Zwetschgendatschi: the plum cake Augsburg is nicknamed for

Overview

Augsburg is teased with the nickname Datschiburg, and this is the cake responsible. A Zwetschgendatschi is a sheet cake: a thin base pressed flat across a baking tray, covered edge to edge with halved damsons stood on end in tight overlapping rows, then baked until the fruit collapses into something between jam and roast plum. It is cut into squares and sold by the piece.

The name says how it is made. Datschi comes from datschen, an old German verb meaning to press in — the fruit is pushed down into the dough rather than arranged on top of it. That is not decoration: pressed into the base, the plums release their juice downward and the cake ends up dense and wet rather than sitting in a puddle.

The fruit is not interchangeable, and this is the one piece of vocabulary worth carrying. Zwetschgen are prune plums — damson-like: small, oval, deep purple, firm, tart — and they hold their shape in the oven. Round Pflaumen are juicier, sweeter and softer, and they slump into water. A tray made with the wrong fruit is a different and worse object, which is why the cake is tied to a short season rather than sold all year.

What to order

Ask for a Stück Datschi — a piece — at a bakery counter. It is priced by the square and eaten as an afternoon thing with coffee, not as a restaurant dessert.

The one real decision is what it comes on and what is on top:

• Mürbeteig — shortcrust, firm and slightly sweet. This is the Augsburg original, and the reason it holds up under so much wet fruit.
• Hefeteig — yeast dough, softer and breadier. Much more common across the rest of the region, and what most bakeries outside the city will hand you.
• mit Streusel — with a butter-and-sugar crumb over the top. Popular, good, and not what the original is: the Augsburg version is deliberately bare, so the fruit is the whole of it.
• mit Schlagsahne — a spoon of unsweetened whipped cream on the side, which is the standard accompaniment and cuts the tartness.

If you want to taste the argument rather than settle it, order one square of each dough. They are cheap enough that this is a normal thing to do.

What to avoid

The cake is sold nine months a year in places that ought to know better, and out of season it is made with imported round plums or with fruit that was frozen. It will look right and it will be watery. If it is not late summer or early autumn, it is worth skipping rather than being disappointed.

Be sceptical of a slice sitting under lights on a warm counter at five in the afternoon. This is a morning bake sold through the day, and a good bakery runs out. A tray still full at closing time is telling you something.

Do not expect it in a restaurant. It belongs to bakeries and cafés, and a version that turns up plated with a quenelle of ice cream and a mint leaf has been translated into a dessert it was never meant to be.

And treat Streusel as a preference rather than a mark of quality. Crumble hides a great deal — a thin fruit layer, a dough that has gone soft underneath. The bare version has nowhere to hide, which is the argument for ordering it first.

Practicalities

The season is the whole point: damsons ripen from roughly mid-August into October, and the cake is at its best in those weeks. Late August and September are the safe window.

A square costs somewhere around €3 to €4 at a bakery counter, a little more sitting down in a café with coffee. Cash is the habit here — the city guide’s note applies exactly to the kind of small bakery worth going to.

Buy it in the morning if you can, and eat it the same day. It is best a few hours out of the oven, still slightly warm, and it does not survive a night: the base softens under the fruit and by the following morning the thing that made it good is gone.

Whole trays are sold to take away, cut to whatever size you ask for. If you are staying a few days it is a cheaper and better breakfast than anything the hotel will give you.