Wholemeal Pear and Ginger Cake

My local Cake Club (set up following the demise of The Clandestine Cake Club, which now only has a Facebook presence) set the theme of Autumn for the most recent meeting. I was torn between this recipe or a courgette cake, but went with this Pear and Ginger Cake because it has been a more reliable recipe over the years.

This is one of those cakes where the basic recipe can be altered by using different fresh fruit, dried fruit and jam - the original cake, a Nigel Slater recipe (scroll down the page), used apples, sultanas and orange marmalade, and I've also successfully made it with apples, dried cranberries and cranberry jelly and in this version, pears, golden raisins and ginger preserves. There were slight adjustments to the other flavours too - I used lemon zest instead of orange and added extra spice (half a teaspoon of mixed spice and two teaspoons of ground ginger in addition to the cinnamon).

I  don't usually decorate this sort of cake, but because this was for a special occasion, I used poached pear slices and slices of stem ginger on top of the cake, plus a dusting of icing sugar, just to relieve the brownness. I was disappointed that, even with poaching in acidulated water, the pears discoloured so badly!

Despite using wholemeal flour, and adding fresh fruit, this is a very light cake, with a soft texture. The ginger preserves and added spices give a gentle warmth which doesn't overwhelm the delicate flavour of the pear. The photo of the cut cake isn't pretty, but it does show the good texture!

Jalapeno Cornbread

I was in a baking mood, but couldn't really justify baking a cake when I'd got a dozen or more individual portions of cake from previous bakes laying in the freezer. Cornbread to accompany my planned batch of chilli seemed a good idea - I could satisfy my urge to bake and sort out several evening meals in one go without feeling guilty; some sort of carbohydrate was needed and it would be a tasty change from rice.

I used this recipe by Ben Mims, which has been the most successful recipe of several I've tried previously and one that Southern Living calls perfect. As I only wanted a few portions, I halved the recipe and baked it in my small cast iron skillet, which is only 16cm in diameter at the top. From previous attempts I knew that I was happier with a bit more seasoning and a tiny touch of sugar, so I added 10g of caster sugar, a teaspoon of dried oregano, a good twist of black pepper and a tablespoon of finely chopped pickled jalapeno peppers.

I think this was the best cornbread I've made so far; the texture was just what I wanted - moist but not too stodgy, but not too crumbly either. The added ingredients stopped it being bland and there were just the right amount of jalapenos to give a spicy kick, without becoming too hot. It went really well with my inauthentic chilli, which contained pork meatballs and a courgette I picked on the edge of turning to a marrow!