Plum Upside-Down Cake

Sticky, caramelised plums with a faint bite of chilli and a light fluffy sponge cake underneath. The hint of chilli gives the plums a very light peppery taste, a little like you would season strawberries with black pepper – it's a wonderful match. Otherwise, this is the epitome of nursery food, especially when gobbled up with pools of double cream.

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Ingredients

You will need a 26cm cake tin, greased and lined with baking paper

For the Cake

600g plums, damsons or greengages, halved and de-stoned

250g unsalted butter

175g unrefined caster sugar

4 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

150g self-raising flour

100g ground almonds

2 tsp baking powder

For the syrup

100g unsalted butter

100g unrefined caster sugar

a good teaspoon dried chilli flakes

Recipe

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4.

To make the syrup, melt the butter and sugar in a saucepan with the chilli. Boil vigorously until they produce a thick caramel-coloured syrup and then pour into the cake tin, rotating it so that the mixture comes at least 2cm up the sides of the tin.

Cut the plums halves into four equal slices and arrange these in overlapping concentric circles over the caramel. (It’s easier if you start with the outer circle first and work your way into the middle.)

Beat the butter and sugar until white and fluffy, then add the eggs, one by one, followed by the vanilla extract. Fold in the flour, almonds and baking powder and season with a good pinch of salt.

Pour this batter over the plums and bake in the oven for 45–50 minutes or until the cake is cooked and a knife or skewer comes out clean. Run a knife around the side of the tin and turn out the cake onto a warm plate, peeling the paper off the base.

This is doubly good served warm with some softly-whipped cream.