You will need a 20-24cm spring form cake tin for this recipe – line the sides and bottom of the tin with baking paper.

Using an electric mixer, beat the softened (not melted) butter and 1 cup of the sugar together until fluffy.

Add the eggs, one at a time and mix them in. Add the vanilla essence, milk and flour and mix. Add the almond meal and salt and mix again. You will need to scrape down the sides of the bowl (and perhaps the bottom of the bowl) to make sure everything is combined.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin and smooth the top. Arrange the plums – skin side up, all over the batter, covering it. Sprinkle the top of the plums with the lemon juice or water and 1.5 tablespoons of sugar. The juice/water is to help the sugar stick to the plums.

Bake the cake until it is golden, and when a toothpick/skewer inserted comes out free of batter. It should take about 30 minutes to cook. Remove the tin from the oven and leave it to cool on a rack.

The longer you leave the cake, the better it will be (the plums release their juices into the cake) but when you are ready to serve, gently remove the sides of the cake tin, peel the paper off the sides, and slide the cake onto a serving plate/cake stand. Ideally the cake should slide off the baking paper easily.

Dust the top with icing sugar if you like and it’s delicious with some thickened/dollop style cream.