german plum crumble cake

Last last year Wallis, one of the archaeologists, won a job in another state. Research only. Much jealousy resulted, which for Wallis was probably almost as good as the job! On visiting her erstwhile, and now solo, former flat mate Dr Space Junk I had a choice of Wallis left overs. Yes - her field food. I came away with a tin of three bean mix, some stir through red pepper pasta sauce and a huge bottle of plums.

What the freak was I going to do with all of those plums? Simple - German plum crumble cake. There is one of German descent in our office who could give you the proper name. But it's 8.30 on a Sunday night, so German plum crumble cake is all I got. And I got the recipe from Marie from A Year From Oak Cottage. Here 'tis




120g butter
1/3 cup golden caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 large egg
1 tblspn sour cream
1 pinch salt
grated zest of one lemon
1 3/4 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 cups plums, pitted and sliced into wedges (or half a bottle of plums, if you're me)

For the crumble (which I made the night before and kept in the fridge):
85gm butter
3/4 cup plain flour
1/3 cup caster sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cardamom

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees. Lightly butter a 9 to 10 inch cake tin with a removeable bottom and set aside.

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, lemon zest, vanilla, sour cream and salt. Whisk the flour, baking powder together and then add it to the creamed mixture, mixing it in well. Spread the batter in the prepared pan.

Liberally spread the plums over top of the batter. Or if they're out of a bottle and a little bit squishy, just mush em up and spread em out.

To make the topping whisk together the sugar, flour and spices. Rub in the butter until it is crumbly. Sprinkle it evenly over the plums.

Bake in the pre-heated oven on the middle rack for approximately 45 minutes to an hour, until the topping is nicely browned and the cake tests done. Remove from the oven and let sit for about 15 minutes, cooling on a wire rack, before removing the sides of the pan.

This was still warm when we ate it, which I think helped immeasurably.