Stir the yeast and the 2 teaspoons of sugar with a little of the milk, sprinkle with a little of the flour and leave to stand for 15 minutes.

Sift the flour into a bowl and work in the yeast mixture, eggs, remaining sugar, a pinch of salt, the butter, lemon rind and the remaining milk. Beat the mixture until it is light and glossy, cover and leave to rise for 1 hour.

Stir the rum and cinnamon into the plum puree. Make 20 5-cm/2-in rounds from the yeast dough. Place 1 teaspoon of plum puree on each round and form each round of dough into a ball. Cover and leave the dumplings to rise for 20 minutes.

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Add and simmer the dumplings for 6 minutes, then turn them over and cook for a further 6 minutes.

Mix the poppy seeds with the icing sugar. Serve the dumplings hot with melted butter and sprinkled with the poppyseeds coated in icing sugar.