Sunday, September 21, 2008

Great recipe

A reader of my blog sent me the following recipe for a German Plum Cake. Having grown up in Germany, I have tried many different versions of plum cake, and I honestly have to say this is the best I have ever had. Although I have not tried it with any other fruit yet, I have been told this recipe works equally well with apples or cherries. It really is worth a try! Here is a picture of my cake fresh out of the oven:


PFLAUMEN KUCHEN

2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 Tablespoons butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
Italian prune plums*

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Cream sugar and butter until smooth and creamy; add egg and vanilla, beating until creamy. Add flour and milk alternately until well blended. Spread batter in a lightly greased 9x13 pan. Cut plums in quarters, removing pits. Lay fruit in rows, skin side down on batter. Make rows crowded with fruit.

Streusel

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
3 Tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon cinnamon**

Mix all ingredients together, and crumble through fingers. Sprinkle evenly over batter and fruit.

Bake at 350 for 40 minutes.

*The only store in my area that carried this kind of plums was Whole Foods. The conventionally grown kind were on sale for only $.99/lb. These plums are only in season for a couple of weeks each year, so if you want to try this cake you would need to make it right around now. Here is a picture of Italian prune plums to give you an idea of what to look for:


**My plums were pretty tart, so I omitted the cinnamon from the streusels and instead sprinkled the plums generously with cinnamon-sugar before crumbling the streusel topping on top of them.

The cake tastes great by itself, but you can also add some vanilla ice cream or whipped cream and sprinkle with more cinnamon-sugar.

3 comments:

  1. I bet Bobby would like that. I'll have to look for the plums...

    ReplyDelete
  2. That looks really good!! I may have to look for some plums also.

    Oh, by the way, I have been wondering if you plan on teaching the children German as their second language?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great idea about the cinnamon sugar on the tart plums. I'll definitely do that next time!

    And a little extra sprinkle of cinnamon sugar on the ice cream or whipped cream? Oh, yeah!

    ReplyDelete

Your KINDLY WORDED, constructive comments are welcome, whether or not they express a differing opinion. All others will be deleted without second thought.