This weekend I wanted to pick some plums. I love plum cake, or as the Germans call it, Zwetschgendatschi. And of course it was raining the whole day. But I promised you plums, so you are gonna get plums. Therefore (oh my English teacher would be so proud of me using that word) I took my boots, raincoat and bucket and went outside. I have to thank my past self for doing that because right now the whole house smells like cake. And climbing up the trees burns so many calories, I am sure I can eat the whole thing later. Well, those rainy days aren´t that bad. Fall is coming and we are definitely used to a lot of rain. And sometimes you just gotta love those days.
For me, the best plum cake is the following one. There are a thousand more recipes, but I prefer the one that is made with yeast. And that can be a problem. Because yeast is very sensitive. And tends to be a drama queen. She doesn´t like it too hot, but it shouldn´t be too cold either. Only the perfect temperature is good enough. What a…well you know the word. But if everything turns out the way it is supposed to be, all you need is a cup of coffee and a piece of this lovely cake and you´re good.
For this recipe you need:
100 g butter (later you´ll need 75 g more)
500 g flour
100 g sugar (again, later you´ll need 75 g more)
A little bit of vanilla flavoured sugar
A little bit of salt
250 ml milk
42 g yeast
1 Egg
A lot of plums (about 2 kg)
1 1/2 tbsp. cinnamon
1) First, you need to melt 100 g of butter. Mix the flour, 100 g sugar, vanilla flavoured sugar and the salt. Heat the milk (careful! it shouldn´t be too hot) and mix with the yeast. Add milk, yeast and butter to the flours-sugar-mix and knead until you have a nice and firm dough. The dough needs to rise in a warm place now, that takes about 45 minutes.
2) In the meantime, wash the plums. Cut them in half and take out the core. After the dough is done, knead again with a little bit of flour and roll it out in a baking tray. Put the plums on top and let rise for another 30 minutes.
3) Mix cinnamon with the rest of the sugar. Put little flakes of butter on the cake and add half of the cinnamon-sugar. Bake in the preheated oven (175°) for about 25 minutes. When it´s done, add the rest of the cinnamon-sugar and let cool. Enjoy with whipped cream.
