Plum Cake

Ulla has shared her Plum Cake recipe (or Pflaumenkuchenrezept if you speak German)! Her entire post, including the German version of the recipe, can be found on her blog. Pull out your kitchen scale and get ready to bake!

Germans use grams rather than cups in baking! Using weight measurements rather than volume measurements leads to more precise measuring. Also, take note of the different temperatures. Germans use Celcius rather than Fahrenheit. Since my math is not the greatest my husband had to print me up a conversion table and tape it to the refrigerator when I first moved here.



Ingredients:

* 375g flour
* 75 g sugar
* Vanilla in liquid form since it's not sold in little packages like in Germany...1 tsp will do
* 2 1/4 tsp dry yeast
* pinch of salt
* 1 egg
* 200 ml of milk
* 100g butter (a stick is fine)
* 2-3 kg of Italian prunes or small plums

Mix dry ingredients together. Add the stick of butter to the milk and put it in the microwave for about a minute or two. You can also melt the butter in the milk on the stove top. Be careful and don't burn the milk! It should just be warm enough to melt the butter gently. If the mixture is too hot it will destroy the yeast when added to the dry ingredients...Add the egg, the milk, butter, and vanilla to the flour mixture. Knead everything together. This can be done by hand or with a machine using kneading hooks.



Put dough in a bowl and cover with towel. Let it sit until it has visibly enlarged in size! About an hour or so.

Roll out dough and place it on greased baking sheet or several smaller springforms. I used two large round springforms and 3 little tart pans. The kids really love the minicakes!

Arrange the plums closely together in rows or a circular pattern. Press into the dough lightly arranging them in a fish scale pattern. Plums must be cut halfway through and taking the pit out. Then you add too smaller slashes to flatten the plums out.



When the dough is completely covered with a dense layer of plums bake in a preheated oven at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20 to 25 minutes. Once the edges turn brown it's probably done!

Serve sprinkled with sugar or a spoonful of whipped cream on top!

If you lost the battle against the squirrels this year, and they got all your plums, you can also use sliced apples for this recipe! =)

Ulla started making playthings for her own children and now fills her Etsy shop with traditionally made dolls created entirely from natural materials. Full size Waldorf-style dolls, pocket dolls, sweet leaf buddies and plenty of darling clothes to dress them can be found at German Dolls. "My soft, warm dolls are unique, huggable, and as individual as the children and young and old who love them!"