DESPITE it having just turned September, there seems to be a real chill in the air at the moment.

It feels like autumn may be coming a little earlier than usual!

With my birthday being at the end of September, I usually notice the first signs of autumn; leaves turning, a drop in temperature and of course the sight of acorns on the ground and wonderful plums in the supermarket!

I really like plums, and I especially like them in cake. The recipe I am sharing with you this month includes all my favourite ingredients in fact. Plums, hazelnuts and chocolate!

The three ingredients go together so well in this cake; the cake really celebrates the current season!

I searched online for inspiration of plum and hazelnut cakes and stumbled across many that included chocolate too.

I was sold at an ingredient list that consists of chocolate and hazelnuts; it's one of my favourite flavour combinations and I love Nutella!

The idea sounded too interesting to be missed, so I thought I would give it a go. The result was great, a deeply chocolatey cake infused with the tart juice of tender plums which included a delicious nutty texture.

Plums are stone fruits and belong to the rose family, along with cherries, pears and apples. They grow on trees and are in season from August to October in the UK.

I always try include in-season fruit and vegetables in my baking and cooking, it's far cheaper and much better for our carbon footprint after all.

They are also full of goodness. The skin contains lots of vitamins, minerals and fibre. Fibre is very important in our diets because it keeps our digestive system healthy and stops us eating too much cake.

When buying plums, you will find that there are so many different varieties – colour isn't a useful guide to ripeness.

Instead look for smooth, unbruised skin with a chalky bloom, and firm flesh that gives a little when it's gently squeezed. If they feel soft in the point where the dimple meets the stem, they're over ripe.

Avoid split, brown or shrivelled examples -- they won't taste good at all!

British plums that are currently in season are soft-fleshed and loose-stoned and can be divided into two groups: sweet ‘dessert’ varieties such as Avalon and sweet-sour ‘cooking’ plums such as Czar.

Out-of-season imported plums belong to a different prunus family that originated in Japan and are much sweeter and larger.

Hazelnuts are also great to bake with. Adding a nutty texture to the cake, they provide a certain sweetness from their kernel. Grown in Europe and the US, hazelnuts are encased in a smooth, hard brown shell but are most commonly sold shelled.

They are small and round, with a pointed tip. The thin, dark brown skin is faintly bitter, so when paired with creamy sweet chocolate and fruit they taste divine!

Have you missed any previous Slice Of Life articles? If so, visit keighleynews.co.uk, click on What’s On, then Food & Drink, and you’ll find find Michelle’s recipes.