Plum torte

Plum cake refers to a wide range of cakes usually made with dried fruits such as currants, raisins, sultanas, or prunes, and also sometimes with fresh fruits. There is a wide range of popular plum cakes and puddings. Since the meaning of the word "plum" has changed over time, many items referred to as plum cakes and popular in England since at least the eighteenth century have now become known as fruitcake. The English variety of plum cake also exists on the European mainland, but may vary in ingredients and consistency. British colonists and missionaries brought the dried fruit variety of cake with them, for example, in British India where it was served around the time of the Christmas holiday season. In America's Thirteen Colonies, where it became associated with elections, one version came to be called election cake. Plum cakes made with fresh plums came with other migrants elsewhere, in which plum cake is prepared using plum as a primary ingredient. In some versions, the plums may become jam-like inside the cake after cooking, or be prepared using plum jam. Plum cake prepared with plums is also a part of Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine, and is referred to as Pflaumenkuchen or Zwetschgenkuchen. Other plum-based cakes are found in French, Italian and Polish cooking. The term "plum cake" and "fruit cake" have become interchangeable. Since dried fruit is used as a sweetening agent and any dried fruit used to be described as "plums", many plum cakes and plum puddings do not contain the plum fruit now known by that name. The term "plum" originally referred to prunes, raisins or grapes. Thus the so-called plums from which English plum puddings are made "were always raisins, not the plump juicy fruits that the name suggests today."

Source: Wikipedia