2 C Armagnac or cognac 1/2 C Reserved prune cooking liquid Preheat oven to 350. Generously butter 2 10" Bundt pans. Dust with flour, tapping out excess. Simmer the prunes, Armagnac and water for 20-25 minutes until the prunes are tender. Drain reserving cooking liquid. (I think more like 15 minutes at the most, but I suppose it depends on the prunes.) Coarsely chop the prunes. Cream the oil and the sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla extract and beat well. Combine the dry ingredients, then add them to the wet ingredients, mixing until well blended. Add the buttermilk and beat just until the batter is smooth. Fold in the chopped prunes and pour the batter into prepared Bundt pans. Bake for 1 hr to 1hr and 10 min, until a pick tests clean. Cool the cakes in the pans for 10 minutes. Invert the cakes onto serving platters, leaving the pans in place over the cakes for 15 minutes. Combine all the glaze ingredients and bring them to a boil. Let them boil for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Pierce the cakes all over with a skewer and slowly pour the glaze over the warm cakes, allowing it to soak in.