It's late September. The kids are back at school. The kits are settling in. The kitchen is half finished and a bit of a tip.

What to do in the midst of a building site? Make a cake, of course.

With six big bruise-coloured plums and three plump figs lurking in the fruit bowl, the decision made itself. No stranger to plums and what complements their flavour (I once lived in a house with an abundant plum tree), almonds were a given. Would figs work too?

Yes. Yes, they would.

It was an easy win. I modified an Italian plum cake recipe by David Tanis by adding figs and using golden caster sugar and a dash of almond extract.

The end result was the perfect combination of dense crumb and molten, jammy fruit.

This is a cake best served warm, as close to just-out-of-the-oven as you can get without the risk of third degree burns, with a cup of coffee on a rainy autumn day.