Plum Cake
A German Jewish tradition.
 Something about this cake makes people nostalgic. My guests always tell me it reminds them of cakes their Bubbes from the old country make, and that fits nicely with the Central European roots of the recipe.
I call the cake plumkuchen, though its proper German name is Pflaumenkuchen (Pflaumen=plums, kuchen=cake). The recipe, from my maternal great grandmother, uses a dough called muerbteig, which is one of the staples of German-Jewish baking, and the basis of many tarts.
For plumkuchen, I like to use "Italian plums" also known as "prune plums," that ripen at the very end of summer and the beginning of fall. Italian plums are slightly smaller than the ones that you might be accustomed to, but any plum will do. If you use bigger plums, you may want to cut them into quarters. The ones that bake best are slightly under-ripe. In my family, this cake must be served with plain yogurt (for breakfast) or whipped cream (for dessert). It can be made ahead to eat on Shabbat afternoon after a dairy lunch. The plums introduce moisture to the cake, so it keeps well for up to three or four days. <<< Less |
Directions
Avigail Hurvitz-Prinz is an independent college counselor at Brick By Brick College Counseling, but in her spare time she loves baking cakes and blogging about it.
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