Heritage orchard at RHS Rosemoor to be sampled this spring as part of search for previously unrecorded ‘survivor’ cultivars

Gardeners are searching for lost apple varieties by sequencing the genetics of trees in ancient orchards, in the hope they hold traits that can help the fruit survive climate breakdown.

Heritage apple trees at the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) garden Rosemoor will be sampled this spring with the aim of finding species of apple enjoyed by people hundreds of years ago.

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A creamy, chocolatey, rum and raspberry treat for Easter

A sweet long sipper with a silky texture and a hint of chocolate – Easter in a glass.

Davide Valvano, Sabine, London EC4

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A real blow-out, luxury Easter cake of joy – and no chocolate for a change!

Easter is a time for celebration, and this definitely counts as a proper celebration cake. Taking inspiration from bakewell tart, it has three layers of moist almond sponge broken up with cherry jam and a silky swiss meringue buttercream. I only ever use almond extract in bakewell – it’s one of those ingredients you either love or loathe, but I find that just a few drops bring the right amount of fragrant marzipan flavour to this Easter cake.

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The lack of diversity could mean the fruit’s extinction. It offers a stark warning of what could happen to other key foods

The meeting of the World Banana Forum last week in Rome didn’t make many headlines. But what was under discussion there has serious implications for everyone. The ubiquitous yellow fruit is the proverbial canary in the mine of our modern food system, showing just how fragile it is. And the current plight of the banana should serve as an invitation to us all to become champions of food diversity.

When you peel a banana, you’re on the receiving end of a near-miraculous $10bn supply chain . One that sends seemingly endless quantities of a tropical fruit halfway across the world to be among the cheapest, most readily available products in supermarket aisles (on average, around 12p a banana). But, incredibly, there’s no inbuilt backup plan or safety net if the one variety that most of the global trade depends on starts to fail .

Dan Saladino is a food journalist, broadcaster and author of Eating to Extinction: The World’s Rarest Foods and Why We Need to Save Them

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A hearty barley and vegetable soup with a cheesy topping and a quick miso- and ginger-coated chicken traybake on a bed of chard

Like any cook, I love it when people enjoy my food, and I get even greater pleasure when it’s also easy for me to make (and with minimal washing-up). I often turn to these one-pot recipes, which empty the pantry and make something comforting – a hearty, vegetable-filled soup and a speedy, miso- and ginger-coated chicken.

Yasmin Fahr is a US food and travel writer and the author of three cookbooks . Keeping it Simple, by Yasmin Fahr, is published by Hardie Grant Books (UK) at £16.99. To order a copy for £15.46, go to guardian.bookshop.com

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A sharp but fluffy lemon curd sandwich cake covered in whipped vanilla cream

Chiffon cake is a cloud-like delight. I’ve omitted the sugar syrup you often find in other recipes for it, because I think it detracts from the lightness of the texture – you want a soft, airy crumb. You can use a shop-bought lemon curd for ease, but I’ve shared a homemade one if you feel inclined to try it; I love a little sharpness to contrast with the round sweetness of the vanilla cream coating.

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Roughly the size of a golf ball, the big berry weighs 20.4 grams and was grown using traditional manual techniques

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It’s dark blue, about the diameter of a golf ball and it weighs 10 times as much as your average blueberry.

Picked on 13 November, the piece of fruit was this week officially recognised by the Guinness World Records as the world’s heaviest blueberry.

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A nostalgic treat: a fluffy coconut cake smothered in buttercream with a big blob of raspberry jam in the middle

I absolutely adored the fat, fluffy wedges of jam and coconut cake at school. It’s not a combination I see much today, but it makes for an instant nostalgia trip. This version is more of an inspired by” cake, rather than an exact copy of the original. I’ve upped the coconut flavour in the sponge with both coconut milk and desiccated coconut, and generously increased the proportion of raspberry jam, because you can never have too much.

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Make Mum’s day with a lemon drizzle cake with poppy seed brittle, and a batch of irresistible sesame, pecan and date cookies

Lemon drizzle is a nostalgic cake for many of us, and reminds us of our childhood. And who made all those cakes, and all those memories? I used to think that cakes somehow just “appeared” almost out of thin air but, of course, there’s no such thing. A child’s day is made sweet by a whole lot of planning and stirring and baking. Why not turn the tables this year and make your mother a lemon drizzle cake? And, after all these years, it’s her turn to lick the bowl, OK?

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