• Plum loaf
• Parsnip and caraway cake
• Pershore plum and apple tart with walnut pastry
• Pear and apple crisp
• Wimpole coffee and walnut cake

Plum loaf

Ingredients

Preheat the oven to gas mark 4, 350ºF, 180ºC. Grease and line a 2lb (900g) loaf tin. Chop the plums coarsely. Beat together the butter, sugar and syrup until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time with a little four, beating hard after each addition. Fold in the remaining flour, the spice and plums and enough milk to mix to a soft, dropping consistency. Turn into the prepared tin and bake for 1¼ hours until a skewer comes out clean. Remove from the oven and turn out on to a wire rack to cool. Before serving, dust with caster sugar.

This is an unusual cake and an excellent way to use spare fresh plums. The fruit gives the loaf a soft, moist texture and the spicy flavour complements the taste of plums. Eat freshly baked, as the cake tends to dry out if left

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Parsnip and caraway cake

Heat the oven to GM4/180’C/350’F.

Sieve together the flour and the bicarbonate of soda. Stir in the parsnip and the caraway seed.

Cream together the margarine and the sugar and beat in the eggs. Fold in the flour and the lemon zest. If necessary, add lemon juice to make a dropping consistency.

Turn into a 20cm round cake tin and bake for 30-40 minutes.

Cool on a wire rack and drizzle over lemon water icing.

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Pershore plum and apple tart with walnut pastry

Ingredients

Heat the oven to GM6/200’C/400’F.

Roll out half the pastry and use to line a pie dish.

Cook the apples and plums in the butter and granulated sugar until soft. Don’t add any water. Cool.

Put the fruit into the pie dish and roll out the rest of the pastry to make a lid and seal to the pie.

Bake in the hot oven for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile whisk the egg whites until stiff. Beat in the caster sugar. After the pie has been in the oven for 30 minutes, swirl the meringue over the top and put back in the oven for 5-10 minutes until golden and set.

Serve at once.

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Pear and apple crisp

Heat the oven to GM6/200’C/400’F.

Crush the amaretti biscuits and stir in the flour, cinnamon and demerara sugar. Stir in the melted butter. Cool.

Core and thinly slice the fruit and put in an ovenproof dish with the caster sugar and the lemon zest and juice.

Pour over the amaretti mixture and bake for 30 minutes until the topping is crisp and the fruit is tender.

Serve with cream, plain yoghurt or cinnamon custard

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Wimpole coffee and walnut cake

Cream 250g of the butter with the caster sugar until white in colour.

Beat in the eggs one at a time and fold in the flour and 50g of the walnuts.

Dilute 1 tablespoon of coffee granules with the same amount of water and stir into the cake mixture.

Add the mixture to a lined 8inch round cake tin and bake at 150°C for 1 hour (test with thin bladed knife that comes clean)

Turn out onto a cooling rack and allow to cool.

Make the icing topping by creaming the rest of the butter with the icing sugar and again dilute 1 tablespoon of coffee granules with the same amount of water and stir into the icing.

Cut the cake in to two and spread icing on the surface and sandwich back together.

Decorate the top with the rest of the icing and the left over walnuts.

Cut the cake into 10 wedges and serve with a cup of tea!