Halving a stone fruit for me was assumed knowledge – if recipes explained the minutiae of every step they would be essays. I’m sorry you feel so negatively about this – often a lot of information can be found on google if you are really having trouble. It is also worth considering that these recipes are free to access on the internet and you are not obliged to use them!!
To halve and stone plums, I use a knife to cut around the ‘seam’ of the fruit, then twist each half apart. One half won’t have the stone, the other half will. Use a small paring knife to cut the stone out of one of them. I find they smush or the stone only takes all the fruit if they are very overripe.

Thanks Roxanne, so glad to hear and really hope it went well with the plums! The pistachio lemon would go with almost anything I reckon.

The first time I made it, I – suffering from “Mom Brain” – bought pears thinking they were plums (yes, I know the difference between the two). It also took a little longer to bake. It still turned out wonderfully tasty.

I am using plums this time! I triple-checked to make sure that they were indeed plums. This time I am baking the cake in a bundt cake pan. The smell is so fantastic though. Needless to say, I am SO excited to try it when it is finished.

Thanks Margie, so glad to hear! Sometimes it is difficult to tell when the plums are particularly juicy, so glad to hear it worked out. You could also try a slightly large cake tin if you’re worried it cooked unevenly.