Warm up the oven to 180° C / 355° F and line a 900 g / 2 lb cake tin with baking paper. Move the oven rack a notch down from the middle position.

Set aside 3 plums for decoration. Remove the stones from the rest of the plums (you'll need about 550 g / 20 oz for 1 cup of plum compote). Chop them up roughly and place them in a small pot that you have a lid for with a splash (about 60 ml / ¼ cup) of water. Cover and bring to the boil gently and allow the plums to simmer a little.

Once the plums fall apart completely, take the lid off and simmer the mixture on a low heat to allow the excess water to cook out and for the mixture to thicken. Cool down before incorporating into the cake.

Combine 240 ml / 1 cup of cool plum compote with oil, almond milk, sugar and vanilla essence in a large bowl. Mix very well.

In a smaller bowl, combine the sifted flour and the remaining dry ingredients.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones in three batches, mixing well each time. Mix until there is no dry flour left, but do not overmix (that's only important if you are using a flour containing gluten)!

Transfer the cake batter into the prepared baking tin. It should be fairy thick. Decorate the cake with fanned plum slices.

Bake for about 50 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out fairy clean (this cake should be moist). Remove from the oven and brush with with a little maple syrup while the cake is still hot.

Let the cake cool down completely before removing it from the tin and slicing. Use a serrated knife to slice if you have one - I find that it produces neater looking slices. For an extra indulgent dessert, serve with the remaining plum compote and a dollop of thick coconut yoghurt or whipped coconut cream.