Italian prune plums

The (Now) Annual German Plum Cake

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It looks a lot like apples, you say, and it is. I’ve been making this recipe for decades, and it’s one of my favorites. All butter, sugar, egg yolks, and flour, and fruit. Yum.

The original is made with Italian prune plums, which are not in season very long, and it’s delicious. I started experimenting with other fruits, and found peaches were a natural, as are apples.

I now make this with apples, cinnamon added to the sugar, at least once a year in the fall, experimenting with different apple flavors and varieties. It’s so incredibly easy with all ingredients mixed together right in the baking pan.

It always comes out fabulous, even if my fruit arrangement occasionally leaves something to be desired. If interested in the recipe, leave a note in the comments and I will create and upload a PDF.

Baking is good for the soul.

My Mom’s German Plum Cake

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For the moment we’ll forget the irony of a German Plum Cake being made with Italian prune plums; I’m guessing it’s so because they’re perfectly delicious in it! This is one of my truly favorite recipes to make. It’s surprisingly easy, absolutely delicious, (assuming you think great baking includes butter, sugar and eggs), and always comes out fabulous. What more could one want?

Above, prepped in a flash and ready to go in the oven …

I don’t know where my mom originally got the recipe, but I’ve been making it for years. Five simple ingredients in the crust, which you mix right in the pan, fresh fruit, and two ingredients on the top. Voila! The Italian prune plums are the basic recipe, but it’s easily adapted to peaches or apples with just a bit of cinnamon added to the topping sugar.  In fact, I was planning to stop at the farmstand for peaches for my Labor Day dessert contribution – summer’s last hurrah – after grocery shopping, but while in the supermarket, thought to check on the plums.

Much to my surprise, there they were! I asked how long they’d be in stock. Two or three weeks tops the produce manager told me! Plums it is then.

Crumbly butter crust, sweet fruit and some good vanilla ice cream. Does it for me!

p.s. I have now added the recipe for this here.