Plum cakes (pronounced 'ploom cake' in Italian) have always caused great confusion in me - 'a ploom is a fruit, no?' 'why is there nootella (that's 'nutella' in Italian again) in the plooom cake?'. Even after all these years, juicy, plump, violet plums still swim around in my head every time I hear the word 'plum cake'. In actual fact, here in Italy, loaf cakes are simply called 'plum cakes' and come under the same category as breakfast cakes because they are easy to prepare,