With this easy German Plum Cake you will get a lot of compliments. It is a great German cake, proven and authentic. You should use the German plums (Zwetschgen) that are called here Damson or Italian plums. The dough is a biscuit dough, so no yeast. The regular soft, round plums are not very useful for this cake. It’s a wonderful cake for the Sunday Coffee and Cake getting together. Serve it with whipped cream. Happy Baking!
750g (1 lb) Italian plums (in German Zwetschgen; different than typical plums, Italian plums are oval and not round, the color is a dark blue)
125 g butter (a bit more than 1 stick, very soft)
125 g sugar
220 g flour
3 medium eggs
1 package vanilla sugar, 0.3oz – How to Make Vanilla Sugar
1/2 package baking powder, Dr Oetker
3 tbsp milk or half and half
1 tbsp vanilla extract
2-3 tbsp cinnamon and sugar mix or to taste
– The butter has to be very soft, place it in a pan and heat it so 2/3 are melted.
– Place in a bowl and cream it with the hand mixer for 1 min.
– Combine with sugar, vanilla sugar, mix well.
– Add eggs, and mix well.
– Combine flour with baking powder, add to dough (through a sieve), mix briefly.
– Add milk and vanilla extract, mix.
– Grease a 28 cm (11 inches) spring form with butter, sprinkle with breadcrumbs.
– Pour dough into form and spread evenly with a spatula.
– Cut plums first in halves, remove pit, then cut in quarters.
– Place plums all around the form on the dough. The side with the skin should face the dough.
– Mix sugar with cinnamon and sprinkle evenly over cake.
– Pre-heat oven to 170 C or 350 F and bake cake for 45-60 min. After 45 min use a skewer and poke the cake to see if no dough sticks at the skewer. If no dough will stick the cake is done.
– Let cake cool off before removing from the form.
Serve with whipped cream!
Tips
This cake stays fresh for some days if kept in the fridge. Tastes great the next day!
Use only ripe and soft plums.
Use other fruit such as peaches, apricots or sour cherries. Peaches, cherries and apricots can be canned (without sugar).
I use the Dr. Oetker Kochbuch recipe for “Obstkuchen auf dem Blech” and make enough to freeze what we don’t consume. Now I just have to look for “Zwetschgen” which are very rare in Florida’s supermarkets. My family LOVES my “Pflaumenkuchen”