How to Make: German Spiced Plum Coffee Cake (No Yeast)

A German spiced plum coffee cake with slivered plums, a Glühwein plum jam layer and a buttery cinnamon brown sugar topping. No yeast!

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This German spiced plum coffee cake is a square, sliceable cake inspired by the plum cakes that fill German markets every autumn, built on a soft cinnamon butter batter and layered with thin slivers of fresh Italian plums, a generous spread of spiced Glühwein plum jam, and a buttery cinnamon brown sugar topping that sits somewhere between a streusel and a soft cookie crumb. It borrows the flavours of a German plum cake, plums with warm mulled wine spice and brown sugar, without the yeast dough or the proving time. The plums are cut into slivers rather than halves so they collapse into the jam and give the middle of every square a soft, jammy layer. It bakes in an 8 inch square pan at 350F in 30 to 40 minutes, cuts into 9 to 12 squares, and is best served dusted with powdered sugar once fully cooled.

The same cake, cut a completely different way

When we started really looking into the academic side of baking, all of our favourite recipes had a level 1, 2, and 3. This is how schools like Ferrandi and Cordon Bleu set up their lessons and it just made sense. For this recipe, this is our level 3. Level 1 is a simple butter cake, 2 would be our simple plum cake, and this is the grand finale!

This is our simple plum cake wearing entirely different clothes. Same batter, same bowl, same twenty minutes of work. Everything that makes it a different cake happens in the last five minutes before it goes in the oven.

The whole point of the simple version is that the plums stay in halves, sink a little, and sit as clear pieces of fruit in the crumb. Here we want the opposite. The plums get cut into thin slivers, which have far more surface area and far less weight, so they slump and soften instead of holding their shape. Then a generous spread of spiced plum jam goes over the top of them and does the rest. By the time it comes out of the oven, the fruit and the jam have become one dark, glossy layer running right through the middle of the square.

The inspiration is German. Every autumn the markets there fill up with plum cake in one form or another, and that is where this one comes from: plums, mulled wine spices, brown sugar, a rubbly buttery topping and a heavy dusting of powdered sugar. What we did not borrow is the yeast dough that a classic German plum cake, a Zwetschgenkuchen or Pflaumenkuchen, is built on. We wanted something you could start and finish in an afternoon, so this sits on a cinnamon butter batter instead and behaves like a proper coffee cake: square, sturdy, cut into pieces, eaten standing up next to the kettle.

The amounts below make one 8 inch square cake on its own. If you would rather bake both plum cakes at once, make the full batch of batter from our simple plum cake post and split it between a 6 inch round and this square pan. Same shopping, same bowl, two cakes that taste nothing alike.

What you need to know before you start

Slivers, not halves, not wedges. Cut each plum half lengthwise into three or four thin slivers. Thin is the whole mechanism. A sliver has nowhere near enough weight to sit in the batter, so it softens down into the jam instead of staying separate.

The batter layer is meant to be shallow. Spread into an 8 inch square, this is a thinner layer than you would put in a round pan, and that is correct. You want enough cake to carry the fruit and no more, so the jam layer stays the loudest thing in the square.

The jam is doing real flavour work. We use our Glühwein spiced plum jam, which brings the red wine, star anise and warm spice the batter alone cannot. Any good spiced plum jam works. A plain plum jam works too, but stir a pinch of cinnamon and a grating of orange zest through it first, or the middle layer will read as sweet rather than spiced.

The topping is not quite a crumble. Equal weights of butter, flour and brown sugar, plus a teaspoon of cinnamon, worked together with a fork until it clumps. It has far more butter per gram of flour than a proper streusel, so it does not stay in neat little pebbles. It spreads and melts into the jam and bakes into something softer, closer to a chewy cookie layer with crisp edges. That is deliberate. If you want a firmer streusel, take the flour up to 75g.

Use a lined pan. Parchment slung across the pan with an overhang lets you lift the whole slab out and cut clean squares. With a jam layer this wet, cutting in the pan is a losing battle.

How to make this German Spiced Plum Coffee Cake

Makes one 8 inch square cake, 9 to 12 squares. Prep 30 minutes, bake 30 to 40 minutes.

Ingredients

For the cake base

• 6 fresh Italian plums, halved, pitted and cut into thin slivers [about 225g]
• ½ cup unsalted butter, softened [113g] (reserve about 1 tablespoon for greasing the pan)
• 2 large eggs, separated and at room temperature
• 2 tbsp Greek yogurt [30g]
• 2 tbsp sour cream [30g]
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 6 tbsp granulated sugar [75g]
• 2 tbsp brown sugar [25g]
• ⅔ cup all-purpose flour [75g]
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• ¾ tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• Zest of ½ lemon

For the jam layer

• 1/4 – ½ cup spiced plum jam, ideally our Glühwein spiced plum jam [about 150g]

For the buttery topping

• 50g unsalted butter, softened
• 50g all-purpose flour
• 50g brown sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

To finish

• Powdered sugar, for dusting

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 350F (175C). Grease an 8 inch square pan with the butter you set aside and line it with parchment, leaving an overhang on two sides so you can lift the whole thing out later.
2. Make the topping first so it is ready and waiting. Put the 50g each of butter, flour and brown sugar in a small bowl with the cinnamon and work them together with a fork, pressing and dragging until the mixture holds in loose, uneven clumps. It will look wetter and heavier than a streusel and that is right. Set it aside.
3. Halve and pit the plums, then cut each half lengthwise into three or four thin slivers. Set them on a plate.
4. Whisk the egg whites to soft peaks in a clean bowl and set them aside.
5. Beat the butter with the granulated and brown sugar until pale and noticeably lighter, about 3 minutes. Add the cinnamon and lemon zest while it is still just butter and sugar, and beat another 30 seconds until the mixture darkens a shade. Ground spice binds to fat and disperses through it evenly, where stirred into the flour it tends to sit in pockets and taste dusty.
6. Add the yolks one at a time, beating each in fully, then the vanilla.
7. Mix in the yogurt and sour cream until just combined. The batter may look split. It comes back together with the flour.
8. Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together and fold them in, stopping while a few floury streaks remain. Fold in the whites in two additions, working the first third in properly and the rest gently.
9. Scrape the batter into the pan and spread it into an even, shallow layer, pushing it right into the corners.
10. Lay the plum slivers over the batter in overlapping rows until the surface is covered. Press them down only lightly. Unlike the halved version, you are not trying to sink them.
11. Spoon the jam over the plums and spread it out with the back of the spoon, to within a centimetre or so of the edges. Do not be shy with it. This is the layer people are here for.
12. Scatter the topping over the jam in uneven clumps, leaving gaps. It spreads as it melts, so full coverage now means a solid lid later.
13. Bake 30 to 40 minutes, until the topping is golden at the edges and a skewer into a cake-only corner comes out clean. Tent with foil if the top colours early.
14. Cool completely in the pan before lifting it out by the parchment. This matters. Cut warm and the jam layer will drag across the cut face. Cut cold and you get clean squares with the layer showing. Dust with powdered sugar just before serving.

Questions we get asked

What makes it a coffee cake?

There is no coffee in it. A coffee cake is a cake meant to be eaten with coffee: a single layer, usually square, usually with a sugary crumb or streusel topping, sturdy enough to cut into pieces and eat with your hands. This one ticks all of that, with a jam layer through the middle that most coffee cakes do not have.

Is this a German plum cake?

It is inspired by one rather than a copy of one. A classic German plum cake, Zwetschgenkuchen or Pflaumenkuchen, is built on a yeast dough, usually baked on a sheet pan, with the plums stood up in tight overlapping rows. This uses a cinnamon butter batter instead, so there is no proving and no waiting. What it takes from the German version is the flavour: plums, mulled wine spices, brown sugar, a buttery topping and a lot of powdered sugar. If it is the traditional yeasted one you are after, that is a different recipe and worth making on its own terms.

Can I make this on a sheet pan?

Yes, and this is how we would do it for a crowd. Use a quarter sheet, roughly 9 by 13 inches, and double everything: the full batch of batter from our simple plum cake post, 12 plums cut into slivers, a cup of jam, and a doubled topping of 100g each butter, flour and brown sugar with 2 tsp cinnamon. A quarter sheet is nearly twice the area of an 8 inch square, so doubling gives you the same shallow layer of cake with a slightly heavier lid on top, which suits this topping. Bake 40 to 50 minutes. For a full half sheet you are into three to four times the recipe, and at that point we would bake two quarter sheets instead so the middle cooks evenly.

Why slivers instead of halves?

Because we want them to break down. Slivers have more surface area and less weight than halves, so they soften into the jam rather than sitting in the crumb as separate pieces. If you want the fruit to stay whole and distinct, that is our simple plum cake instead, where the plums stay in halves on purpose.

Can I use store-bought jam?

Yes. Choose a plum jam that is not too loose, and taste it first. If it is a plain sweet jam with no spice in it, stir in a pinch of cinnamon and a little orange zest before it goes on, or the middle layer will read flat next to the spiced batter.

Is the topping a streusel?

Not quite, and that is intentional. Equal weights of butter, flour and brown sugar make something far richer than a standard streusel, which is usually closer to one part butter to two parts flour. Ours melts and spreads instead of staying pebbly, and bakes into a soft, chewy layer with crisp golden edges. Take the flour to 75g if you want a firmer, more traditional crumble.

Why does it have to cool completely before cutting?

The jam layer stays fluid while it is warm and will drag across the cut face, smearing the squares. Cold, it sets enough to slice cleanly and show the layer.

How long does it keep?

Four days covered at room temperature, and it holds better than the plain cake because the jam keeps the crumb moist. Dust with fresh powdered sugar before serving, since the first dusting soaks in.

If you like plums, bake these next

• Simple Plum Cake, the same base with the plums left in halves
• Mulled Wine Spiced Plum Jam, the jam we use in the middle of this one
• Mulled Wine Thumbprint Cookies

Or if it is more fruit cakes you are after:

• Nectarine Rosemary Crumble Cake
• Nectarine Cake
• Austrian Apricot Cake (Marillenkuchen)

About us

We are Sidney and Thomas, and we have been running Tasty Cue since 2023, when we went on the road and started writing down everything we cooked along the way. The German recipes here run under our Whisk & Wunder name.

Between us there is about forty years in food. Thomas has worked in kitchens for twenty five of them, including a long stretch in Germany cooking in Großküchen, which is where most of the German baking on this site comes from. Sidney has been in food for fifteen years, starting in an after-school culinary program, selling baked goods off a Tumblr food blog at thirteen, then working through industrial kitchens, catering and restaurants, and is currently studying pastry arts. We have taken culinary classes in Germany, Canada, Japan, China, Mexico, Thailand and the United States, and we bring most of it home with us, usually in an extra suitcase.

We are also serious Glühwein people. We have had it at markets in Canada, the USA, Germany, France and Japan, which is how a mulled wine jam ended up in the middle of a plum cake in the first place.

Much love,

Sidney & Thomas