Fresh Plum Cake - Pflaumenkuchen with Butter

Serves 8 in about 1 hour. The oven brings lemon zest and sugar together.

Ingredients

• ⅔ cup sugar, plus more for topping
• ½ cup butter, room temp
• ½ teaspoon lemon zest (or ¼ tsp lemon extract)
• 2 large eggs, room temp
• ¼ teaspoon almond extract (optional)
• 1 ½ cups whole wheat flour (or all-purpose)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon milk
• 1 ½ pounds fresh ripe plums, pitted and sliced 1/2" thick
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup cold unsalted butter

Method

1. Slice and pit your plums, and set them aside.
2. Line a jelly roll pan (no larger than 10"x15"x2") with parchment, or grease/spray well.
3. Heat oven to 350° F.
4. In a mixing bow, cream together sugar, butter, and lemon zest.
5. Beat in 1 egg at a time.
6. Stir in the flour and baking powder and mix together by hand, using a spoon.
7. Stir in 1 tsp milk and mix just until incorporated. Don't over mix.
8. Smooth the batter on the pan using a spatula. Dip the spatula in water to help with the spreading (don't saturate the batter though). This will be a thin layer of batter, don't worry as this is correct.
9. Arrange the sliced plums on top of the batter, evenly spaced, with the skin side down (this keeps most of the juice in the fruit, not the batter).
10. Scatter a layer of sugar over the top of the fruit and exposed batter.
11. To make the topping, combine flour and sugar in a separate bowl. Cut in the cold butter using a pastry cutter (or you can grate it over the bowl) and mix to make crumbs. Scatter over top of the cake.
12. Cook for 20 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the batter comes out clean. You may need to bake about 10-15 minutes longer if adding the streusel topping.
13. Cool the cake on a wire rack and then slice as you wish and transfer the pieces to a serving dish.
14. This cake should be eaten within a day, though it does freeze well.

More dessert ideas are in the dessert collection.