Plum cake

It is the time of plums, those little freestone sugar-plums, with their purple, white sheened skin and yellow flesh. They are perfect for plum cake (the German Pflaumenkuchen) and this year I made the recipe with cake mixture base instead of the yeast base. It rose and rose ... next time I try it I will half the recipe for the same amount of fruit.

The secret is to put as many plums on as you can.

Plfaumenkuchen (cooked).

A couple of years ago I painted the plums, but this year I couldn't wait to eat the cake.

Sugar plums and flowers

Sugar plums

Sugar plums
(61 x 30.5 cm)

I went looking for some paintable fruit last week and found sugar plums.  I love Pflaumentorte (German plum cake) which is made with sugar plums but it is expensive to make in Australia because the plums are less popular and are offered in small prepacked quantities. Enough for a painting, but not enough for Pflaumentorte.

Sugar plums are purplish with a whitish sheen which makes them interesting to paint. I painted a narrow canvas then couldn't resist painting a larger version as well.I am not sure if the whitish sheen got more pronounced over time or whether I got better at painting it by the second canvas; perhaps both.

Sugar plums II
(60 x 50cm)