 Ingredients: Serves 6
280ml fresh double cream
1 tbsp thick heather honey
1 generous tbsp Talisker malt whisky
1 heaped tbsp toasted** medium oatmeal (not "fine", "pinhead" oatmeal or rolled oats)
2 punnets (approx 220g) fresh raspberries
Method:
- Whisk the cream together with the honey and whisky until thick, but still floppy. Fold in the oatmeal. This will thicken the cream a little more.
- Wash the fruit and divide it between 4 serving glasses.
- Pile the Cranachan on top of the raspberries and serve.
**To toast oatmeal:
- Spread a thin layer of medium oatmeal over a flat baking tray and leave in the bottom of a warm oven until it darkens in colour. Once cooled, the oatmeal can be stored in an airtight container and used when required.
Ingredients: serves 4-6
 Berries:
2 punnets of fresh strawberries, washed and hulled.
Syllabub:
250ml double cream
finely grated rind and juice of 2 large lemons
225g caster sugar
2 tbsp Isle of Skye blended whisky.
Shortbread:
375g plain flour
125g white rice flour
375g slightly salted Scottish butter
125g caster sugar
Method:
Syllabub:
- Whisk all together until thick and floppy. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use. The syllabub may need another whip before serving.
Shortbread:
- Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Work the sifted flour into the creamed mixture until it forms a firm paste.
- Knead it lightly on a well-floured board. Roll it out until quite thin and cut biscuit shapes with a cutter of your choice.
- Using a palette knife, lift the biscuits onto a well-buttered baking sheet.
- Bake on the centre shelf of a moderate oven, Gas Mark 5, until pale golden in colour.
- Remove from oven and sprinkle liberally with caster sugar while still warm.
- Lift on to wire tray to cool and firm-up. Store in an airtight tin.
To assemble the dish:
- Put the strawberries into serving dishes, pretty glasses, or sundae glasses. Just before serving, pile the whipped syllabub on top of the strawberries and serve with a shortbread biscuit on the side. If the strawberries are quite large, you may prefer to cut them into halves or quarters. You could also present a mixture of summer berries in the dish.
Ingredients:
 1.8 kg of soft fruits, in any combination
(eg:- 450gm strawberries
450g raspberries
450g gooseberries
225g blackcurrants
225g redcurrants)
1.8kg granulated sugar
300ml water
(Double quantities for large pan, but watch the quantity of water, especially if using frozen fruit)
Method:
- You do not need to have a specific preserving pan to make jam although it is nice to have one. A large, wide saucepan with a thick base will do the job. Butter the base of the pan very lightly all over, to help prevent the jam from sticking.
- Put the sugar in a large flat container such as a roasting tin and put it in the bottom of the oven at a low heat, to warm through. This helps it to dissolve more easily when you make the jam.
- Wash, top and tail the gooseberries and put them in the pan with the water. Simmer gently for about 20 minutes, occasionally crushing the fruit with a wooden spoon.
- Wash and pick-over the rest of the fruit and add to the pan.
- Bring this mixture back to simmering point.
- Add the warm sugar, keep the heat low and stir until the sugar is dissolved completely.
- Bring to the boil and keep it boiling rapidly for approximately 10 to 15 minutes. Test that the jam has reached setting point by placing a teaspoonful on a cold saucer. Push the jam with your finger and if it wrinkles, it is ready to set.
- Draw the jam off the heat and skim any white foam off the surface. Leave to stand for five minutes, stir once and pot into warm jam jars. Seal with jam pot covers while still warm. Store, eat and adore.
Ingredients:
 500g fresh or semi-frozen soft fruit. Wash and/or check over as appropriate
170g butter, cut into small dice while still chilled. Leave to slightly soften to room temperature, while preparing the other ingredients
170g caster sugar
450g self-raising flour, sieved
200g ground almonds
1 heaped tsp ground cinnamon
1 large fresh egg, lightly beaten
Icing sugar for dusting before serving
Whipped double cream, crème fraîche, or ice cream for serving
Juice of half a lemon, plus extra caster sugar for the fruit sauce
Method:
- Place the butter, sugar, flour, ground almonds and cinnamon in a food processor and 'pulse' until mixture begins to resemble a soft paste. Add the egg, a little at a time, to bind the ingredients together.
- Divide the mixture in two parts, making one a little larger than the other. Press the larger amount into the base of the tin. Set aside 150g of the berries to make the sauce.
- Put the remaining 350g on top of the torte mixture in the tin, in an even layer, keeping them away from the outside edge. Take the remaining, smaller amount of paste and shape it into a rough round about the size of the tin. Cover the fruit with this, pushing the torte mixture gently to reach the sides of the tin. The finished surface will look quite rough and uneven, but this is how it should be.
- Place the torte tin on top of a flat baking sheet and put it in the centre of a moderate oven. (Gas Mark 5, 190C, 375F) Bake for up to 45 minutes until dark golden brown and firm to touch.
- Remove and cool slightly in the tin, before dusting with icing sugar.
- To make the fruit sauce, put the 150g berries that were set aside into a blender, together with 1 tbsp caster sugar and the juice of half a lemon. Liquidise until smooth.
- Pour into a fine sieve sitting over a clean bowl and press the liquidised fruit through the sieve, with the back of a wooden spoon, to remove any traces of pips and skin.
- The sauce should taste sharp, but add a little more sugar, if you prefer it sweeter. Transfer the finished sauce into a container suitable for serving. The sauce could be warmed gently, if preferred.
Serve:
Serve with the fruit sauce and your choice of cream, crème fraîche or ice cream.
Ingredients:
 2 punnets raspberries
1heaped tbsp caster sugar
juice of half a lemon
4 egg whites
8 oz caster sugar
4 oz ground hazelnuts
Method:
- Whisk the egg whites in a clean, grease-free bowl until stiff. Add half the caster sugar and whisk again until mixture reaches the “firm peaks” stage.
- Mix the ground hazelnuts together with the reminder of the caster sugar.
- Fold this slowly and carefully into the meringue mixture, preferably with a metal spoon, until it is thoroughly mixed through.
- Spoon the mixture between two 7 to 8 inch sandwich cake tins, lined with parchment paper, reaching up the sides of the tin, to ease getting it out when baked, and roughly “smooth” over to fill the tins, leaving the top uneven.
- Bake in a moderate oven, on the centre shelf, for approximately 30 minutes, or until just firm to touch on the surface and nut brown.
- Leave to cool in the baking tins and then turn out on to wire trays. Remove the parchment paper.
- Cover the smooth side of one cake with whipped cream and fresh raspberries. Turn the other cake over so that the rougher, baked side is uppermost, slide on top of the cream, therefore “sandwiching” the two together and dust with sieved icing sugar. Keep in the fridge until ready to serve.
- For a Raspberry Sauce, if you have a glut of raspberries, make a puree to serve as a sauce. Whizz the equivalent of 2 punnets in a blender together with the juice of half a lemon and 1heaped tablespoonful of caster sugar (or more if you prefer it sweeter).
- Sieve through a fine mesh plastic sieve into a bowl, using the base of a ladle or a wooden spoon to push it through, to remove the pips. Store in the refrigerator and use within two days at the most, or freeze the raspberry sauce for later if you prefer.
Serve:
Serve the Meringue with the raspberry sauce drizzled on the top and a few raspberries.
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