The Dinner Party - the table and hints and tips

To save myself as much time as possible I always set the table ahead of the party – preferably in the morning. It is also serves as a useful prompt – you can see what you've forgotten! Are your wine glasses pristine and polished? Plan ahead … choose your dinnerware, including serving dishes and spoons.

Unless you have a kitchen big enough you're not likely to have a warming drawer. I have a solution. You may not have the warming drawer but you might have two ovens – a small one without a fan which usually houses the grill too. Empty the small oven – it's perfect for your appetiser bowls, dinner plates, serving dishes and jugs for sauces. There's no need to turn the oven on, the residual heat from the lower oven rises and gently warms. There's nothing worse than hot food served on a cold plate or vegetables from cold dishes.

I decided to have some fun and chose colourful bowls for the appetiser – have a look at these :

They measure 12cms x 6cms deep – 4½ x 2½” in old money.

If you like the look of these, here's what you need to know :

I've deliberately chosen a menu that allows me to cook ahead and freeze and to pre and part cook ahead too, leaving me with a 30 minute finish time. The only dish I'll need to cook from scratch on the night is the appetiser.

Hmm … what to serve with.

The Dinner Party

We don't do much formal entertaining these days and when we do it's casual and more relaxed, the formality has all but disappeared, thank goodness! There are however times when you need to step up a gear or two when special occasions present themselves.

Such was the case recently when our old friend Neil, who lives predominantly in the USA, was visiting with his lovely lady Rox. In itself not an unusual occurrence but this time they were bringing Rox's best friend and her husband – Gracey and Joe. Although Joe had been to London on business many moons ago, it was their first trip to the UK together.

A dinner date was duly entered in their busy schedule – definitely a special occasion and so the food should be too.

You may not be aware but we Brits do not have a great culinary reputation in the USA so all the more reason to be at the top of my game!

First and foremost - find out what the dietary requirements are – it's never a good idea to fly blind in these situations! Mission accomplished - I have two veggies – although to confuse the issue one does eat shellfish – the rest of the party eat anything - always good.

Now for the tricky bit - I want to spend as much time as possible with my guests and not be tied to the kitchen only to emerge hot and bothered – food you serve when you're flustered shows on the plate.

Here's the menu :

Scallops and king prawns in black bean sauce

Pork with Calvados cream sauce

Chestnut and apple roast for the vegetarians

Gateau a l'Orange with orange syrup, clotted cream

and vanilla ice cream

This is only the beginning ...

Birthday Dessert step by step photo guide – Part II

Add the raspberries

then the ice cream

have a look at a side view – it shows the almond cake

soaked in the juice from the raspberries

Ta dah – decorated with the crushed Amaretti

biscuits

Needless to say it was well received – and the reason I made enough for two – it's like having two slices of birthday cake.

The verdict … five stars and both servings demolished – not on the same day!

Birthday dessert – step by step photo guide – Part I

the Financier – cubed

the Amaretti biscuit

Amaretti biscuit crushed to a rubble

cubed cake in glass dish drizzled with juice

Part II on its way …

Birthday Dessert – Hints and tips

Note to self - I've learnt from experience that I'll always serve a dessert like this twice so I'll make sure I've sufficient ingredients to do just that.

I defrosted 250g of frozen raspberries and I didn't add any sugar, I wanted the pure, sharp raspberry juice.

The box of strawberry ice cream would certainly give me two scoops – tick.

A glass serving dish to serve – another tick.

I crushed 4 Amaretti biscuits in a “Bacofoil SafeLoc” bag – they each weigh 25g approximately and measure 4.5cms/1¾”. Bacofoil SafeLoc bags are really strong bags suitable for food and the freezer – yet another tick.

A financier weighs 25g and I used two cakes for each portion. Cut in half lengthways and then cut into small cubes – you'll get 12 small cubes per financier – 1cm x 2cm/½”x¾” . Place in the bottom of your glass dish. Drizzle the raspberry juice over the cake. You can do this ahead, cling film and fridge.

When you're ready to serve add half of the raspberries on top of the cake. Add one scoop of ice cream and then decorate with the crushed Amaretti biscuits.

Almond and raspberry are a match made in heaven. You have almond in the Financier and of course your Amaretti biscuits. Sharp raspberries and creamy home-made strawberry ice cream topped off with a crunch of the biscuits. What's not to love.

I didn't have to make a trip to shop for the dessert, it was in my freezer and my pantry.

I buy my financiers in bulk – Maison Jacquemart Les Petits Financiers – aka French Almond Cakes from Alma Trading Limited 24x25g cakes £11.99.

You can buy smaller quantities Bonne Maman have bags of 7 x 175g, normally £2. Available in Waitrose.

You could of course make your own but for me it's a really great product that has many uses and a long shelf life so perfect for the pantry.

A step by step Birthday dessert photo guide is up next!

Birthday Cake or Birthday Dessert?

We don't really do birthday cake in our house – I mentioned in the Dorset Apple Cake aka Comfort Cake series that we don't like light and fluffy.

It was H's birthday and he gets to decide his menu. Strangely he asked for salad … albeit my version of salad but that's another story. When I asked him about dessert he said I'd like one of yours please.

“One of mine” means an invention, which sounds too grand. Fruit is a particular favourite, especially soft fruit like raspberries and he also likes cake, biscuits and ice cream, obviously not all at the same time … or so I thought.

It's time for a treasure hunt!

H's birthday dessert came from my pantry and my freezer so I've decided to share it with you - I think you might find it useful.

My treasure hunt worked, it's amazing what you find when you look.

In my freezer I had the last box of home-made strawberry ice cream. Not a bad place to begin. I had frozen raspberries too – frozen raspberries vary considerably so you may need to shop around but if you can get decent quality with whole fruit, perfect. At the moment you can just about get the tail end of the season.

Now for the pantry.

Another of my pantry secrets … I have a bag of financiers – a must have standby. These individually wrapped treasures are sweet almond cakes, very handy to have around.

My other “go-to” stand-by stash is a bag of Amaretti biscuits.

Now I have an idea – this is like “Lego” only building with food!

Dorset Apple Cake photos …

… or, as I have now re-named it, Comfort Cake!

Photos for you :

the cake in the tin

and out of the tin

a portion with the clotted cream

Comfort Cake sounds so much better. This will be my Christmas Cake this year – the bonus – you get a cake or a pudding, hot or cold!