Just have cake
Filed under Food
I’ve been visiting my grandmothers, I’ve been trying to make lists of stuff to pack for Sweden (never mind getting around to the actual packing), I’m doing a ton of last-minute shopping, I miss Kentucky terribly and part of me wishes I’d go there this Friday instead of a place I have never been to or, frankly, know much about. And – to calm down my nerves, I guess, or perhaps to just do something so familiar I could do it with my eyes closed – I made German plum sheet cake.
I was driving back from my grandma’s last night when it was already dark out, and all the rain and wind made it difficult to drive, especially because head lights reflected on the flooded roads and made it impossible to see anything. I both loved and hated it; it reminded me of fall and winter and how much I love this season and driving in the rain, but on the other hand, you know, I wanted to make it home in one piece. It was this strange conflict of emotions where- I don’t know – I suddenly felt really small, like I just wanted to cuddle up at home and never have to put up with crazy ideas like leaving Germany, again, for this long a stretch of time, again. Part of me was all, WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO YOURSELF, YOU IDIOT? Right there, I wanted nothing but to be thirteen years old again and get to go to high school and hang out with my buddies and come home to a family dinner and NEVER EVER LEAVE MY COMFORT ZONE EVER. FOR EVER.
And so I got home and made cake. I had bought plums earlier that day – my mom and I had actually talked about using them for cake – and so baking could be my distraction and almost-fix to the inevitable doubts about leaving. It was just so- dramatic. Like, I drove through the storm and every. single. radio station played nothing but slow rock oldies and I turned into our neighborhood where, of course, all the windows were lit up all homely and warm WHICH THEY USUALLY NEVER ARE, my mom had left the light on for me… and I sat in the driveway for a few minutes, listening to the water rush down, and figured any second now the director would yell, CRY! NOW!
I didn’t. I made cake instead. Heh.
This is very traditional German plum sheet cake, we’ve been making it for years and years, for as long as I can remember. So has my grandma. And my aunt. And her grandma. And her aunt. Ah, tradition! (TRA-DI-TION!!!)
2kg plums
300g all-purpose flour
150g dry quark
80g sugar (and some extra)
6 tbsp. milk
6 tbsp. sunflower oil
2 tsp. baking powder
some salt
some butter
1.) Prep. Pit the plums by butterflying them open. (That doesn’t sound like an actual English sentence. But you can probably tell what I mean from the picture above, I hope.) Then, use some butter to, um, butter your baking sheet. Or use the spray kind from the can. Make sure to also cover the edges.
2.) Make the dough. Mix the quark, milk, oil, sugar and a pinch of salt with your mixer. Then, slowly, add the flour and the baking powder. Knead on your kitchen counter until your hands bleed ache give up begin to stick to the dough.
3.) Last step! Spread the dough on your baking sheet – just use a glass bottle (if you’re me) or a real rolling pin (if you’re feeling fancy). And then you can just put the plums on top, their insides facing up. (Ew, insides.) Bake at 220°C for about 25 minutes. Once the cake is done, take it out of the oven while still hot and sprinkle some sugar on top to counteract the slight bitterness of the plums.
I hope I can blog again soon (not sure yet about my internet situation in the new digs). Love y’all!
Aug18
