5 Autumn Baking Ideas for a Cosy Afternoon at Home

My grandmother's autumn cupcakes had glacé cherries in them.

She made them every year in Autumn: cinnamon, ginger, buttercream the colour of old cream, and those cherries folded in and sunk to the bottom of each case. I have never been able to explain why that combination works as well as it does. I just know that autumn baking ideas, for me, start and end there.

The problem with a bake that good is that it sets a standard you spend years trying to reach again.

These five recipes are my attempt.

1. Cinnamon and ginger cupcakes with buttercream

These are the ones that started all of this. The autumn baking ideas in this post are good, but this recipe is the one that means alot.

For 12, cream together 175g butter and 175g caster sugar, then beat in 3 eggs. Fold in 175g self-raising flour, 1 tsp ground cinnamon and 1 tsp ground ginger. Take a small handful of glacé cherries (about 75g), toss them in a tablespoon of flour, and fold them through.

The flour coating helps, but the cherries will still sink a little. That's fine. It's how they're supposed to look.

Bake at 180°C for 18 to 20 minutes until just springy. Leave them to cool completely before the buttercream.

For the buttercream, beat 150g butter until pale, then sift in 300g icing sugar with a drop of vanilla extract. Spread rather than pipe it, unless you want to pipe it.

The smell when these come out is the whole reason to make them.

2. Apple and blackberry crumble traybake

A crumble in traybake form solves the main crumble problem, which is that it falls apart the moment you try to move it.

For the base, mix 300g plain flour, 100g caster sugar and 200g cold butter until it comes together, then press it into a lined tin and bake it blind for 15 minutes. Skip that step and the base stays doughy under the fruit, no matter how long the whole thing bakes.

Peel and dice 3 Bramley apples, toss them with 150g blackberries and 2 tablespoons of caster sugar, and spread the mixture over the warm base. Frozen blackberries work here. There is no need to defrost them first.

For the topping, rub 50g butter into 150g oats and 50g demerara until it clumps, then scatter it over the fruit. Bake at 180°C for around 30 minutes until golden.

These are easy autumn baking recipes at home in the best sense: one tin, no fuss, keeps for two days, and slices cleanly cold from the tin.

3. One-bowl ginger loaf

No piping bag. No creaming butter and sugar until pale. One bowl, one tin, and a wooden spoon.

Melt 125g butter with 100g golden syrup, 2 tablespoons black treacle, and 100g dark brown sugar in a saucepan. Let it cool for five minutes, then beat in 2 eggs and 150ml whole milk.

Stir in 250g self-raising flour, 2 teaspoons ground ginger, and 1 teaspoon mixed spice. Pour into a lined 900g loaf tin and bake at 170°C for 45 to 50 minutes.

The kitchen will smell extraordinary while it bakes.

Resist cutting into it warm. Wrap it in foil once cool and leave it overnight. The crumb tightens, the spice deepens, and what comes out the next day is better than what went in.

It keeps well for four days, gets better across them, and requires nothing from you at serving except a bread knife.

4. Pear and almond tart

Shop-bought shortcrust pastry. There is no better decision you'll make today.

Press it into a 23cm loose-bottomed tin and push it slightly up the sides, because it will shrink back during baking. It always does. Accept this.

For the frangipane, beat together 100g each of ground almonds, softened butter and caster sugar, then add two eggs and mix until smooth. A splash of amaretto goes in if you have it. Pour the filling into the blind-baked pastry case and press in four Conference pears, halved and cored. Use Conference. Other varieties collapse in the oven and leave you with a wet, sunken middle.

Bake at 180°C for 35 to 40 minutes until the frangipane is golden and set with a faint wobble at the centre.

The pears caramelise at the edges and the almond filling stays dense and fragrant. Cold the next day, it is better still.

5. Chai-spiced scones

A standard scone recipe becomes something else entirely with a chai spice mix worked into the flour. Ground cardamom, cinnamon, ginger and a pinch of black pepper, nothing more.

For 8 scones: 350g self-raising flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 85g cold butter, 3 tbsp caster sugar, the spice mix, and 175ml whole milk. Rub the butter in until it looks like breadcrumbs, stir in the milk, and stop as soon as the dough comes together.

Handling the dough too much is what kills a scone's rise. Press it out to about 2.5cm thick and cut straight down with the cutter. No twisting. Twisting seals the edges and the scones come out lopsided.

These are excellent with clotted cream. They're also excellent with just butter.

If you've been working through these autumn baking ideas in order, this one is the quickest return on effort in the whole list.

What to do with leftovers

The traybake freezes well. Cut it into portions once cold, wrap each one, and pull them out as needed.

The ginger loaf keeps for four days wrapped in foil. It is better on day three than day one, so there is no urgency.

Scones are the one exception. Make them, eat them. If you have leftovers, a low oven at 160°C for eight minutes brings them back well enough, but they are not the same.

The pear tart and the cupcakes are best within two days, kept loosely covered at room temperature.

The kitchen smells exactly the way a kitchen should in October.