German for Weirdos 3: Zwetschgenfleck

When you look up "Fleck" in your German-English dictionary, you find stuff like "spot, speck, patch, mark, stain". I bet you won't find "large square fruit cake".
But that's a very popular and tasty meaning of Fleck, at least in Austria. Mostly you get them with apricots ("Marillenfleck", in midsummer) and with plums ("Zwetschgenfleck", in early autumn). Presumably the word is used because the cake is rather thin and square, and Fleck would also mean a big square of cloth. I used to have a poncho-like coat as a child, which was more or less a square peace of rather coarse cloth, very warm and water-resistant; it was supposed to be a traditional countryman's garment, and they called it "Wetterfleck".
In Bavaria, the same kind of cake is termed "Zwetschgendatschi", "datschi" maybe onomatopoetically referring to the softness of the dough, or the slapping movement of spreading it on the baking tray. Cafés and pastryshops in Munich sell it by the square mile at this time of the year - whereas in Austria it is mostly a home-baked affair, and the high and mighty pastrycooks won't bother with anything so simple.
The deliciousness of it lies in the fact that juice seeps out of the plums during baking, and pervades the dough.

I've got one in the oven right now - as usual, a "healthy" variety, made of wholemeal flour, with little sugar, but seasoned with cinnamon and honey.

pegasus

whatya staring at? never seen a horse with wings?