1. Combine flour and baking powder in a large bowl. Mix in 1 cup sugar, vanilla sugar, and salt. Add 1 1/3 cups butter and eggs. Knead everything into a smooth dough. Shape dough into a ball, press flat, cover, and chill in the refrigerator 1 hour to overnight.

2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a baking sheet with butter.

3. Cut halved plums in half again, without cutting all the way through, so they fan out.

4. Roll pastry dough out on a lightly floured work surface. Line the bottom and sides of the prepared baking sheet with dough. Mix 2 tablespoons sugar and cinnamon together in a bowl.

5. Arrange plums side by side on the pastry dough; very small plums should overlap. Dot plums with 2 tablespoons butter and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and almonds.

6. Bake in the preheated oven until pastry crust is lightly browned, 30 to 40 minutes. Remove from oven. Allow plum cake to cool, then cut into squares. Serve lukewarm or at room temperature.

Cook's Note

The dough is not easy to work with - it's pretty dry but bakes great and is a wonderful balance to the plums. If it crumbles, just piece it together, it will bake just fine.

The original recipe is in metric. If you have a scale, the metric measures are 600 g flour, 300 g unsalted butter, 200 g sugar, and 1 kg Italian plums.