Party Season, Chocolate, Mandarin & Cranberry Trifle, Sidecar Champagne Cocktail, Chocolate Strawberry Fondue

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Dare we say it but party season is just around the corner! Although we’re in plenty of time to organize our full Christmas Lunch, it really won’t be long before the run up to the festivities starts. Many of us entertain during the weeks before Christmas and start to collect our recipes and ideas about this time. Also, if you’re a traditional cake maker you will be making it soon as its time to start collecting your ingredients. If you’re going to be trying out new party recipes this year, why not have a ‘rehearsal’ for your Halloween party? Test out your cake, biscuit and trifle recipes at Halloween then you’re confident to serve them to your Christmas guests. Also, if you are on a budget, it’s always a good idea to pop one or two extra treats in your trolley on your weekly supermarket visits to store away so you can be well prepared.
Things like gravy powder, custard, flour etc can be bought well ahead of time so take a little time out to write yourself a list of things to collect up over the new few weeks. In the next few weeks we will be dedicating this column to various recipes that we think you will want to include in your season catering.

Chocolate, Mandarin & Cranberry Trifle

Serves 12-14
Ingredients:
340g pack fresh cranberries
200g jar cranberry sauce
300g tin of mandarin segments
2 x 425 carton custard
75g bar chocolate
142 ml double cream, whipped
Small chocolate cake loaf (no cream)
Pack of chocolate buttons

Instructions

• Place cranberries in a saucepan with cranberry sauce and around ¾ of the mandarin juice strained from tin. Heat for about 10 mins until thickened, stirring occasionally. Leave to cool.

• Place chocolate loaf, cut into chunks in a trifle dish and pour over remaining mandarin juice. Sprinkle mandarins on top.

• Break bar of chocolate into a saucepan and add ½ carton of custard. Warm gently stirring constantly until chocolate has melted. Remove from heat and add the rest of the custard. Leave to cool.

• Spoon the cranberry mixture into the trifle bowl, when settled, spoon the custard mixture over and chill for at least 4 hours.

• Before serving layer or pipe the whipped cream onto trifle and decorate with chocolate buttons.

Sidecar Champagne Cocktail

Ingredients:
Fresh Orange Zest
5ml Lemon Juice per person
5ml Brandy per person
10ml Cointrea per person
Champagne or Sparkling Wine

Instructions
• Grate a small amount of orange zest into each chilled champagne glass. Put per person amount of ‘lemon’ juice, brandy and cointreau into each glass and swirl together. Top each glass up with champagne or sparkling wine and decorate each glass with think slice of orange.

Chocolate Strawberry Fondue

Ingredients:
150g broken dark chocolate
5 tbsp single cream
Punnets of strawberries (as required)

Instructions
• Melt chocolate slowly in a bowl over saucepan of water.
• Stir in cream and heat further until mixture is really smooth.
• Pour into pretty dish and serve on a plate surrounded by strawberries with slim skewers for dipping.

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Strawberries Surprise Pumpkin Pie Tuna Fishcakes Christamas Fayre Cauliflower Cheese Soup Chicken & Pasta Soup Cinnamon Apples & Pears Eastern Lamb Stew Perfect Potato Salad Poached Salmon Citrus Fruit Ice Cream Chicken Dipper Club Sandwich Spinach Frittata Mince Pies Chicken Curry Chicken & Broccoli Bake Tiramisu Boozy Chocolate Fondue Potato & Leek Soup Tomato, Olive and Onion Salad Smoked Haddock & Sauce Chocolate, Mandarin & Cranberry Trifle Sidecar Champagne Cocktail Chocolate Strawberry Fondue Chocolate, Mandarin & Cranberry Trifle Cinnamon Plums Strawberries Romananoff