Pear and blackberry sponge flan with elderflower, gin and tonic jelly

For Christmas, my mum gave me a sponge flan tin. This was my first go at testing it, and the results were lovely – really light, airy cake which I topped with fresh pear and blackberries and a jelly made with elderflower cordial, gin and tonic water.  You could use any fruit or jelly combination you like though.

Caramelised pear and almond pudding cake

This is one of those cakes (well, more pudding than cake) that doesn't look all that special but tastes divine. I think there's something pretty good about a pud like that - the surprise that your somewhat low expectations have been confounded as you take your first mouthful makes the delight at its surprise deliciousness all the better! This was dreamt up when I found a mountain of these baby pears in the grocers. Like golden sugar plums, they looked too pretty to eat and sat adorning a fruitbowl for several days while I waited for them to hit their perfect ripeness. Finally as they began to brown they took on a rustic look of windfall apples, and I knew it was time to turn them into a pudding. I made a cake batter with cinnamon, ground almonds and cream cheese, then caramelised the pears in apple and elderflower juice to top the cake. Before it finished baking, I topped the cake with slivered almonds, caramelised with the pear juices and a splash of cream, which gave the cake a crunchy topping and a ripple of warm silky caramel running through the middle. 

Mulled wine poached pear flourless upside down cake

I always want to make something special for a Christmas dessert, but it needs to be light enough for people to want to eat after they’ve filled themselves up on Christmas dinner.  This year, I think I came up with my best one yet – a ground almond cake which is flourless for my gluten-intolerant sister, made into an upside down cake when poured over a base of pears poached in mulled wine.  The mulled wine flavours give it a lovely Christmassy taste, and the cake is so light and moist it was perfect after a big dinner.  It went beautifully with my Christmas Pudding ice cream.  As you can see from the picture, half of it disappeared so quickly that I didn't even have a chance to photograph it before it got demolished - always a sign of a winning cake!

Pear, oat and chocolate gingerbread muffins

Last night we had dinner at our friend Debbie's house and I made my flourless chocolate amaretto pear cake. I had a couple of pears left over so this morning decided to include them in another chocolatey recipe - this time adding some cocoa to a basic gingerbread muffin recipe, and replacing half the flour for oats.

Pear and crystallised ginger cookies

This is the same basic recipe as my peach, pecan and cinnamon cookies, but with dried pear and crystallised ginger.  The mixture makes about 30 cookies so if you like you could divide it in half after stage 4 and make two different batches.

Flourless chocolate amaretto pear cake

I wanted to make a wheat-free cake for my sister and any other coeliac party-goers at Mum's house-warming tonight. This is my adaptation of a BBC Good Food recipe, with Amaretto and almonds instead of the original recipe's brandy and hazelnuts - I think that would be lovely too, but I used the ingredients I had in the kitchen.

Pear and raspberry crumble pots

These are a really quick and simple pud and take just a few mins to prepare, then can be baked in the oven while you eat dinner.  Delicious! 

Pear and Apple Tarte Fine

This is my version of a tarte fine aux pommes.  I made this recently after my dad gave me a bag of apples from his garden - fruit from the apple trees he planted when my little sister and I were born.  It's really quick to make and could be adapted for pretty much any fruit you've got lying around - nectarines and blueberries is a nice combination.  I like it served cold the next day, when you can eat it like a sweet version of left-over pizza - great to find in the fridge in the morning and take to work for elevenses!