Polish plum sheet cake with streusel: a September tray bake
A creamed butter sponge, halved Italian prune plums laid skin down, and a thick layer of streusel on top. It bakes 45 minutes, the plums sink into the cake and turn jammy, the streusel goes golden. The simplest cake of the season and the one everyone waits for in September.
Your own work in that: 25 min.
- Batter and streusel 25 min
- Baking 45 min
- Cooling 10 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneMake the streusel
Rub the cold cubed butter into the flour and sugar with your fingertips into coarse crumbs. Refrigerate. Cold streusel holds its shape in the oven; warm, it melts into the cake.
Ingredients: 120 g plain flour · 80 g butter · 60 g sugar
Coarse crumbs, then into the fridgePrepare the plums
Wash the plums, halve lengthways and remove the stones. Heat the oven to 180 °C, line the tin with paper.
Ingredients: 800 g Italian prune plums · 1 tsp cinnamon · 1 tbsp sugar · 1 tbsp icing sugar
TipPrune plums give up their stone easily and don't release much juice. Juicier varieties: lay them less densely and sprinkle a spoon of breadcrumbs underneath.
Halves, stones outCream the batter
Beat the soft butter with the sugar and vanilla sugar until fluffy, 4 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating. Add the flour with the baking powder and salt, pour in the milk, mix briefly until smooth. Spread evenly in the tin.
Ingredients: 180 g butter · 150 g sugar · 1 tbsp vanilla sugar · 3 pcs eggs · 250 g plain flour · 2 tsp baking powder · 60 ml milk · 1 pinch salt
Fluffy batter spread in the tinLay the plums
Arrange the plum halves on the batter skin down, tightly, one against the next; they shrink in baking. Sprinkle with the sugar mixed with cinnamon.
Skin down, tightly packedStreusel on top, then bake
Scatter the chilled streusel evenly over the plums. Bake 40–45 minutes at 180 °C, until the streusel is golden and a skewer pushed between the plums comes out dry.
Streusel over the plums, into the ovenCool and dust
Cool in the tin at least 10 minutes, cut into squares, dust with icing sugar. Warm with cream or ice cream, cold with coffee. Keeps 3 days covered.
Jammy plums, golden streusel
Before you start
With other fruit
The same cake with sliced apples, rhubarb, apricots, blueberries. Always 800 g of fruit, always the streusel.
With poppy seeds
Add 2 tablespoons of poppy seeds to the streusel: it turns crunchier and faintly nutty, and poppy seed goes well with plums.
Soggy under the plums
Plums too juicy or laid too thickly. Next time: a spoon of breadcrumbs on the batter under the fruit, and prune plums rather than greengages.
