Yeast Cake with Plums and Poppy Seeds / Yeast Cake Snail

For me, this is the perfect cake. I love yeast cake, and thanks to the oil added to the dough, it stays fresh longer. I ate the last piece after 3 days and it still tasted great. It also has plums, which I adore, and marzipan :) The poppy seeds give the whole thing a slightly unusual flavor, but everything goes together wonderfully. I can already imagine this cake with apples…

Yeast cake with plums and poppy seeds / snail cake

Because, as is often the case with me lately, I needed to be quicker, I used ready-made poppy seed filling. This kind of filling is quite sweet, so I didn't add any honey or milk. Instead, I added 2 tablespoons of marzipan, a tablespoon of amaretto and a teaspoon of cinnamon. I prepared the rest as in Bea's recipe.

Yeast cake with plums and poppy seeds / snail cake

Instructions:

Melt the butter and let it cool.
Mix the flour with the salt, make a well, add the yeast, sugar and the remaining ingredients, and knead for a few minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic. If you're using fresh yeast, dissolve it with a little sugar and milk and set it aside for a moment until it "kicks in" (gets foamy), then add it to the other ingredients.

Shape the dough into a ball, then transfer it to a bowl greased with olive oil, cover it and leave it in a warm place to rise until it doubles in volume (about an hour).

Meanwhile, you can prepare the filling. If you're using ready-made filling, just mix it with the marzipan and cinnamon and warm it up. If you're using loose poppy seeds, bring the milk to a boil, add the poppy seeds and simmer over low heat for a few minutes. Add the salt and honey and, stirring constantly, heat gently until the mixture thickens a bit. Add the marzipan and amaretto, stir, remove from the heat and set aside to cool. The filling should be quite thick so it doesn't leak out of the dough.

Wash the plums, cut them in half and remove the pits.

Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F).

Roll the risen dough out on a floured surface into a rectangle of about 30x40 cm and cut it lengthwise into 3 strips. Spread the poppy seed filling down the middle of each one, brush the edges with milk and roll the dough up into logs, then press the edges together firmly.

Arrange the finished logs in a 28 cm springform pan (lined beforehand with parchment paper) in the shape of a snail, leaving a small gap between the logs. Place the plum halves in the gaps between the logs. Put the pan in the preheated oven and bake for about 45 minutes. If the cake starts to brown too much, you can cover it with aluminum foil.

Toward the end of baking, warm up the apricot jam. Take the baked cake out of the oven and out of the pan and brush it with the jam. Set it on a rack to cool.

Enjoy!