If I am going to eat a pudding, then I don't mess about. If something sweet is what I need, I then tend to go for it - sugar, butter, cream, the lot. Otherwise it doesn't really hit the spot. This month, we celebrate with some proper puddings, albeit with touch of spring to them.

Chocolate almond mousse

A chocolate mousse so rich and thick you can barely get your spoon into it. I need such a dark and intense dessert every now and again, though always in minuscule amounts. I suggest espresso cups here, it's enough, honestly. What sounds like an absurd embellishment, a drizzle of cream, is a must for me, taking in a tiny pool of it with each spoonful of the almost black, almondy mousse.

Serves 6

dark, slightly bitter chocolate - 200g
eggs - 4
espresso - 100mls
soft amaretti - 150g
boiling water - 100mls
a little cream to serve

Snap the chocolate into squares and drop them into a heatproof glass or china bowl. Rest the bowl over a small pan of simmering water. Don't stir, just leave the chocolate to melt, occasionally pushing any unmelted pieces beneath the surface - and there's something very pleasurable about doing that.

Separate the eggs, putting the whites into a large bowl. Make the espresso. Crumble the amaretti with your fingers into large nuggets. Beat the egg whites until they are just stiff. Stop before they turn grainy and dry. Working quickly now, gently stir the espresso and then the boiling water into the chocolate. I do this with a rubber spatula, folding the ingredients in slowly. Lightly stir the beaten egg whites into the chocolate mixture. Do this gently, getting right down to the bottom, and without knocking the air out. Stop as soon as the two have mixed. Scatter over the amaretti and fold them in.

Spoon the mixture into 6 tea cups, a large bowl or 6 small wine glasses and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight. I don't think this needs any embellishment. The dark chocolate against the white china is enough, but you could put a single crystallised rose petal on top of each cup. Serve with pouring cream if you wish.

Baked pears with Marsala

There isn't much home-grown fruit about right now, but there are still some good apples and pears. I sometimes cook these slowly in the bottom of the Aga for hours till they are meltingly soft. I'm not sure they need any accompaniment at all.

Serves 4

4 large pears
a lemon
sweet Marsala - 4 tbs
caster sugar - 3 tbs
butter - 50g

Set the oven at 200C/gas 6. Peel the pears but leave them whole, dropping them into cold water with a squeeze of lemon juice in it as you go to stop them browning. Put the Marsala, caster sugar and butter into a baking dish then add the whole pears. Bake for about an hour until the butter softens. It is essential to baste the pears every half hour or so, turning them over in the juices. Serve them warm, spooning over the sweet, buttery juices.

Apricot and marmalade baked sponge pudding

Sweet, orange-scented sponge with a layer of jam underneath - utter bliss for a cool spring day. I have mixed the marmalade with apricot jam because it works for me, but you could use just one preserve if you prefer, it amounts to the same thing. Cream or custard might be good with this.

Serves 4

butter - 150g
caster sugar - 120g
eggs - 3, beaten
grated zest of an orange
plain flour - 120g
baking powder - 1 lightly heaped tsp
apricot jam - 150g
marmalade - 150g

Set the oven at 180C/gas 4. Put the butter and sugar into the bowl of a food mixer and beat till pale and fluffy. Slowly add the egg, beating constantly, then add the orange zest. Mix the flour and baking powder then fold gently into the mixture.

Lightly butter a pudding basin and spoon in the mixed jams then spoon over the sponge mixture. Smooth lightly then bake for 40 minutes. Cover with foil then bake for a further 10 minutes or so until the sponge is cooked. Test by pushing a skewer into the sponge; if it comes out with uncooked mixture on it then let it cook a little longer. Serve warm with cream or custard, or of course nothing at all.

Passion fruit and ginger cream

No apologies here, just layers of deep, creamy dessert and sweet biscuits, enough to soften any blow. The mixture of cream cheese, mascarpone and ginger biscuits, a sort of cheesecake in a bowl, might cloy if it wasn't for the spicy biscuits and several ripe and wrinkly passion fruit stirred into the mixture. You can make it much earlier than you want to serve it, even the day before.

Serves 8

For the crumbs

butter - 50g
ginger biscuits - 250g

For the cream:

mascarpone - 250g
icing sugar - 75g
a vanilla pod
double cream - 300mls
crème fraîche - 250g
8 ripe (wrinkled) passion fruits

Melt the butter in a small pan. Crush the biscuits to fine crumbs and stir them into the melted butter and set aside. Put the mascarpone and icing sugar in the bowl of a food mixer and beat till smooth - a matter of seconds. Scrape out the seeds from the vanilla pod with the point of a knife and stir them into the mascarpone. Whip the double cream till it sits in soft folds, almost able to hold its own shape. (Stop just before it is capable of standing in peaks.) Gently fold the cream and the crème fraîche into the mascarpone mixture.

Cut the passion fruit in half and squeeze out the seeds and juice into a small bowl. Stir about a third of the mixture into the cream. In a serving dish, put layers of (first) crumbs, then the passion fruit cream, then more crumbs and then cream, ending with a layer of crumbs and the remaining passion fruit. Cover with clingfilm and leave to chill in the fridge for a good hour.

Roast rhubarb with cassis and ginger

You could measure my life in rhubarb recipes, but in early spring I just can't get enough of this stuff. It's the juice that appeals, with its clean, spring flavour. This time I've added a little fresh ginger and blackcurrant. Just the thing for a weekend breakfast.

Serves 4, generously

rhubarb - 750g
caster sugar - 3 tbs
water - 150mls
cassis syrup - a small wine glass full
a 'thumb' of ginger

Set the oven at 200C/gas 6. Trim the rhubarb, discarding the leaves, and cut into short lengths. Put into a shallow baking dish and add the sugar, water and cassis. Peel the ginger, slice it thinly and tuck into the liquid. Bake for 40 minutes or so, until tender. Serve with the juices.

· Nigel Slater's A Taste of my Life is on BBC2 at 6.30 Monday-Friday