German Plum Cake

I found some prune plums at the grocery store this Fall.  A lady was filling bags with them, saying she made German plum cake with them.  That sounded so good that I bought a bag of plums too.  I got home and googled German plum cake and found a very delicious one. Prune plums are small oval dark purple plums.

German Plum Cake 

Ingredients: 

• ▢ 1.5 lbs plums, pitted and quartered

For the cake batter:

• ▢ 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ▢ 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ▢ ¾ cup granulated sugar
• ▢ 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, or vanilla sugar
• ▢ ½ teaspoon lemon zest, freshly grated (optional)
• ▢ ½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• ▢ 2 large eggs, room temperature

For the streusel:

• ▢ 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ▢ ½ cup sugar
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
• ▢ ½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 
  
• Directions:
•  

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (180°C). Spray with cooking spray or lightly butter a 9-inch springform pan, set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment combine flour and baking powder. Add sugar, vanilla extract, lemon zest, butter, and eggs to the bowl and beat on low speed until combined then increase speed to medium-high and beat until smooth, about 2 minutes.
3. Spread the batter evenly into the cake pan. Gently place the plums in a concentric pattern on top of the batter, slightly overlapping each other.
4. Make the streusel: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment combine flour, sugar, and cinnamon. Add soft butter and beat until everything is combined and your crumbs have a coarse and crumbly texture about 30 seconds to 1 minute.
5. Using your hands sprinkle the streusel evenly on top of the plums. 
6. Bake for about 50 minutes or until the top of the cake is lightly golden. Test with a skewer for doneness. Let the cake sit in the pan for about 10 minutes, then run a knife around the edge of the pan and remove the outer ring of the springform. Let cool to room temperature before serving.