Bake a simple plum cake, eat happily ever after

The most popular date to get married this year was Aug. 18, 2018, because it had the whole play of numbers going for it. Couples were not going to forget (hopefully) getting married on 8-18-18.

Even though it wasn’t the only palindrome date that read the same backward as forward in August — there were nine others from 8-10-18 through 8-19-18 and one on the first of the month — last Saturday was the chosen one.

With 28,633 weddings taking place around the country and each one having an average of 136 guests, an estimated 3.9 million guests were expected to attend the celebrations that day, according to the wedding website theknot.com. And the anticipated price tag spent on the events when all was said and done was a whopping $1 billion.

The Heinz Memorial Chapel at University of Pittsburgh in Oakland had a fairly busy day with four back-to-back weddings.

However, it was not as booked as Sept. 15, when five are scheduled to be held. “There are lots of people in love, I guess,” said Wendy Lau, associate director of the chapel.

The first wedding at the chapel, which celebrated the 85th anniversary of its groundbreaking on Aug. 15, was held at 1:30 p.m. and the last one was at 7:30 p.m. Each ceremony was allowed to go on for 1 hour and 45 minutes and there was a 15-minute interval between weddings. “We try very hard not to make anyone feel that it is a rushed affair,” Ms. Lau said.

The top five most popular registry items for couples getting married last Saturday, according to The Knot, were: KitchenAid stand mixer, Ninja blender, Dyson vacuum, iRobot Roomba and an air fryer. Unique kitchen items included a sushi-rolling kit and the Star Wars DeathStar waffle maker.

Settling into life postwedding means spending time together in the kitchen whether the couple are novices or longtime homecooks. And whether they start the new chapter in their lives with the registry gifts they newly acquired or merge two established kitchens into one, they seek to put their pots, pans and gadgets to good use.

Zwetschgenkuchen, aka Austrian plum cake, is a perfect dessert for newlyweds to make together during these dog days of summer when the stone fruits are in season. While one slices the fruits the other can prepare the batter, and when the cake bakes one can clean the dishes while the other can take care of putting away the ingredients.

Red and black plums are cut into wedges and arranged in concentric circles on top of the cake batter. It is then baked at a low temperature fora little more than an hour.

The cake is simple to make and a good reason to eat happily ever after.