First, it’s important to note that this recipe is for a Fresh Plum Cake, meaning it has fresh plum wedges baked on top of a vanilla cake batter. There is also “plum cake,” or Plum Pudding, an old-fashioned Christmas fruit cake made with dried fruit like currants, sultanas, prunes, or raisins, and it doesn’t necessarily have plums in it. The difference between the cakes and fresh plums is the cake itself. Plum Cake recipes like this are made with a buttery, lighter vanilla cake, while Plum Pudding Cake has a heavily spiced cake and sometimes an alcohol soak, similar to traditional Fruit Cake.