Plum celebration begins

Pflaumenkuchen has arrived in Huntington Beach, and while it might sound like a disease, it’s far more delicious than deadly.

It’s a traditional summertime German dessert made of a cake base and topped with plums. Crumb some streusel or add whipped cream on top and the culinary delight that is pflaumenkuchen is born.

At Old World German Restaurant, a family tradition has evolved into a celebration that showcases the dessert and has spawned a festival.

Since 1998, the restaurant’s Bavarian-style halls have come to embrace all things plum as an annual Plum Festival. This year’s celebration kicks off Sunday afternoon.

The festival was founded by Dolores Bischof, whose husband Josef designed and built Old World.

Dolores Bischof’s mother prepared traditional German pflaumenkuchen every August for Bischof’s birthday. Her mother, Elly Schwarzer, made her last plum cake at the age of 100.

When Schwarzer died in 1998 at 103 years old, the Plum Festival was born in her memory.

Bischof said the festival has had a positive reception since the beginning.

“When we said a plum festival, people always had a smile on [their faces],” Bischof said.

Cyndie Kasko, Bischof’s daughter, said the festival grows year after year. She said the popularity of her grossmama’s pflaumenkuchen is responsible for the growth.

“People that know plum cake come for just that,” Kasko said. “In Germany, plum cake is huge. It’s like a treat,”

The festival, like the restaurant, is a family affair with everyone getting involved in the planning. They even wear plum purple to get into the spirit.

“The family comes here to plum it out,” Bischof said.

The celebration will have many plum treats available, including the cake, plum jam, plum preserves and pastries with plum filling.

The well-stocked bar will also be serving plum schnapps as well as its regular staple of German beers.

Plums ripen in August and are a treat that have a short time to be enjoyed.

This is the traditional inspiration to make as many plum dishes at a time as possible.

Along with the array of plum dishes available, there will be many other activities that should leave visitors plum tuckered.

The Diamond Sisters, a contortionist duo, will perform along with an accordion player and the Beach City Cloggers, a traditional dance group. For the kids there will be carnival games and a bounce house.

The day will also see stumpy-legged Dachshunds racing for titles, trophies, and a certificate to Old World’s Paws at the Coffee Mill, a wiener dog store.

Inge McKellop operates Paws at the Coffee Mill and organizes Old World’s regular Dachshund races. The dogs are well known in Germany for their reputations as badger hunters. Sunday’s race pits 32 of them in a race for the top prize.

While it may be hard to confuse a wiener dog with a thoroughbred, McKellop said the sausage-shaped pooches compete like champions.

“People look at their legs and think they can’t run, but they love to run,” McKellop said.