Fruity baked delights are the perfect finish to any meal.

Four guest-worthy baked fruit desserts to grace your summer entertaining table

Cassis & Bay-Baked Pears with Blackberries

Bookmark this dish for when blackberries are still around and pears are in season. Bay is underrated in sweet dishes; its peppery, slightly menthol flavour is subtle but it provides a savoury hum. This is best made the day before serving, then the pears have time to take on the rich colour of the wine and cassis.

6 just-ripe pears 100ml crème de cassis 300ml red wine 60g caster sugar

3 bay leaves 150g blackberries

Heat oven to 180°C fan bake. Halve the pears – no need to peel or core them – and put them, cut sides up, into a gratin dish in which the fruit can sit quite snugly in a single layer. Pour over the cassis and wine, sprinkle with sugar and tuck the bay leaves under the fruit.

Bake, spooning the juices over the pears from time to time, until the fruit is tender right through to the centre (how long this takes depends on the ripeness; start checking after 20 minutes but it could take as long as 35 minutes). It’s a good idea to turn the pears over a couple of times while they’re cooking.

By the time the fruit is cooked, the juice around it won’t be thick but should be syrupy and sweet enough to serve as it is. If you don’t think it is, remove the pears and bay leaves and reduce the juices by boiling them for a little while, leave to cool then pour them back into the dish with the pears.

Add the berries about 30 minutes before you want to serve, spooning the juices over them, otherwise they get very soft sitting in the red wine syrup. Serves 6

Roast Stone Fruit with Almond & Orange Flower Crumbs

Regular crumble can be a bit stodgy, more about the crumble than the fruit, however in this dish the fruit shines more – it gets gorgeous caramelised edges – and the crumble is rich with nuggets of marzipan and scented with flower water. This is a big pudding but leftovers are rather good for breakfast.

900g stone fruit: a mixture of peaches,

nectarines, plums and apricots is good 2 tablespoons caster sugar

Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

Juice of ½ lemon

65g good-quality marzipan

½ tablespoon orange flower water 50g plain flour

30g ground almonds

65g cold butter, cut into cubes

15g sliced almonds

Icing sugar to dust (optional) Whipped cream or crème fraîche to serve

Heat oven to 200°C fan bake. Halve and pit all the fruit. Cut the larger fruits – peaches and nectarines – into 6 wedges (each half into 3). Put all the fruit into a baking dish, sprinkle it with the sugar, lemon zest and juice and turn it over with your hands.

Take 30g of the marzipan and put little nuggets of this in among the fruit. Break remaining marzipan into little balls and set aside. Sprinkle flower water over fruit.

Put flour and ground almonds in a bowl and rub in butter (or mix in a food processor if preferred). Sprinkle mixture over fruit then put the balls of marzipan on top, leaving patches of the fruit completely uncovered.

Bake 30 minutes or until the fruit is tender and the crumbs are golden, scattering over the almonds halfway through the cooking time. Serve warm or at room temperature with cream, dusted with icing sugar if desired. Serves 8

Ginger-Roast Plums with Lime, Rum & Muscovado Cream

This is best made with plums that have a strong flavour and will hold their shape. The cooking time depends on how ripe your plums are but roasting does transform the most unpromising and under-ripe specimens. You can also make this dish with apricots, but they take a bit less cooking time. 200ml double cream, lightly whipped 125-150g Greek yoghurt

3-4 heaped tablespoons muscovado sugar 800g plums (preferably crimson-fleshed),

halved and pitted

2 globes of stem ginger, very finely chopped 75g brown sugar

½ teaspoon ground ginger

1 lime, juiced plus 3 broad strips of zest 150ml plus 3 tablespoons dark rum

Make the cream about 12 hours before serving. Fold cream and yoghurt together, put in a bowl and sprinkle evenly with the sugar. Cover tightly and put in the fridge. The sugar will become soft and treacly.

Heat oven to 180°C fanbake. Put plums, cut side up, in a roasting tin or big ovenproof dish or gratin dish in which they can lie in a single layer (snugly; you don’t want the juices around them to reduce and burn). Scatter the stem ginger around the plums.

Mix the sugar with the ground ginger and sprinkle over the top. Squeeze lime juice over and tuck the pieces of lime zest under the fruits, then pour the 150ml rum around them.

Bake for 15-30 minutes (how long it takes depends on the ripeness of the plums). The fruit should be tender when pierced with a sharp knife, but not collapsing. Leave to cool completely; the juices should thicken as they cool. If they aren’t thick enough, drain off the juices and boil them in a saucepan until they become more syrupy. Add the remaining 3 tablespoons of rum.

Serve plums at room temperature with the muscovado cream. Serves 6

Apricot & Almond Croûtes

This is really a cheat’s bostock, the French pastry where brioche is topped with jam and frangipane and baked. It is definitely more than just fruit on toast but it’s as simple as that. It’s also a scrumptious way to use leftover Christmas marzipan. Plums are lovely in this dish too.

6 thick slices good-quality brioche

30g plus 4 teaspoons caster sugar 50-75ml Amaretto or marsala

75g butter, very soft

110g good-quality marzipan

12 small ripe apricots (or 6 plums), pitted

and quartered

½ lemon, juiced

35g sliced almonds (optional)

Icing sugar to dust (optional)

Crème fraîche, clotted cream or mascarpone

to serve

Heat oven to 190°C fan bake. Put brioche slices on a baking sheet or in a roasting tin in which they can lie in a single layer.

Spoon the 30g caster sugar into a small heatproof bowl and pour in 50ml boiling water. Stir until dissolved, leave syrup to cool then stir in the Amaretto or marsala. Spoon syrup over the brioche slices, covering both sides.

Carefully, because the brioche will be very soft now, butter each slice on both sides. Arrange small chunks of marzipan on top then add the apricot quarters. Squeeze over the lemon juice and sprinkle with the 4 teaspoons caster sugar.

Bake 25 minutes, sprinkling on the almonds, if using, after 15 minutes. The apricots should be tender and the bread and marzipan both golden. Leave to cool a little then sift over some icing sugar if desired. Serve with cream. Serves 6