So what is Zwetschgenkuchen? And how do you pronounce it? I never say it right, but I guess you would say tsvetch-gen-kuchen. If you really can’t say it, just call it a plum cake, or a plum kuchen. Basically, it is the #1 dish that my father-in-law asks me to bake for him when I come over. Everyone else is allowed to have some…if they can get to it before it’s all eaten up! It is a traditional German plum cake that my husbands family grew up eating and it makes me feel so happy to make it for them now. I may not be German, but I married in to a very traditional Jewish-German family with a lot of wonderful traditions, and eating is one of them! I encourage you to try it for your family!
Zwetschgenkuchen (German Plum Cake)
Servings
10 Servings
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup margarine room temperature
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract I use Disaronno
- 1 large bag of purple Italian plums cut in to wedges
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- This is such a simple recipe and the flavor is huge! Start by mixing the margarine and 1/2 cup of sugar. Add the eggs and mix again. Separately, mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and almond extract.
- Add the flour mixture to the margarine mixture.
- Prepared a pan with cooking spray and pour the thick batter in. Spread it out to make it even. I think you can really use any size pan, to be honest. The larger the pan, the thinner the cake will be. I prefer a thinner cake so I went with a larger pan. You do what you think will taste the best for you.
- Slice the plums, removing the pit in the process.
- This is where you can have a lot of fun and even get the kids involved! Layered the plum wedges on top of the batter in a pretty pattern. You can use whatever pattern you want, or no pattern at all.
- Mix together the sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle it over the plums.
- Baked the cake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes and it’s ready to eat!
- I actually prefer the kuchen room temperature, but it is delicious however you want to eat it! You can try other fruits as well, although I don’t know what you would call them in German.
Good recipe but butter not margarine
I think it should be okay. Just makes sure to drain he plums really well and I would even dab them with a paper towel to get rid of any excess liquid.
This sounds like a wonderful recipe. But, my husband came home with canned plums. Can I use canned plums instead of real plums, or will they get too mushy?
Thank you!
I would love to know what you think when you make this!!!!
I must try this. My mom who is from Germany used to make this all the time. She gave me her handwritten recipe and I just found out one of my children accidently washed it in the dishwasher, now her recipe is lost forever :-(. I sure hope this is like hers. The ingredients suggest it would be. Thank you for posting this.
I can’t find the plums, is there another type of plums I can use instead? Help! I want to make it this weekend. Thanks!
Love it but I prefer the yeast based dough on the bottom and also sometimes make it with apples with or without cinnamon when the plums are not in season.
I made a delicious plum cake today with prune plums. Yummy!!
Because the Italian plums are’t available at the present time, I used prune plums. It tastes just the same as the Italian plums and it’s delicious.
Hi K. Foley. This recipe calls for 1 Tbsp of baking powder, not baking soda. Definitely try it again!
IMHO a Tablespoon of baking soda was way too much. I threw it out. I will make it again with a teaspoon, because it seemed like it would taste good.
You don’t have to use Italian plums but they are the best for this! Italian plums are really small. You can use apples too!
Do the plums have to be Italian? I have a plum tree in my backyard but have no idea what type of plums they are.
Yup, 1 Tbsp is correct. Let me know what you think! This is my favorite cake!
Is 1 Tablespoon of baking powder correct? That seems like a lot. Perhaps it’s a typo and meant to say 1 teaspoon? It sounds like the recipe was a success for those who posted, but I wanted to make sure before I used my beautiful and hard-to-find Italian plums. Thanks!
So glad you liked it, Sima! This is one of my favorite cakes.
I made this delicious cake last shabbos and it was devoured! Everyone loved it and is looking forward to eating it again. I did use less sugar, (less than 1/4 cup) and more cinnamon (approx 2 1/2 tsp) to sprinkle over cake. The cooked plums tasted almost like cooked cherries. Tart, but sweet. Thanks for a winning recipe!
Lissy- I would love to see your recipe. Email me at [email protected].
My Zwetschgenkuchen is dairy. The dough is made with “gvina levanah 5%” and a true hit in our house as well.
A large bowl of plums is around 10-15 small plums. To be honest, there is no right or wrong amount, as long as you can fill the top of the cake with sliced plums.
What EXACTLY is a “Large Bag of Plums?” How about the weight needed? Where I shop, plums don’t come in bags. And they come in different sizes, too. Everything else in this recipe is so specific in terms of measurements, I would hope the central ingredient could be, too. I want to get the proportions right.
So glad you liked it! I love the cinnamon and sugar on top.
This was delicious! My daughter (and I) had so much fun decorating the top with the plum wedges. I made it in an 8 inch square and used about 5 plums on top and only found that I needed a 1/4 cup of sugar + 1 tsp cinnamon to sprinkle.