Hooked on cooking – dessert design

Following on from the idea of using the Smoothie Cups with lids here's the first “dessert design” to fill them.

Nothing is set in stone and free expression brings creativity and fun – all you need to provide is the wherewithal. You can spend whatever your budget allows.

Here's my basic recipe – use it as a template :

Pantry Parfait

(or pantry trifle)

Chocolate walnut cake

OR

Chocolate muffins

OR

Chocolate swiss roll (M&S the best)

Morello cherry conserve

(M&S 340g £1.70)

Chocolate ganache - 250g dark chocolate

& 360ml double cream

Chopped sour cherries and chocolate chips

for decoration

As a rough guide, allow 75g of cherry conserve per person. Melt the conserve gently adding a drop of water to loosen. Allow to cool.

For the ganache heat the cream over a medium heat, bring just to the boil, then pour over the chocolate whisking until smooth. Allow to cool before use.

To assemble, slice the cake, cut into thin rounds and layer it with the cooled conserve – you can have any many layers as you wish.

Add a spoonful of ganache and sprinkle chopped sour cherries and chocolate chips to decorate.

Suitable substitutes :

Use fresh fruit in season – i.e. strawberries together with strawberry jam, instead of cherries.

Mix fresh fruit with tins or cartons of pie filling, available from larger supermarkets and in various flavour combinations.

Finally, to avoid the plastic “glassware” tipping over, “glue” the glasses to the work surface with a small amount of Blu-Tack or, a damp j cloth will help keep them reasonably stable and avoid any mishaps.

You could provide a can of cream – the kind that they can shake and spray to finish off their creations. This is quite obviously not meant to be the healthy option, it's meant to get your students' attention for the more adventurous stuff to come. Your main aim is to keep them hooked!