Plum Cake. You see this cake all over Italy. It is a type of sponge cake, baked in a loaf tin, similar to what is known as a loaf cake in the UK. In my opinion Italy does most things to do with food extremely well. One possible exception is breakfast. It is usually just coffee and some variety of cake.  The coffee is very good though :-) This is a very common breakfast cake. I haven’t translated the name. It always appears in English, although the pronunciation is more ploomcake. It never, however, contains plums, or indeed any other kind of fruit. I have asked around, but nobody has any idea how it got its name. If anybody knows, please let me know.

• 200g icing sugar
• 4 eggs, seperated
• 200g unsalted butter
• 200g 00 flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• A few drops of vanilla essence
• A pinch of salt

Beat the butter together with the sugar using a wooden spoon.

When they are combined, add the egg yolks and continue beating until you get a smooth mixture.

Whip the egg white, together with a pinch of salt, with an electric whisk until you get stiff peaks.

Gently fold in the egg whites, into the egg yolk mixture.

Gently fold in the flour, baking powder and the vanilla essence.

Grease a large loaf tin with butter and dust with flour. Pour in the mixture.

Bake at 170°c for 40-45 minutes. When a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean, it is ready.

Filed under: 00 Flour, Butter, Dolce - Sweet, Eggs Tagged: cake, Italian recipe