Wash, halve and stone the plums and simmer them gently in the water for 20 minutes.

Puree the plums and return the puree to the pan. Stir in the sugar, lemon juice and rind.

Slowly warm the plum puree, stirring frequently and then stir in the plum brandy, cinnamon and vanilla sugar.

Dissolve the gelatine in a little hot water in a bowl over a saucepan of hot water and add it to the plum puree.

Rinse a blancmange mould in cold water, stir the plum mixture well, pour it into the mould and leave to cool. Leave the pudding to stand in the refrigerator for about 4 hours until set.

To serve, turn out the plum mould and sprinkle with the chopped almonds. Whip the cream until stiff and pipe it in whirls around the mould.