This great seasonal comfort food bake has a moist and tender cake base, followed by a layer of fresh and juicy plums, and it is generously topped by a buttery and crispy streusel crumble.

A perfect coffee cake for afternoon guests and delicious served as a dessert or pudding for family lunches, it also makes a great breakfast option.

It has a beautiful rustic appearance, tastes absolutely delicious and it is a perfect way to celebrate autumn harvest when plums are in full season and plentiful.

This really is one of my absolute favourite cakes. It is incredibly simple and easy to make using pantry ingredients, perfect to bake in advance, and actually tastes better the following day.

It is German in origin, in fact, the word Streusel in German means something sprinkled or scattered.

Plum cake is also popular in Austria and in Slovenia, once part of Austro-Hungarian Empire. In Slovenia it is called Slivov Potresenec, it is baked up and down the country, not usually found in restaurants and therefore almost exclusively prepared in households.

This particular bake represents many variations where the base of the cake could be made of yeast dough, shortcrust pastry, sponge cake base, with or without streusel topping, it can be round in shape baked in a cake tin or made in baking or roasting trays and cut into squares.

This quintessentially autumnal sweet treat is traditionally made with widely available continental style plums called Italian Prune Plums, also called Empress plums. They are egg shaped with purple or blue skin, are small and their pits separate very easily from the flesh which makes them perfect for baking.

I am sharing here my mum's recipe. Give it a go, you will come back to this recipe time and time again. It is absolutely delicious.

Recipe

Ingredients

Serves 8-12 (8-12 squares depending on the size)

Cake Base

150g butter, softened
150g caster sugar
2 large or 3 smaller free range eggs, at room temperature (weigh the eggs with their shell, they should weigh roughly about 150g)
1 Tsp vanilla extract (or vanilla sugar widely used in continental baking)
1 Tbsp milk
150g plain (all purpose) flour
1 ¼ Tsp baking powder
a pinch of sea salt (about ½ Tsp)
about 350g plums, any type (you can use other stone fruit like apricots and peaches or nectarines)

Crumble Streusel Topping

80g plain (all purpose flour)
80g caster sugar
60g butter, chilled and cut into small cubes
40g finely chopped or ground almonds (you can use other ground nuts like walnuts, pecans or hazelnuts or a combination)
½ Tsp cinnamon, or to taste, optional

Method

Start by making the crumble.

Put the flour, sugar, and a pinch of sea salt in a mixing bowl. Stir well and add small cubes of chilled butter.

Rub the mixture together with your fingertips until all the butter is mixed and you have a sandy, slightly clumpy mixture.

Mix in your choice of finely chopped or ground nuts, and cinnamon, if using, then chill until needed.

Preheat the oven to 180°C static or equivalent.

Line a traybake or roasting tin (roughly sized 28x20cm) with baking parchment. For this bake, you can also use a 26cm (10inch) loose-bottomed round, deep spring form cake tin.

Wash the plums, let them drain and pat dry with kitchen paper or clean kitchen towel.

Remove pits and cut into quarters (if the plums are large, cut them into sixths or eights).

Set aside until needed.

Make the cake base by putting softened butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Use electric hand mixer and beat for about 2 minutes until light and fluffy (you can do this by hand with a wooden spoon).

Beat in the eggs, one at the time, then mix in the vanilla and milk.

Add the flour, baking powder and sea salt.

Mix together on the lowest speed until just combined.

Scrape the mixture and transfer the batter into the prepared tray or cake tin and spread out evenly.

Place and evenly distribute sliced plums on the cake batter.

Top the plums evenly with the crumble.

Bake for about 45-50 minutes until streusel topping is golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Cool completely in tray.

You can serve this plum cake slightly warm or cold. Vanilla ice cream, custard, single cream or a dollop of whipped cream are all nice additions to this bake.

Just a thought

This cake is quite moist so it is best to keep it in the fridge where it may keep for a few days.

You can also freeze it for up to a month (you can freeze the whole cake or just slices).