Plum Cake with Yeast Dough

You probably know that it is only my hubby and me so I thought making a full baking sheet of cake would probably be too much. I already have a plum sheet cake on here. So I figured I would make more of a coffee cake in a round form. This would probably not take as long to eat. So I got to working on it and once done, it took very little and suddenly I only saw half of the cake left. Where had it gone? My hubby looked all innocent, he claimed he had only eaten three pieces of cake. If these these pieces were very large chunks of cake I inquired. Well, this depends on how you define “chunck”. Well, well, well… I think it speaks for itself that hubby was so excited about this recipe. I loosely based it on the recipe from Alfons Schuhbeck (in German). he is very famous, especially for this plum cake called Zwetschgendatschi, so I am happy to present this plum cake with yeast dough, lots of plums, and cinnamon crumbs. If you are short on time, I can recommend a much quicker plum cake, which uses baking powder as the leavener instead of yeast.

As stated, I do have another plum cake recipe on the blog, but I wanted a slightly different version in a different form. This one should be more of a coffee cake, so I did a little research. The changes I made were that a) I added some sliced almonds to the streusel, telling you, so yummy and b) I also wanted a rather thick yeast dough. Normally it is stretched out thin, however, my grandma often made yeast cakes and hers always had a thick layer of dough. One example would be this apricot sheet cake inspired by my grandma. I wish my grandma were still here and I could serve her a piece of this plum cake and ask for her opinion. I am pretty certain that she would have approved and made something similar herself.

Print Recipe

Plum Cake with Yeast Dough

Serves: One 24-26cm/8-9 inch ∅ springform

Prep Time: 30min – Cooking Time: 40min – Total Time: 1hr 10min

The famous plum cake called Zwetschgendatschi from Bavaria is prepared with a yeast dough and cinnamon crumbs. I made a smaller version in a springform.

Ingredients

• Dough
• 60 grams of milk
• 10 grams of fresh yeast
• 200 grams of all-purpose flour (you may need a little more)
• 25 grams of regular sugar
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1 dash of rum (can be omitted)
• 1 egg
• 25 grams of butter, at room temperature
• 
  
• Filling
• 750 grams of plums
• 
  
• Crumbs
• 100 grams of all-purpose flour
• 75 grams of cold butter
• 50 grams of regular sugar
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 50 grams of sliced almonds

Instructions

1

In this short video you can see how I make it. For the dough slightly heat the milk, you should be able to stick your finger inside. Dissolve the yeast in it. Meanwhile weigh all remaining ingredients except for the butter into a large kneading bowl. Add the milk mix and knead on low for five minutes. Then add the butter in small chunks and knead on second low for 3 minutes. The dough will be very sticky, if extremely sticky, add a bit more flour. Cover with a damp towel and let rise until double in size. Depending on the environment, this may take between 30-90min.

2

Meanwhile cut and destone plums, set aside.

3

For the crumbs mix all ingredients except for the almonds and rub into crumbs, briefly mix in the almonds. Chill until further use.

4

Once the dough is ready, box out the air and then press into the bottom of an oiled springform. I did this by hand. Arrange the cut plums on top and sprinkle with the crumbs. Cover again with a damp towel and let rise for 20 minutes.

5

Meanwhile preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and bake on medium rack for about 30-40 minutes. Mine needed 40 minutes. Serve on the day made. You can also freeze, wait until it has cooled, wrap airtight and then freeze. Let come back to room temperature and enjoy.

P.S. If you are interested in more plum recipes, check out these 10 recipes with plums on my blog.