A little pumpkin parade, baking plum streusel cake & gathering the first walnuts

{Music: On the Inside – Steven Gutheinz + Gentle Embrace – Gideon Matthew} After coming home from our trip to the seaside, the dahlias were bursting into bloom, so I cut quite a lot of them before their stems broke under the weight of all those blooms. Now little bouquets are scattered all around the house. I wasn’t able to tend the garden beds as much as I would have liked to this summer, apart from watering them, so they became quite overgrown. I could hardly see how many pumpkins were hiding in this wilderness. It was such a joy to finally harvest them and arrange them all together on our garden bench for a little pumpkin parade. I let them dry there for a few days before storing them in the cellar for the winter. I’ve also started gathering the first walnuts and have baked plum streusel cake twice with the last plums from our trees. ------------------------------------------ Small Plum Streusel Cake For the yeast dough: • 75 ml milk • 25 g butter • 200 g flour • ¼ packet fresh yeast • 20 g sugar • a small pinch of salt For the topping: • 200 g plums • 25 g butter • 25 g sugar • 25 g ground almonds • 25 g flour • ½ teaspoon cinnamon • 1 egg Warm the milk and butter together in a saucepan. Mix the flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a bowl. Add the milk and butter mixture. Using the dough hook, knead everything on the highest setting for about 5 minutes, until you have a smooth, supple dough. Cover and leave to rise for about 1 hour. Wash, stone and cut the plums into thin slices. Quickly work the butter, sugar, cinnamon, ground almonds and flour together with your hands to make a crumbly streusel mixture. Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F), or 160°C (320°F) fan. Roll out the dough and brush it with the beaten egg. Arrange the plum slices on top and cover with the streusel. Bake for about 15 minutes. Leave to cool and dust with icing sugar, if desired. ☙