Sarah's Summer Pudding

Summer Pudding. It's one of those things I wish I could like, but I just loathe the delivery. Yucky sliced white bread soaked in sloppy juice. The concept is great - oodles of magenta sugary bombs wrapped in a secret parcel, but I just keep on coming back to the bread, which would probably taste much better with a slice of plastic cheese on it. The name "Summer Pudding" should conjure feelings of sweetness and light, and yet it's been hijacked by a lump of soggy purple bread. So - here's MY summer pudding. So much better.

Ingredients:

• stale cake - enough to cover the bottom of your bowl
• mixed berries - twice the volume of your cake - make sure at least 1/3 is tinned in juice.
• white chocolate (about 100 - 150g)
• whipping cream (same volume as cake)

Instructions:

1. Squish cake into the bottom of the bowl
2. Clean fresh berries and add to tinned berries then pour on top of cake (add sugar if berries are sour)
3. Melt white chocolate and pour on top, then whip the cream and lay on top of that. Chill until serving.

Notes:

• I have not used exact volumes, because this recipe has no need to be precise. It's like a combination of Eton Mess and trifle, and will taste and look good almost whatever proportion goes into it. But basically, you're looking for three fairly even layers, with the berries and cream taking up a little more space than the cake.
• This could be made in single serves in martini glasses.
• I used tinned strawberries and pitted black cherries and added this to fresh blueberries and raspberries. I used about half the juice from the tins - too much will leave your cake swimming. If you are using all fresh berries, then cook them gently in about 1/2 cup champagne (or water) with a couple of tablespoons of brown sugar for about 5 minutes before you add them.
• I used some left over gluten free apple upside-down cake (I removed the apples), but any fairly plain cake would work - particularly store-bought madeira or tea cake. For a rich twist, try chocolate cake - but swap the white chocolate for dark.