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 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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Upcycle wrinkly grapes and other elderly fruit into a lovely, sticky cake with a crumbly, streusel topping

When our grape bowl is past its best and the fruit is wrinkly and unappetising, this cake is our go-to for upcycling them into something truly special. (It can also be made with any fruit, such as tired berries, shrivelled figs or an abundance of rhubarb, say.)

The thought of devouring this super-sweet cake whips up a frenzy of excitement in our house, with my four-year-old daughter and I singing “black grape buckle cake” on repeat until it turns into a tongue-twister. By the time we are bored with that, we are usually both sitting down with a piece of cake in hand, eating quietly with pleasure.

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A chicken, herb and celery stew with almonds and a return visit to an old friend: the Persian frittata known as kuku, made with aubergine and onions and studded with lemony currants

• Ask Ottolenghi: send in your kitchen questions

Some people are sure they were a particular animal in a previous life. The swimmer was a dolphin, maybe, and the pilot a bird, but me? I’m only certain that I was at a Persian dinner table at some earlier point in life, and my love for Persian food was signed, sealed and stamped for ever more. Or maybe I just adore turmeric-stained, saffron-infused, barberry-spiked and flaked almond-topped food so much that it makes me feel poetic. Either way, the gift of Persian cuisine, which somehow pulls off both abundance and balance at exactly the same time, is one that transports me every time.

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A grown-up version of a kids’ classic: the cookie with the dimple, filled with lemon curd and a hit of thyme

When I’m feeling playful, I make thumbprint cookies. I remember making batches of them at school, and taking great pleasure in sticking my thumb into the middle to create a home for jam, curd or chocolate spread. These lemon-and-thyme versions feel a tad more grown up, though, with fresh thyme worked through the dough for an aromatic twist. I’ve made a very zingy lemon curd to dollop into the middle, but shop-bought would work just as well.

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