I visited someone recently and came away with a bag of nectarines fresh from their tree, so made a couple of Nectarine Cakes with the nectarines I couldn’t eat. This cake would work for any stone fruit.

200gm butter

1 Cup caster sugar

1 Cup self raising flour

1/4 Cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

nectarines, peeled and sliced (I used five, but if you have less, slice them up smaller).

3 eggs (Room temperature. I don’t know the science behind this, but cakes come out better when the ingredients are all at room temperature).

Grease a cake tin using 25 grams of the butter, then line the base with baking paper and smear another 25 grams of butter on the paper. Spread 1/3 of a Cup of the caster onto the sides and base of the cake tin. This is a messy job, but the butter and sugar makes a deliciously syrupy crust on the cake.

The next messy job is to peel and slice the nectarines. I’ve heard that if you dip nectarines in boiling water quickly, then dip them in cold water, the peel comes off in your fingers, but I (stupidly) persevered with a knife, which was slow and irritating. Next time I peel nectarines I’m trying the boiling water method.

Once peeled, halve or slice the nectarines and lay them in the bottom of the cake tin, with the inside of the fruit facing up.

 Beat the butter and the remaining 2/3 Cup of caster sugar using beaters until the mixture is creamy, then beat the eggs in one at a time.

Fold in half of the flour, then the milk and vanilla extract, then finish with the flour.

Smooth the batter over the nectarines, then bake at 160 degrees Celsius for around 40 minutes (stick a skewer in to check that the cake is cooked through).

Let the cake sit in the tin for five minutes before turning it out onto a plate.