La versión español está después de la versión inglés.
SAN GERALDO NEEDED prunes. That’s a basic fact. So when he was at the supermarket last week, he bought some. But, as SG usually does when he shops, he bought too many. Three containers when one would have been more than enough.
Of course, he realized once he opened the first container that he would (and should) never get through all three. So, he went online and found a prune cake recipe. The cake was out of this world — and out of the pan very quickly.
Unfortunately, it didn’t even use half a container of prunes. So San Geraldo went online and found another prune cake recipe — even further out of this world than the first. I love SG’s mistakes.
WHEN MY FAMILY MOVED TO Brooklyn, two new bakeries opened, Allenby’s, just below our building, and Schlucker’s, across a broad avenue. This was my introduction to genuine New York Jewish bakeries.
We went to Schlucker’s Saturday mornings. Allenby Bakery was the more traditional of the two and was closed Saturdays in observation of the Sabbath. It was a busy, hectic and exciting place with a crowd of people working behind the counter to serve a store full of customers. It was the first time I saw people with numbers tattooed on their forearms. Most of the staff were survivors of concentration camps. The atmosphere was serious and efficient.
Every Sunday morning, my sister Dale and I went downstairs to buy newspapers and pastries for the family. A bag of Danish was the standard (although Dale always bought us both black and white cookies as a bonus). We also picked up a rye bread fresh from the oven. I enjoyed a sweet, fruit Danish of some sort. But Dale and our parents loved cheese or prune Danish. Dale had very adult tastes in food and I found these both to be adult choices. The Kid Brother (all of 4 years old when we moved to Brooklyn) loved them too, but he always had very strange taste, if you ask me. Anyway, I grew up to love cheese Danish, but never prune. San Geraldo’s prune CAKE, however …
Click the images to make them even prunier (and sunnier).
.
SAN GERALDO NECESITA ciruelas pasas. Eso es un hecho básico. Entonces, cuando estaba en el supermercado la semana pasada, compró algunos. Pero, como suele hacer SG cuando compra, compró demasiados. Tres cajas cuando uno hubiera sido más que suficiente.
Por supuesto, una vez que abrió el primer caja, se dio cuenta de que nunca (y debería) pasar por los tres. Entonces, se conectó y encontró una receta de tarta de ciruela. La tarta estaba fuera de este mundo — y fuera de la sartén muy rápidamente.
Desafortunadamente, ni siquiera usó medio contenedor de ciruelas pasas. Así que San Geraldo se conectó en línea y encontró otra receta de pastel de ciruelas pasas — aún más fuera de este mundo que la primera. Me encantan los errores de SG.
CUANDO MI FAMILIA SE MUDÓ a Brooklyn, se abrieron dos nuevas panaderías, Allenby, justo debajo de nuestro edificio, y Schlucker’s, al otro lado de una amplia avenida. Esta fue mi introducción a las auténticas panaderías judías de Nueva York.
Nosotros fuimos los sábados por la mañana a Schlucker. La Panadería de Allenby era la más tradicional de las dos y estaba cerrada los sábados. Era un lugar ocupado, agitado, y emocionante con una multitud de personas trabajando detrás del mostrador para atender una tienda llena de clientes. Era la primera vez que veía personas con números tatuados en sus antebrazos. La mayoría del personal eran sobrevivientes de campos de concentración. El ambiente era serio y eficiente.
Todos los domingos por la mañana, mi hermana Dale y yo bajábamos las escaleras para comprar periódicos y pasteles para la familia. Una bolsa de danés era el estándar (aunque Dale siempre nos compraba galletas blancas y negras como un bono). También recogimos un pan de centeno recién salido del horno. Disfruté un dulce, danés de frutas de algún tipo. Pero a Dale y a nuestros padres les encantaba las danesas con queso o con pasas de ciruelas. Dale tenía gustos muy adultos en la comida y encontré que ambos eran elecciones para adultos. El Hermanito (todos de 4 años cuando nos mudamos a Brooklyn) también amaba el danés con queso, pero siempre tuvo un sabor muy extraño, si me preguntas. De todos modos, crecí para amar el queso danés, pero nunca con pasas de ciruelas. Sin embargo, la TARTA de pasas de ciruelas de San Geraldo, …
Haz clic en las imágenes para más pasas de ciruelas y más sol.
Prune Cake Number 1 / Tarta de Ciruelas Numero 1 
Prune Cake Number 2 / Tarta de Ciruelas Numero 2 
This morning’s excitement. Repairs. / La emoción de esta mañana. Reparaciones. 
what a beautiful morning!
I like cheese or fruit danish/rugulach/hamentashen, but NEVER prune or poppy seed. and I’m not even jewish!
anne marie:
Poppy seeds always get stuck in my teeth! Are you not even Danish either?
Prunes are not as popular as they once were. They were always around when I was a kid as with you.
Wondering why they have lost favour?
That image of the numbers on workers’ forearms must have been very impressionable on you……would have been on most people I am sure.
Back to the prunes……enjoy!
Jim:
I didn’t know prune were ever popular. Always an old people’s food to me, which is silly. Those numbers were shocking to me. And I was so amazed by how they all went about their business with those hideous reminders always there.
Prunes keep well, the Saint can bake those again. What a wonderful view, enjoy it.
David:
Well, we’ve already gone through cake #2, so he may have to do one more.
I don’t know why, because I’ve never had a prune, but I don’t like them.
It makes NO sense but there it is.
We have a local bakery here in town, Mulberry Bake Shop, and they make wonderful breads and pastries and cookies and acones and truffles. They don’t do cakes–and I;m good with that–but their baked goods? Oy.
And a delicious Stollen at Christmas is ah-mazing.
Bob:
I would never have prunes when I was a kid because I thought they were food for old people and my introduction to it was my mother’s prune juice, which was the most disgusting thing I had seen. I think the first time I ever tasted an actual prune was when it was about to be cut up for a cake. I was surprised at how much I liked it. I haven’t found that perfect bakery here in Fuengirola, although I’m sure it exists. We’ve got dozens of bakeries.
I’m a prune fan too — love any kind of dessert with prune flavour. I’ve even had prune perogies — a common “dessert” perogy among Ukrainian Canadians. But my favourite way to eat prunes is stewed and then chilled in the fridge. My gawd, they’re so good! But alas, they do have a very laxative effect if you eat too many, so restraint must be shown.
Debra:
Stewed prunes turn me off. Don’t know why.
I absolutely love prunes! I was in grade school back in the day when they had hot lunches. That was the first time I experienced stewed prunes. I had no idea what they were, I just ate what was put in front of me (BH likes that particular trait of mine, but I digress). Loved them stewed. I’ve never had them in cake form. I like eating them straight from the package. It’s funny how they package them as dried plums now, as if no one knows where a prune comes from. Poor, prunes, such a lousy reputation. Being dried fruit, they should last awhile.
Deedles:
Stewed prunes don’t appeal to me. Here, there’s never been a word for prunes. The word “pasas” is used for raisins, but the correct term is “uvas pasas” (grape raisins). Prunes are either called “ciruelas” (plums) or “ciruelas pasas” to be more specific. It’s confusing. Then again, it doesn’t matter, you’ll eat whatever’s put in front of you!
I love the stories of fresh-baked goods — we used to stop by the Italian bakery after Sunday mass, and get Italian bread. My dad wasn’t Italian, but he loved everything Italian, and my mom made a fabulous spaghetti sauce and super tasty meatballs, that we often had with that Italian bread. But, that fresh rye sounds sooooo appealing to me (never had a prune danish…. or a canookie! Ha! Is that chocolate chip cookies with cannoli filling between? Amaaaazing!)
Judy:
Oh, those canookies. And, yes, that’s exactly what they are. My grandmother wanted her children to grow up American, so she decided to serve spaghetti and meatballs. Her very traditional Polish/Jewish meatballs. Egg noodles. And a bottle of ketchup. My mother and her sisters were ecstatic.
I eat prunes everyday, sometimes they are hard to find…even before lock down. In the spring and summer often CostCo will have them fresh. So far this year none.
Now about that recipe…is there any chance you would share it with us?
Thanks to Steve from Shadows and Light for the link to your very entertaining blog.
Tom:
Yes, thanks to Steve, and to you for your visit. Here’s the link to the second recipe, which SG said was much better than the first (and I agreed the result was, too). Here’s the recipe he used. He varied a bit based on what’s available here (no buttermilk). https://thesouthernladycooks.com/old-fashioned-prune-cake/
I m with Deedles and SG. I love dried prunes and usually have one or two everyday. That prune cake looks amazing!!!! SG needs to have a bakery. But you two watch how much and many prunes you consume….especially in a tp shortage sweetcheeks!!!!!! Yikes!
Mistress Maddie:
Well, we’ve already devoured the second prune cake. But all’s well. Anyway, we don’t have a TP shortage, so we’re covered… so to speak.
Mmmm that cake looks fabulous! I made cherry (recently expired can of pie filling) and rhubarb (cut up and didn’t know what to do with it from friend last summer, was in freezer) cobbler yesterday. It was a bit heavy and sweet but made hubby very happy. So glad you have some sun and something to look at out your patio. It’s been cold here (zero every night) but it is supposed to get up to 16 degrees celcius by Thursday – I am looking forward to that!
Cheapchick:
Yeah, just when I think the gray and rain is too much, we get a bit of sun. SG would never use anything recently expired. Oh well. A cobbler sounds so good!
Prunes are good, but I would opt for cheese danish. Unless, of course, there was any of SG’s prune cake around – handsdown, it would be my first choice. Some people do make the most wonderful mistakes.
Wilma:
Yep, I still prefer cheese Danish, although I can’t remember the last time I had one. The prune cake is (well WAS) extraordinary.
Those prune cakes look amazing. Fortunately prunes ought to last a while, so you probably don’t need to rush through eating them all. Dave sometimes does this with blueberries — he’ll come back from the store with two boxes when we already have two in the fridge, and I’ll say, “Are you CRAZY?!” But somehow we always eat them all.
Steve:
We’ve got one container left. Maybe another cake… and SG can eat the rest. Oh, anything with blueberries in it!
Well in these difficult times we should follow the example of Marie-Antoinette and eat more cake. Though it did not turn out too well for her. I am going to make an upside down pear cake tomorrow. Prunes are good for you and you can have them in so many ways. Pizza with prune topping, invent a new trend.
larrymuffin:
Well, pizza with prune topping just doesn’t sing to me. But pear upside down cake? That sounds so good. I look forward, at least, to the photos.
Love prunes and prune cakes. Any chance you could point us to the recipes SG used?
Walt the Fourth:
Here’s the recipe. SG of course adapted for ingredients that aren’t available here. You and Ken will easily do that. (I’d be lost.)
Do I dare ask why SG ‘needs’ prunes?
I confess I don’t recall ever having tried any. I am now interested to find me some.
Urspo:
Well, I think you know the answer to the ‘why the need’ question.