Red wine and elderberry pears with ginger cake

"This warm, fragrant dessert is autumn and comfort food combined - a real celebration of the season of mellow abundance and all it has to offer – autumn fruit and elderberries, cooking in red wine and the bewitching aroma and flavour of ginger. Chef and restaurateur Alla Wolf-Tasker uses all the produce that her beautiful Daylesford region of country Victoria has to offer, creating a symphony of delight with this dessert. The gingerbread by itself is heaven but combined with the crimson glossy pears, especially the way Alla serves each pear, sitting on top of a disc of gingerbread, the syrup spooned over - makes you go weak at the knees and certainly has a wow factor for a dinner party." Maeve O'Meara, Food Safari Earth