With desserts this good, you won’t want spring to end

Soon, the pleasures of summer stone fruit and berries will be upon us. I can see the apricots and cherries already starting to plump up on the trees in the orchard but for now I will be content with the first strawberries of the season, the last of the citrus and kiwifruit, and the mangoes and pineapple from the tropics (it’s mango season in Australia right now and the fruit is superb). With all these beautiful fruits, late spring desserts take on so many luscious forms.

Pouring hot toffee (heat sugar with a splash of water until it turns a deeply golden liquid caramel) over sliced oranges, strawberries, kiwifruit or pineapple — or a mix of these tangy fruits — is a simple way to elevate any acidic fresh fruit. After about an hour the toffee will start to dissolve, creating rich citrusy caramel juices with some undissolved shards of brittle toffee providing a delicious crunch. Syllabub is another wonderful dessert for this time of the year. It was popular during the 16th and 19th centuries but has undergone a recent revival. Traditionally made with whipped cream, sugar and cider or white wine, syllabub is such a simple thing to put together and a great way to instantly smarten up a punnet of strawberries or other fruit.

My mother made her syllabub with whipped cream, lots of icing sugar (½ cup icing sugar per 300ml cream), the juice of a juicy lemon (to taste) and a generous splash of sherry. I usually make mine with white rum instead of sherry and add the juice and zests of orange and lime for a more tropical flavour. A handful of chopped glace ginger makes an excellent garnish here.

Strawberries, gooseberries, rhubarb, and other tangy later-season fruit like apricots all make wonderful fools.

Stew the fruit (you can leave the strawberries raw or cook them lightly) with some sugar (you’ll need more than you think for gooseberries and rhubarb as these fruits are both mouth-puckeringly sour), chill the puree and then fold through an equal volume of chilled cream, whipped to soft peaks, adjusting the sweetness with icing sugar as needed.

On Instagram, Frankie Gaw (@ littlefatboyfrankie) makes a fabulous dessert with frozen strawberries, grating them with a microplane into a bowl like shaved ice and topping with a drizzle of sweetened condensed milk, chopped peanuts, black sesame seeds and a mint leaf (this would also be great with frozen pineapple or mango).

Pan-frying slices of pineapple or mango in a little butter and sugar delivers a wonderful caramelised flavour; add a little rum for an instant sauce and serve with vanilla icecream.

With desserts this good, you won’t want spring to end!