Plum cake with coconut and almond

Working with The University of Sheffield

Don’t be deceived by its modest appearance. Once tasted, the only word is… swoon! This recipe is adapted from one by the wonderful Ottolenghi. We used red-fleshed plums but other summer stone fruit (nectarines, peaches, apricots) would be lovely too. Great as a pudding but forget the cream – no embellishing needed.

Ingredients

Fresh plums or other stone fruit, 200g - finely chopped, including skin

Dessicated coconut - 70g

Ground almonds - 130g

Caster sugar - 220g

Self-raising flour - 120g

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Eggs - 4

Butter - 200g

Zest of one lemon - finely grated

Vanilla extract - 1 tsp

Flaked almonds - 2 tbsp

Method

Line a 20-23cm cake tin with baking paper. Preheat oven to 160C or gas mark 4.

Combine ground almonds, coconut, sugar, flour and salt in large bowl and mix well.

Add melted butter to a second bowl and let it cool briefly. Whisk in the eggs, lemon zest and vanilla. Add the wet mixture to the dry ingredients and mix gently but well. If your eggs were on the large side you might need to mix in a touch more flour.

Add three-quarters of the chopped plums to the mix and fold gently to distribute them. Pour the batter into the cake tin. Scatter the remaining plums and flaked almonds over the surface.

Place in oven and bake for 50-55 minutes. The cake will start to look golden quite early, but be sure to use the skewer test - insert a skewer into the centre of the cake and if it comes out clean it's ready. Remove cake from oven to cool.