26 Feb An ancient pastry tradition: the plumcake
The plumcake is a cake of English origin made from flour, eggs, sugar, butter and/or dried or candied fruit,
sometimes with the addition of spices and liquor. … The term plum cake derives from the fact that in ancient England prunes (plum) were used as an ingredient.
Another story tells that the word plumcake in English actually meant a German cake, actually made with plums, but similar to a tart that has nothing to do with our plumcake today … In the recipe of the Italian plumcake, in fact, the texture and appearance are completely different from those of a classic tart with a short pastry base.
The dough of the plumcake is actually soft, its delicate taste tastes of milk, eggs and flour.
The correct English word is actually “pound cake”, which is a cake invented in the eighteenth century very simple to remember and suitable in the preparation even for those who were illiterate. The pound cake, in fact, was prepared with a pound (corresponding to about 450 g) of each ingredient: a pound of sugar, a pound of flour, a pound of eggs and a pound of butter.
With the passing of time, the art of pastry making has been renewed and refined so much that recipes have been developed where the proportions between the ingredients have been reduced and in some cases changed to give different characteristics to the finished product.
At the same time, the variations have also meant the introduction of new ingredients and new combinations, so much so that with Plum Cake today we no longer mean a precise dessert but a whole genre, to the point that it is not uncommon to come across a salty Plum Cake, for example.