Three desserts in one

Roasted pears, chocolate cake and vanilla custard are made for each other, but these recipes have plenty of other applications and are great staples to have in your repertoire.

Chocolate loaf cake

This cake is cast in an unassuming shape, as a humble loaf, but is delicious and versatile. Great by the slice with tea or coffee, with a dollop of double cream or dressed up further with a thick layer of ganache or my roasted pears and vanilla custard.

30g cocoa

1/2 tsp baking soda

50g dark chocolate buttons

180g dark brown sugar

140g unsalted butter

125g condensed milk

2 medium eggs

2 tbsp liquid glucose (available in major supermarkets), sit the jar in warm water to soften

240g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees fan-forced or 180 degrees. Line a 25-centimetre loaf tin with baking paper.

2. In a large bowl make a paste with the cocoa and 50 millilitres of cold water. Whisk in 100 millilitres of boiling water, add the baking soda and chocolate buttons and whisk until melted. Set aside.

3. In a stand mixer (you can do this by hand instead), beat the sugar, butter and condensed milk together until smooth. Beat in the eggs and glucose. Sift in half the flour with the baking powder and mix through. Add the chocolate mix and mix until combined. Follow with the rest of the flour and mix until smooth.

4. Pour the mix into the prepared tin and bake for 50 minutes or until cooked - use a skewer to test, but don't cook the loaf until totally dry; there should be a light crumb on the skewer when removed. Allow to cool in the tin.

5. Dust with cocoa and serve on its own or with the roasted pears and vanilla custard.

Drink Rutherglen muscat

Serves 10

Roasted pears with saffron, rosemary and bay

These pears are part poached, part roasted, resulting in luscious flesh, scented with saffron and herbs, with delicious caramelised edges.

250ml honey

400ml verjuice

2 pinches saffron threads

3 fresh bay leaves

2 sprigs rosemary

8 beurre bosc pears, firm

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees fan-forced or 200 degrees conventional.

2. In a medium pot, bring all the ingredients, except the pears, to the boil, then take off the heat.

3. Peel the pears, cut in half lengthways and remove the core, but leave the stem intact. Lay the pears in a ceramic dish that will fit them snuggly. Pour the liquid over the top and cover the dish with baking paper and foil. Bake for 40 minutes, then uncover, turn the pears a couple of times in the hot syrup and cook for a further 30 minutes or until cooked, turning on the grill for the last 10 minutes to colour.

4. Remove from the oven and serve with custard.

Drink Sweet Alsatian pinot gris

Serves 8

Vanilla custard

This is a pretty classic custard, delicious hot or cold. The lemon zest is optional but it adds an understated freshness that I really like and is particularly good with the roasted pears.

1 vanilla pod, split and scraped

150g castor sugar

Zest of 1/2 lemon

4 tbsp cornflour

6 egg yolks

650ml milk

450ml cream, 35 per cent fat

1. In a large bowl, combine the vanilla seeds, sugar, lemon zest and cornflour, then whisk in the egg yolks.

2. In a medium pot, add the milk, cream and vanilla pod and simmer over medium heat for 2 minutes.

3. Remove the vanilla pod and pour the liquid over the egg mix, whisking as you pour until amalgamated.

4. Pour the custard back into the pot and cook over medium heat, just until it starts to bubble, stirring or whisking constantly to ensure it doesn't stick to the bottom. Once the custard is thick and free of lumps, pour into a jug and serve. You can also refrigerate and serve cold. The custard will keep for three or four days.

Makes about 1.2 litres