Zwetschgenkuchen- Austrian Plum Cake

I came across this recipe on Milk Street, by Chris Kimball. This is how I made it. The only change I made was to use two eggs instead of 1 large egg and 1 egg yolk. It was absolutely scrumptious and very rich. And we enjoyed it for the entire week.

Ingredients

1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp sugar for sprinkling on top
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup salted butter- softened at room temperature and cut into pieces
2 medium eggs (original recipe calls for 1 large egg and 1 large egg yolk)
1.5 tsp vanilla essence
5-6 pluots (you can also use plums), cut into 1/8th slices. Discard pits

Method

Preheat the oven to 325F. Grease and dust a springform pan with flour. You can use a regular pan, but since the fruit it on top, you will have to be very careful when removing it from the pan and will have to flip it over again to make sure the fruit is on top.

Whisk the dry ingredients together - flour, baking powder, sugar and salt- till well combined. You can even sieve them a couple of times. Then add the butter one piece at a time and mix till the mixture starts to look sandy. Add the eggs and vanilla essence and mix the batter till it becomes a pale yellow and fluffy.

This is a very thick batter and will not flow. Using a spatula, spoon it out into the prepared pan and spread it evenly. Then arrange the pluot/plum slices in two concentric circles. Then sprinkle the 2 tbsp of sugar on top of the fruit and bake for 1 hr 15 mins. Check after one hour has passed and when the toothpick comes out clean, the cake is baked.

Let it cool in the pan for 30 mins on a wire rack and then remove the springform base from the pan.

Tips

If you have a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment.