Growing up, many favourite meals came from Lois Daish and her column in the New Zealand Listener. Mum’s recipe scrapbooks contain many cut-outs of these columns, which I later copied down when I moved out of home and started making my compilations of favourite recipes.

When I phone my mum on a Saturday morning during summer, it is pretty common to hear her say that she’s just gotten back from the farmers’ market, is listening to Kim Hill and making a batch of Lois’ plum buttermilk cakes.

These cakes are best eaten straight from the oven, when their edges are crunchy and the warm plums are meltingly tangy.

Plum buttermilk cakes

Recipe from Lois Daish

butter 120g, softened

brown sugar 1 tablespoon

caster sugar 1/2 cup

free range eggs 2

zest of an orange

vanilla, 1/2 tsp

flour 1 cup

baking soda 3/4 teaspoon

buttermilk 1/4 cup

plums 6, halved and stones removed

brown sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 180˚C. Cream butter and the sugars until fluffy and then beat in the eggs, one at a time, along with the zest and vanilla. Sieve the flour and baking soda and add to the creamed mixture along with the buttermilk. Lightly fold together, mixing until just combined. Divide the mixture evenly among 12 greased muffin tins. Push plum halves into the tops of the cakes and sprinkle with a little brown sugar. Bake for 15 – 20 minutes until browned on top.