Easy recipes for any cook: from cheat's meals to cooking from scratch

Indian recipes

Classic apple pie with home-made butter crust

45–55 minutes

Afternoon tea

Pistachio-and-cherry cake stack

Christmas recipes

Roasted Brussels sprouts with pancetta, lime and chilli flakes

25 minutes

Citrus recipes

Roast duck with blackberry Port sauce

20 minutes

Watermelon recipes

Watermelonade

Pistachio-and-rose tiramisu

Serves 6–8

Difficulty Easy

Prep Time 25 minutes, plus 6 hours’ chilling time

Cooking Time 5 minutes

Ingredients

For the rose syrup:

4 T rose-water
½ lemon, zested
3 T sugar
2 T water
2–3 T rum (optional)

For the trifle:

1 cup whipping cream
500 g mascarpone
50 g icing sugar
50 g ground pistachios
1 t vanilla extract
30 lady finger or Boudoir biscuits
2–3 T rum (optional)
125–150 g raspberries, plus extra to decorate
chopped pistachios, to decorate
Nut brittle, to decorate

Method

1. To make the rose syrup, heat all the ingredients in a saucepan until the sugar dissolves. Cool slightly.

2 Whip the cream to soft peaks, then fold into the mascarpone with the icing sugar, pistachios and vanilla until smooth.

3. To assemble, gently dip some biscuits into the warm rose syrup and rum, if using, and layer in the base of a 20 cm trifle bowl. Spread over a layer of cream and scatter over some raspberries. Repeat, finishing with cream. Smooth the top.

4. Cover and chill for at least 6 hours or overnight. Decorate with the raspberries, pistachios and brittle.

Find more afternoon tea recipes here

Videographer: Romy Wilson
Photographer: Jan Ras / Shavan Rahim
Food Assistant: Bianca Jones

Spinach lasagne

Charred blood orange and mozzarella salad

Easy winter veg “tarte tatin”

Roast cauliflower in Welsh rarebit

Vegetable jalfrezi

Salmon crudo with trout pâté

Classic apple pie with home-made butter crust

Pistachio-and-cherry cake stack

Roasted Brussels sprouts with pancetta, lime and chilli flakes

Candied citrus

Citrus palmiers

Roast duck with blackberry Port sauce

Watermelonade

Yellow watermelon-and-grilled halloumi salad

Pistachio-and-rose tiramisu

Pistachio-and-rose tiramisu

Ingredients

Method