If you're an avid food blog reader like me, you might have read Smitten Kitchen's post on plum kuchen a few weeks back. Problem is, though her kuchen looks fab it is also totally unlike I anything I ever saw in Berlin. I'm not sure if her recipe is really that different, but I'm certain I never saw plums arranged that way on any Berlin cake slice - and let me tell you, boy did I ever see a lot of plum cake. Journalistic integrity, however, does make me pause to confess: I think Smitten Kitchen's plum kuchen is brighter and prettier than most of the German versions I saw. As for the taste, I really can't say because I'm going for authenticity here, and as such, I shopped around for a plum cake recipe that seemed a bit closer to what I saw.
Now I said I would be honest about my reviews of the recipes I chose for this series. The plum cake was indeed tasty. I also had really ripe and sweet plums working for me. (At $4 a pound they better have been good)! Actually, I think I could just make and eat a whole pan of baked plums alone. In the cake itself the contrast of the tangy lemon in the bread combined with the sweet fruity top worked well. This cake isn't too heavy either. It's light enough even to eat for a breakfast if you want a little splurge.
However. The cake could have been a bit thicker and a bit more moist. To correct that I have two suggestions. 1) Stir in 1/2 cup buttermilk to the recipe and 2) serve this cake with vanilla yoghurt or vanilla ice cream. If you're really going for fluffy, you can also stir in a beaten egg white instead of or along with the buttermilk.
Also make sure you eat this cake the day you make it because, as with all cakes with fruity tops, it's likely to get soggy by the second day.
With those updates, I think you'll love this cake.
Plum Cake
recipe adapted from here
Ingredients
-1/2 cup lukewarm milk
-1/2 tsp. sugar
-2 tbsp. yeast
-2 cups flour
-1/4 lb. (1 stick) unsalted butter
-2 tbsp. sugar
-1/4 tsp. salt
-3 egg yolks, slightly beaten
-zest of one lemon
-plums, de-stoned, enough to cover a 9x13-in. glass pan when sliced
-a couple of tablespoons of extra butter
plus, if desired
-1/2 cup buttermilk
-1 egg white, beaten until stiff peaks form
-vanilla yoghurt or ice cream for serving
Method
Pour milk into a small bowl, and stir in 1/2 tsp. sugar. Add the yeast, and stir. Let the mixture foam for about five minutes. (If the yeast doesn't foam, start over). In another bowl, medium-sized, measure out your flour, and then crumble the butter into it with your fingers. Using a pastry blender or your fingers, work the mixture into crumbs. You can also use a food processor; mine was full of streusel at the time. Then add the 2 tbsp. sugar, the salt, egg yolks, lemon, and combine either with a fork, a mixer/beater, or a food processor. Now you can add the buttermilk if desired, and if you want to add the beaten egg white as well, fold this in as the last step. The dough will be slightly stiff.
Pull out a 9x13-in glass pan, and spread the dough into it, leaving a 1/2-in space between the dough and the edge of the pan. Since the dough is quite buttery, you probably won't need to grease and flour your pan. Cover the pan with a dish towel, and allow it to rise for 1/2 hour.
Just before the dough has finished rising, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Then wash, de-stone, and slice the plums into wedges. After the dough has risen, arrange the plum slice on top of the cake. If you want it to look authentic, follow the pattern I used in this picture. Using the extra tablespoons of butter, place some small pats of butter on top of the plums.
Then bake the cake for approximately 25 minutes, until the plums have become soft, and the dough is lightly browned. If the plums look dry, that's ok. They'll taste great. After you remove the cake from the oven, chill it until it is at room temperature. If you want to be really German, serve the cake by cutting it into squares and arranging them on a large plate. Make sure to put a bowl of yoghurt beside the sliced cake for those who want a little creamy taste to complement the fruit.
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