Procedure to mix cake

1. Heat oven to 350° F.

   Prepare cake pan.

2. Add all the dry ingredients and butter to the bowl of a stand mixer or bowl large enough for a hand held mixer.

3. Add the butter and paddle on speed 1 to mix the butter into the flour. When the flour mixture looks like polymorphic sand, add the eggs, one at a time, allowing for full incorporation before the next egg.

4. Add the milk in a small stream with the mixer speed on low. Slowly add the milk until it is incorporated then move the speed to medium-too much speed and the batter will fling out of the bowl-and mix to make sure all is mixed.

5. Place the batter into the prepared pan and place the plums skin side up into the batter. Crown them together. If you don’t use all the plums, sprinkle them with some granulated sugar, wait 10 minutes then have a treat for yourself.

6. Cover the plums with the streusel topping.

   Bake the cake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. The plums may make the toothpick look wet, but you are looking for cake batter on the toothpick. Plum juice is expected.

7. When the cake is done and nicely golden brown on top, remove to a cooling rack. Allow to cool 15 minutes or until the cake is easy to handle. Carefully remove the cake from the pan by placing a dinner plate over the pan before inverting it. This will save the streusel bits from falling on the floor.

8. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.

9. As the cake cools, the plums should release some of their juice into the cake helping increase the plum flavor and adding to the moisture. Some plums don’t have as much juice to give so if your cake seems dryer than you expected it is the plums, not you.

10. A note about sweetness. In many cases European desserts are not as sweet as American desserts. This plum cake is one such example and I find that a plus. Feel free to add nutmeg or cardamom to the cake batter if you prefer a spiced flavored cake. There is a lot of room to make this your own.