3 incredible fruit recipes to try before summer ends

& an inspiring workshop

Feb 28, 2025

Hello friends, and welcome back to my newsletter. Today, I saw the first clementines in the store and felt a tinge of excitement at the prospect of autumn. This was coupled with an immediate sense of sadness that stone fruit is almost gone—my favourite fresh produce of the year. As with all things in life, you have to take the good with the bad. Cooler weather means second-tier fruit. My January newsletter was a celebration of late-summer tomatoes (still around), so I thought I’d talk stone fruit before they disappear.

Plums are the last of the stone fruits to grace us with their presence, and my all-time favourite recipe is the famous Purple Plum Torte by Marion Burro. I rate it as one of the easiest and most delicious simple cakes of ALL TIME. I have made it with apricots before, which was also very nice, but nothing beats the gooey puddles of roasted plum that this cake creates. It’s heavenly served with whipped Chantilly cream.

Easy plum& frangipane galette

Almond croissant meets fruit tart with this easy puff pastry recipe.

Last year, I made this delicious peach crumble with late-summer cling peaches, and it was so good. I am planning on doing a variation of this recipe soon (already tested), so watch this space.

My favourite dessert with nectarines is Di Bibby’s Nectarine, Blueberry and Bourbon Pie. It’s a showstopper and something you should make before nectarines are gone.

Recent recipes

I have perfected vanilla crème caramel in my Instant Pot. The texture is so silky and delicious. This is the ultimate make-in-advance dessert, which you can unmould just before serving.

I adore the Dubai pistachio chocolate bar, and since making it from scratch, I have made a filled chocolate croissant version. Last month, I took the flavours into Rice Krispies squares with white chocolate.

These easy Air Fryer chicken, mushroom, and spinach tortilla pies are my latest obsession. This is a great template to use for a variety of fillings. You just need to ensure that the filling mixture is quite juicy, as they are a little drier than regular pastry pies (minus all the calories) but are so crispy. Let me know if you make them and what you think.

Out & About

Two in a Bush is a local company that makes my favourite cordial. This proudly South African product is crafted from actual Rooibos tea, with a low sugar content and only 36 calories per serving. I love it on its own with ice, water or soda, but it’s a delicious ingredient for cocktails or mocktails too.

They hosted a lovely event in Franschhoek this week to launch their new citrus-infused cordial to the range. It included a Cyanotype workshop with local artist Chloe Obermeyer (create_with_cleo on Instagram), which was so inspiring.

Cyanotypes are a historic photographic printing process that produces striking blue-toned images using a light-sensitive, iron-based solution and UV exposure. We were guided through the process and made a few of our own prints.

Chloe designed the limited edition packaging for the Two in a Bush gift packs available at Yuppiechef (bottom right pic), and she runs workshops if you are interested in finding out more.

Quoin Rock invited me to their Harvest Table event in the vineyards recently, and it was so lovely. Dining with jaw-dropping views of the mountains and watching the sunset and full moon rise was very special. The evening turned into a party with live music and bubbly flowing.