Quick Plum Cake (Germany) for A Taste of Harmony

Last Friday, 22 March, our work hosted A Taste of Harmony morning tea, an event which celebrates diversity in Australian workplaces by encouraging colleagues to share food and stories from different cultural backgrounds.

As most of my colleagues are Australian, I decided to delve back into my ancestry and make a German treat.  I chose Quick Plum Cake from p58 of Dr Oetker's German Baking Today.  This cake comprises a light cakey bottom topped with plum halves, with a crumble on top.  It went down a treat, and all of it was gone bar one slice by the time that I made it to the morning tea.  I tasted a sliver off that slice and saved the rest for one of my friends. 

It is a rather handsome cake and is easy to make.  I used tinned plums instead of fresh plums, and I don't think that this was detrimental to the finished product.  

To make this cake, you will need:

800g plums (fresh or tinned)

Cake

125g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
125g sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
grated zest of 1 lemon
125g butter or margarine
2 eggs

Crumble

150g plain flour
100g sugar
1 pinch ground cinnamon
100g butter

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.  Grease and line the base of a 26cm springform pan.

For the cake, sift together the flour and baking powder into the bowl of a stand mixer, add all the other ingredients, then mix together on a low setting to just combine the ingredients before mixing thoroughly on high for  2 minutes or until the batter is smooth.  Spread the batter over the base of the prepared springform pan.

Halve and stone the plums, and arrange on top of the cake batter, cut side up, so that the plums overlap.

For the crumble, sift the flour into a mixing bowl, then stir through the cinnamon, sugar and zest.  Rub in the butter until the mixture hasd a crumbly consistency.  Sprinkle the crumble over the top of the plums.

Place the cake into the preheated oven and bake for aorund 50 minutes or until cooked through. 

Remove the cake from the oven, unclip the ring from the springform pan, and allow the cake to cool on a wire rack.

Serve with icecream, cream or yoghurt, or eat generous slices just as they are.