This weekend has not gone to plan, like many best laid plans, life has come along and thrown a spanner in the works.

 
Friday night Ben and I rushed off to Sainsburys to buy the ingredients needed for the above gateau, this was to be made in preparation for a BBQ at my Boss’s on Saturday night, an event that we were all really looking forward too and one that on Friday night, late into the evening and three bottles of wine later was much discussed by the three of us.
 
Early hours of Saturday morning we staggered to bed, turned my phone off and went to sleep. At around 10am on turning my phone back on I receive three rather alarming texts from David informing me that he had been rushed to hospital with stomach pains. Now if you knew my Boss, you too would take this with a pinch of salt, especially as one was worded “I’ll do anything to get out of cooking”. I must admit I thought it was one of his practical jokes. On ringing the office to see if he had turned up, I was advised that no one had seen him, we promptly rang the hospital to have the news confirmed. David was about to have his appendix removed !!!
 
So I dedicate this recipe to David’s appendix and to David, hope you have a speedy recovery Boss and Ben & I send you all our love.
 
Serves 6 – 8
1 large ready-made flan case
750ml double cream
100g caster sugar
1 vanilla pod, seeds only
1 shot of Drambuie (this is what James Martin suggests, I always use Marsala)
200ml ready-made custard
1 punnet of small stawberries
1 1/2 punnets of large strawberries (again this is what Mr Martin suggests, I usually need far less)
1 punnet of mixed berries of your choice
50g icing sugar
fresh mint sprigs
 
Using a 20 – 25cm stainless steel ring, cut out the centre of the flan with a sharp knife, slice the disc in half through the middle so that you end up with two thin discs. This is fairly tricky and you do require a little patience or as in my case as I lack this quality get my lovely Hubby to do this for me.
 
Whip the double cream with 25g of the caster sugar, the vanilla seeds and a shot of booze of your choice, in my case Marsala, to a thick peak consistency. Fold in the custard, then chill in the fridge.
 
Set aside 10 whole, small strawberries for the garnish. Cut the green top from all the remaining strawberries and cut them in half lengthways.
 
Ok if you happen to have James Martins book Desserts, you will at this point realise that he has made a huge cock up as at no point does he mention what one does with the sponges that you cut in half earlier. Lucky for me I have actually seen him make this on his show Sweet Baby James and also it is fairly self explanatory, you take one of the sponges and place it at the bottom of the ring.
 
Then line the ring with the largest strawberry halves, cut side against the ring. You won’t need all of the strawberries so save the remainder for the topping. Place the whipped cream in the ring and gently spread to the edges. Add the rest of the strawberries and smooth the top. Now again I am not sure that I agree with Mr Martin here (Sorry James & yes I know you look very like my Husband) but it doesn’t seem to work that well. So either you can follow the recipe or cut the strawberries smaller or even chop them up smaller and add them to the cream mix, trial and error really, see what works best for you.
 
Now at this point Mr Martin tells you to lift the cake to a plate and remove the ring and if you had been following his recipe you would now have a big mess all over your kitchen. I advise that you build it on the plate you wish to serve it on right from the start.
 
Then, again Mr Martin misses this bit of the instructions, but you now place the last piece of sponge on top of your cake and I highly recommend placing it in the fridge to set.
 
Once set you can decorate it how you wish, I have made this gateau three times now and have decorated it differently each time. Again my wonderful Hubby has a helping hand as like his look a like he also loves to spin sugar, so very often this will be served with some of his handy work.
 
Please note if allowing your Hubby or significant other to do this, I advised sending them outside at this point as men tend to be rather messy creatures and given hot sugar syrup is a recipe for disaster !!! You have been warned.
 
Anyway, place the remaining caster sugar into a very clean pan and heat gently until it caramelizes, then remove from the heat and leave to cool slightly, James again does not tell you what to do with the pan of molten sugar but it is to be spun to decorate the top of the cake, its messy & tricky & can be missed out as there are so many other ways you can decorate this cake, but if you fancy a go, here are the instructions.
 
To spin the sugar, take a whisk with the bottom snipped off with pliers, so that you have a whisk that is simply a handle with spikes. Alternatively you can take two forks placed back to back and hold tightly. Dip the whisk into the syrup and flick the whisk back and forth over a broom handle or rolling pin to create long hair like strands. Next gather up the strands of spun sugar and create your shape by simply moulding the strands in your hands.
 
Next dredge the top of your cake thickly with a coating of icing and take a metal skewer that has been heated until red hot and score the top of the gateau in lines (again best done outside if possible as we set the fire alarm off when we did this), to create a diamond pattern. Dress the top with the remaining strawberries and the berries and garnish with a fresh sprig of mint.