Poach the peaches – heat the ½ cup caster sugar and cup of water in a pan wide enough to accommodate the halved peaches then plop in the vanilla bean and halved peaches. (Cut in half around their equator, leaving their skins and if they are firmly adherent, their stones – both slip out easily after poaching plus the skins give the syrup a blushing pink hue you won’t want to miss out on.)

Cover if the syrup reduces too quickly or the peaches need longer to cook through – simmer for 10-15 minutes, testing with the point of a knife to ensure they are plenty tender enough. Remove to cool on a plate and reserve the syrup for another day – it is fabulous over vanilla ice cream.

Next make the sponges. Preheat the oven to 170°C and butter then flour three 20cm round, loose bottomed cake tins – line their bases with silicone or baking paper. I used two sandwich tins and one deep one as that’s all I have so don’t worry about the height of your tins.

Whisk the eggs and sugar until extremely light and fluffy – this could take 10 minutes on full speed in a stand mixer and you should expect at the very least three times the volume. Whisk in the water then sift over the flour and ground almonds. Fold in with a spatula or large metal spoon. Note you will probably have some almonds left in the sieve; just tip them in and fold away, gently!

Divide between the three prepared tins and bake for 10-12 minutes until they spring back and are golden in colour. Cool completely in the tin before running a knife around the edges of the tin and removing to stand on a baking rack.

Make the mousse. Dissolve the gelatine sheets in 50ml cold water – when gloopy, zap in the microwave for 10-20 seconds until melted or heat in a small pan on the stove, whisking constantly. Peel away the skin and remove the stones from the peaches and puree in the food processor. Or push through a sieve or food mill. Beat in the dissolved gelatine. Add the peach liqueur if using.

Whisk the egg yolks with all but 2 tbsp of the caster sugar until at least trebled in volume. Again, this may take a fair few minutes of high speed whisking.

Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form then sprinkle on and whisk in the remaining 2 tbsp of caster sugar until the meringue is thick and glossy.

Whip the double cream to soft peaks only.

Now, in a large bowl, fold the egg yolk mix into the peach puree, followed by the double cream then finally the egg whites, stopping as soon as no more streaks of egg white remain.

To assemble clean out a deep 20cm round cake tin and line the sides with baking paper (again, I used strips of reusable silicone). Insert one of your cooled sponges. Spoon or pipe in a layer of peach mousse about 1cm thick. Stud with half the whole raspberries then top with a little more mousse. You will have used about half of the mousse at this point. Top with a second sponge and repeat step 11, topping with the remaining sponge. Cover with cling film and refrigerate over night. It is handy to save a little of the mousse and refrigerate so you can test this little pot for a set – if it has set, your cake will have set too so you can unmould it with confidence!

When ready to serve, push out of your cake tin (this is why they must be loose bottomed) and peel away the baking paper from the sides of the cake. Smooth with a spatula if needed – my mousse was very well behaved. I left mine on the base to serve but if you are braver than me (or have a giant cake lifter) then feel free to transfer to a cake stand!

To finish, dust the top of the assembled cake with icing sugar generously. Whip the double cream with the seeds from your vanilla bean. Pipe rosettes and stud with more raspberries to decorate as you please. It’s quite nice to do 8-10 rosettes so each slice has a whole raspberry to serve. Pipe any leftover cream onto the plates as you serve.