Summer Pudding with Cassis

with Lisa Holloway

This pudding is such a celebration of English fruit, and a good excuse to use your pretty china.

For big parties I use a large Victorian bowl which looks glorious with the pudding standing majestically in a pool of dark red sauce.

Make this one, two or even 3 days before you eat , and go crazy with the decorating to make the most of the summer berries, add nasturtiums and borage flowers for riotous colour, with sprigs of mint.

I add a slurp of Cassis to the sauce to make it extra delicious.

What is Cassis?

Crème de cassis is a sweet, dark red liqueur made from blackcurrants.

Ingredients

• Loaf of day (or 2) old white bread, good quality

• 1 kilogram of mixed fruits; blackberries, strawberries, redcurrants, raspberries, blackcurrants

• A little extra fruit for the sauce, any combination

• 250 g caster sugar

• Miniature bottle of Creme de Cassis

Method

1. Clean and hull the fruit, cover with the sugar and leave overnight.

2. Next day bring to the boil and gently simmer for 3 or 4 minutes. Taste to see if it is sweet enough, add more sugar if needed.

3. Remove the crusts from the bread and line a 2 ½ pint basin or bowl. Make a circle to cover the base with, then overlap the other slices until the whole bowl is covered, with no gaps. If there are some gaps just press pieces of bread over the tear. Leave some slices for the lid.

4. Pour the fruit into the bowl and cover with more slices of bread.

5. Put a saucer or plate on top, using 2 tins of soup or beans as weights to press it down.

6. Place in the fridge overnight or a couple of days. The bread will absorb the juices and be marbled with purple.

7. In the same saucepan put some extra fruit and sugar, and simmer until soft. Press through a coarse metal sieve so you have a nice thick sauce and add a good slug of Creme de Cassis.

8. To turn out, run a knife round the edge of the pudding, put a plate over the top of the bowl and turn out onto your plate.

9. Pour the Cassis sauce over the top to completely cover the bread; don’t worry if there is a little too much sauce, it will all be soaked up and eaten.

10. Have a big jug of thick cream standing by. It's making my mouth water just writing about it.