I read an article on Angela Merkel (the Chancellor of Germany and, according to Forbes Magazine, the second most powerful person in the world) that mentioned that she loved to brag about her cooking and baking skills. Her famous plum cake became a measure of how much time she was able to afford her private life and her husband. As a junior minister she was still able to have two or three baking weekends each plum season, but alas, since becoming Chancellor, her baking days are almost non-existent.
So I wrote to her to ask her for her recipe and she actually sent it. Well, her aide did at least.
This is my translation of her recipe that was emailed me. The original German can be found here.
Ingredients:
Add 50 g melted butter, 50 g sugar, salt and an egg to the dough and knead until the dough is easy to detach from the bowl.
This is my translation of her recipe that was emailed me. The original German can be found here.
- 1.5 kg plums
- 700 g flour
- 200 g butter
- 200 g of sugar
- 30 g yeast
- about 1/4 l milk
- 1 egg
- 1 packet of vanilla sugar
- Pinch of salt
Putting it all together:
Mix about 500g of sifted flour with warm milk and yeast to a dough and let rest for 15 minutes.
Let the dough prove for at least 30 minutes.
Wash plums, cut in half and remove seeds.
Place the dough on greased baking tray and cover with plums.
Mix the rest of the ingredients together - flour, sugar, vanilla sugar and soft butter – and sprinkle over the cake.
Bake at 210°c for about 30 to 35 minutes.