This German plum cake (plum kuchen) is really more of a sweetened egg-enriched biscuit topped with fruit. It is simple, rustic, easy to make and delicious. No mixer required!
Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
Rub/cut in the butter with your fingertips until there are no pieces remaining that are larger than a pea. The butter to flour ratio here is much higher than in a pie crust, so expect your mix to look much more "pebbly" and less "sandy" when you're done.
Whisk together the egg and sherry or vanilla (I used sherry) and pour on top of the flour mixture.
Stir gently with a fork or knife until all the egg is incorporated and there is no loose flour. Dough will be fairly stiff like biscuit dough. Put it in the fridge while you do the next parts.
Place a rack in the center of your oven and preheat to 350F.
Wash your fruit and slice into about 1/2" slices. Peel the peaches if using, but it's not necessary with the plums.
Get your cake crumbs or vanilla wafer crumbs ready. I blitzed my wafers up in my blender to make very fine crumbs.
Lightly spray an 8" or 9" cake pan with pan spray. (I used our small cast iron skillet and it worked great).
Remove the dough from the fridge and with an oiled spatula or with oiled hands. evenly press the dough into the pan. You'll end up with a layer about 1/2" thick.
Evenly sprinkle on the cake or vanilla wafer crumbs and then arrange your sliced fruit decoratively over the crumbs.
Sprinkle on a thin layer of brown sugar (or demerara. I used dark brown sugar).
Bake for about 50 minutes or until the fruit is soft and you can see some juices bubbling even in the center of the cake.
*Optional* Broil for 3 minutes to caramelize a bit of the sugar on the top.
Remove from the oven and let cool about 15 minutes before carefully sliding the cake out of the pan to finish cooling on a rack.
Serve warm with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream or a bit of cinnamon whipped cream.
Notes
You can use graham cracker crumbs as well if you'd like, although I'm not sure Mother Leavee would approve.