This cake will taste like the good old days, although our grocery shelves have changed dramatically over time for the better. Heat the plums in sugar and butter (as with tarte tatin), but add a tastier imported syrup: French Grenadine syrup by Teisseire. It gives the plums great color and adds substance to the taste. The glaze created by the plums, sugar and syrup will be poured afterward on the warm cake, lending it a nice deep red color. The following recipe calls for a 20 x 30 cm. baking pan.


10 red or Sagiv plums
a handful of raisins
a dash of vanilla
20 gr. butter
2/3 cup sugar
4-5 tbsp. Grenadine syrup (raspberry is OK as a substitute)
For the dough:
200 gr. margarine or butter
1 cup sugar
pinch of salt
5 eggs
1 container leben or yogurt
3 cups self-rising flour


1. Wash, halve and pit the plums and place them in an iron wok or deep skillet with the raisins, vanilla, butter, sugar and syrup. Heat, on a high flame, for about 7 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, prepare the dough: Grease the pan with margarine, then cut the rest into small pieces and place in a food processor with the sugar and salt; process in short pulses to mix, then add the eggs. Process again to form a batter.

3. To this batter, add the leben or yogurt and the flour; mix to a soft, runny consistency. Spread the batter on the oiled pan.

4. Strain the raisins and plum halves from their liquid with a slotted spoon and arrange the pieces in rows on the unbaked cake; reserve the liquid.

5. Bake about 50 minutes at 180 degrees Centigrade.

6. Reheat the aromatic red liquid (from the plums) and pour it over the still-warm cake. Set aside to cool.