Rainbow Meringue Cake

It feels like a week where a bit of colour is needed to brighten up the day. Nothing shouts colour more than this stunning Rainbow Meringue Cake with its rainbow layers, gorgeous vanilla mascarpone cream and topped with strawberries, raspberries and pomegranate seeds. 

The idea for the rainbow meringue layers was taken from the Meringue Girls Cookbook. I am a HUGE fan of meringue, particularly macarons, and their little meringue kisses which I recently turned into little ghosts for a kids' birthday party, are the loveliest treats. 

The meringue is straightforward using the Meringue Girls process. You need a couple of batches of their meringue mixture which is also the base of their kisses. It's simply oven-heated sugar added a spoonful at a time to egg white whipped to stiff peaks and then whisked for around 5 minutes until the sugar has dissolved.

The more fiddly bit is preparing the piping bags for the mixture and these need to be coated with thick food paste in the different rainbow colours. Did you ever use an acronym to remember the rainbow order? I can still be found muttering Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain!! To achieve the different hues, I used Sugarflair Spectral Paste in these colours: Velvet Red, Yellow/Cream, Yellow Extra, Holly Green, Ice Blue and Purple. To apply them, the way that's easiest for me is to turn the piping bag inside out (I don't worry about the very tip of the icing bag as it will be snipped off and also gives us a little tag to hold onto when pulling the bag back through the right way). Once your bag is turned inside out, pop it over a wine bottle and then take your chosen food colour paste, painting the inside from tip to half-way down the bag with a thick coating of colour. If you leave the bag for too long after painting, you'll notice that the colour may start to separate so it's worth giving the bag a quick brush with a pastry brush to distribute the colour just before adding the meringue.

Then pull the bag back the right way so the food colour is on the inside. I then pop my bag into a measuring jug and fill it with a couple of scoops (I used an ice cream scoop) of meringue. Squidge the food colour into the meringue with your fingers and then snip off the end. Pipe the mixture onto a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper starting at the outside and working in. I found that I didn't have generous amount of meringue mixture for each one so had to use a spatula to smooth it and cover the whole circle. Be careful not to smooth the very outside of the circle with the deepest colour as this will show on the outside of your cake so you want a really vibrant colour.

After baking and cooling, you're ready to assemble your cake. The cream does make the inside of the meringue soften and disintegrate a little, so it's best to assemble this as close to serving as you can. I decided to fill my cake with a vanilla mascarpone cream and then top it with beautiful strawberries, raspberries and pomegranate seed and a light dusting of icing sugar.

This cake is sweet and delicious and the cream is lovely and light.

It does take a little preparation but looks so bright and colourful, it would be a welcome addition to any party, dinner affair or just for fun.

Ours is just for fun. Can't wait to show the kids what they're having for pudding tonight :)

Rainbow Meringue Cake

Rainbow Meringue (from Meringue Girls Cookbook)

• 300G EGG WHITES (I use Two Chicks egg whites but you could also use around 10 medium eggs)
• 600G CASTER SUGAR

Vanilla Mascarpone Cream

• 500G MASCARPONE
• 460ML WHIPPING CREAM
• 4 TSP VANILLA EXTRACT (to taste)
• 140G CASTER SUGAR (to taste)

Topping

• PUNNET OF STRAWBERRIES
• PUNNET OF RASPBERRIES
• 1 POMEGRANATE
• ICING SUGAR (to dust)

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees
2. The meringue is made in 2 batches so the first batch will make 3 meringue discs
3. Line 3 baking trays with greaseproof paper and draw a 10 inch circle as a guide
4. Line a roasting tray with greaseproof paper and then pour in 300g sugar, smoothing it to get it spread as evenly as possible
5. Put the sugar in the oven for 5 mins
6. Measure 150g egg white in a standing mixer and start by whisking is slowly
7. Then increase the speed to medium for a couple of minutes and then increase it again to high speed until it's formed stiff peaks
8. The sugar should be ready to come out of the oven and with the mixer turned up to high speed, it should be added a spoonful at a time to the egg white (around 30 seconds between each addition)
9. When the sugar is all added, keep mixing for another 5 mins - it's ready when you can rub a bit of meringue between 2 fingers and can't feel the grains of sugar
10. Prepare 3 icing bags by turning them inside out and popping each one over a wine bottle (or similar shape)
11. Paint the icing bags thickly with food colour paste, ensuring a heavy coating from the tip down to half-way
12. Turn the bags the right way around and then add 2 scoopfuls of meringue into each bag, squidging the colour into the meringue with your fingers
13. Snip off the end and then pipe a 10cm circle on the prepared baking tray
14. Bake for around 1 hour until the meringue lifts off the baking tray
15. Leave to cool on the tray
16. Repeat this process with the other half of the meringue ingredients and the remaining 3 colours
17. When you're ready to assemble the cake, prepare the mascarpone cream
18. Put all the cream ingredients into a bowl and mix for a couple of minutes until the cream is smooth and has soft peaks
19. Spread the cream over each of the layers and then assemble in rainbow order
20. Top with your favourite fruit and dust with a sprinkling of icing sugar :)

Raspberry Swirl Brioche

So I loved the last, my first, brioche that I made. But I've read about other ways of proving this lovely sweet dough and wanted to try a different recipe. I saw a Pin for this lovely Raspberry Swirl Brioche from Hint Of Vanilla which drew me in and although it has more stages than my last brioche, I knew I wanted to try this one next.

This recipe uses very exact quantities of ingredients, in particular the eggs which need to be weighed. The first addition was around 2 eggs. The mixing of initial ingredients is all very straightforward, but then it came to full gluten development (* this is when you stretch a little dough between 2 fingers and it should be so elastic that you can see through it without it breaking) I wasn't sure how long this would take and it actually took around 15 - 20 minutes in a mixer with the dough hook to get there. This heats up the mixture so after the final egg addition, I measured the temperature and it was 25 degrees (needs to be less than 27 degrees).

The fermenting was again pretty straightforward and then I transferred the dough to the fridge. The recipe suggest between 1 and 12 hours - I left mine for around 1.5 hours. When it came out of the fridge it's rolled into a rectangle and covered with a gorgeous Raspberry Smear. Now this smear is absolutely delicious. A raspberry flavoured butter that is rich and creamy. Megan made her smear with powdered raspberry and since I didn't have any of this I used a tube of freeze-dried raspberries that I blitzed in the food processor (then sieving the powder to remove the remaining raspberry seeds) and mixed this with butter, sugar and lemon juice. I also didn't have vanilla sugar so I just used regular caster sugar.

Then it came to the plaiting. I was to leave 2 inches at the top (which I measured!) but I think I should have cut it a little higher as I didn't get the raspberry ribbons successfully through that part; and also I should have plaited it much tighter as Megan's raspberry ribbons are really visible and mine not so much. When it proves again for the final time, Megan suggest 1.5 - 2 hours until it's doubled in size. I check mine after a few hours and it hadn't risen too much so I left it overnight and it had a lovely rise by the morning. I also see the added benefit of this is that you can bake it fresh for breakfast and eat it warm from the oven. Yum :)

I also forgot to glaze the brioche with egg wash before going in the oven. Doh! (or should that be *dough*!!) I didn't get the usual lovely shiny top customary of a brioche but I will not forget my egg wash next time! Also a warning that you do really need to let it cool a little before trying to get it out of the tray. If mine (tin-less) looks a little misshapen it's because I decided I needed it out of the tin the moment it was from the oven which also meant it collapsed a little...

This brioche was absolutely delicious. So delicious that I'm thinking of making another one this week. Hmmm...what flavour combinations to try next? Or maybe just a plain simple brioche that everyone can dress as they like. The possibilities are endless.

In my quest to perfect my bread-making, I am going to keep reading up on brioche recipes but this one is definitely a keeper :)

Raspberry Swirl Brioche (from Hint Of Vanilla)

Brioche Dough

• 335G BREAD FLOUR
• 9G SALT
• 50G SUGAR
• 4G INSTANT DRIED YEAST
• 78G WHOLE MILK AT ROOM TEMPERATURE
• 135G EGGS AT ROOM TEMPERATURE
• 2G VANILLA EXTRACT
• 170G UNSALTED BUTTER (this needs to be softened slightly so it's pliable, but if it's too soft you should refrigerate it again)

 Raspberry Smear

• 100g UNSALTED BUTTER AT ROOM TEMPERATURE
• 7G RASPBERRY POWDER (I used a tube of freeze dried raspberries that I blitzed in the blender although this only made 5g raspberry powder)
• 30G VANILLA SUGAR (or regular caster sugar)

• ½ LEMON, JUICED

Brioche Method

1. Combine the flour, salt, sugar, and yeast in a bowl
2. In a mixer, combine the milk, vanilla extract and 117 g of the eggs and stir to combine
3. Pour the dry ingredients on top and mix on low speed until just incorporated
4. Add 1/3 of the butter and switch the mixer to medium speed
5. Ensure the butter is fully incorporated and add the next 1/3 butter
6. Repeat with the final 1/3 butter
7. Continue to mix until full gluten development is achieved*
8. Add the remaining 18g of egg and mix until just incorporated (keep the remaining egg for the egg wash before baking)
9. Check the temperature doesn't exceed 27 degrees (insert a thermometer in the middle and check this)
10. Remove the dough and place on a lightly floured surface, cover it with plastic wrap and leave it to ferment for 45 mins
11. Transfer the dough to a baking tray lined with silpat or greaseproof paper, wrap it with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 - 12 hours.
12. To make the Raspberry Smear, mix all the ingredients together until you get a smooth pinkish butter
13. Grease a bread tin
14. Roll out the brioche into a rectangle 12 inches by 6 inches, keeping it all as straight as possible
15. Cover the whole surface with the Raspberry Smear
16. Tightly roll the brioche from the long side and trim both ends
17. Cut the dough in half along the length leaving around 2 inches at one end
18. Twist the two lengths so the cut sides are facing up
19. Gently braid the dough by putting the left-hand one over the right, then keep repeating until you get to the end of the dough and press the end together
20. Carefully tuck the ends of the loaf under and put it in the bread tin
21. Cover with plastic wrap and let it prove the bread for 1.5 - 2 hours until doubled in size (or leave overnight) in a cool place
22. When you're ready to bake it, preheat the oven to 170 degrees celsius
23. Brush the top of the brioche with eggwash
24. Bake the loaf for 16 minutes then lower the temperature to 160 degrees and bake for around 30 minutes until the loaf is golden all over
25. Remove from the oven and let it cool for 10 minutes
26. Transfer to a cooling rack and let it cool completely
27. Try not to eat it all at once!!

Summer Fruit Crumble Galette

I have fond memories of fruit picking with my family when I was a child. Sunny days collecting strawberries and other fruit, quality control taste testing as much as went into the basket and returning for weighing with stained fingers and lips. Happy days! I've been wanting to take the boys fruit picking for so long and took the opportunity now that we're in Dorset for a few days.

I googled local fruit farms and found Sopley Farm near Christchurch - after a quick phone call just to make sure they still had plenty of fruit in season, we packed up and headed off there. It didn't disappoint. The staff were really friendly and we collected punnets of strawberries, raspberries and blackberries. Far too much really, but it's kind of addictive.

So with all our fruit wares and being in someone else's kitchen without my usual baking tins and equipment, I decided to make a free-form Summer Fruit Crumble Galette in the style of Donna Hays. I did cheat and buy some pre-made sweet shortcrust pastry but you can make your own if you prefer. The main fruits were strawberries and raspberries but I wanted to add in some blackberries too for some extra colour and we agreed that they added an additional dimension to the taste.

I love the sweet shortcrust pastry pairing with fruit, but what I really loved about this was the crumble topping which added extra texture and flavour and was seriously delicious. I am a big fan of crumble so you'll always finding my doubling any recipe quantities for my desserts.

This was delicious warm straight from the oven. The fruit was so juicy against the crispy shortcrust pastry and using such fresh ripe fruit meant that we didn't have to add any sugar to bring out the sweetness. 

There are so many creations with such an abundance of fruit, but this is a really simple and delicious dish. I like the freeform style but what it lacks in straight sides, it definitely makes up in its wonderful flavours. A definite winner and gorgeous summer pud.

Summer Fruit Crumble Galette

Ingredients

• 320G SWEET SHORTCRUST PASTRY (I bought pre-made chilled pastry)
• 3 TBSP APRICOT JAM
• SELECTION OF FRUIT (add at your discretion but I used several handfuls of strawberries and raspberries with a scattering of blackberries)
• 60G BUTTER
• 3 TBSP GROUND ALMONDS
• 50G FLOUR
• 3 TBSP CASTER SUGAR
• 3/4 TSP GROUND CINNAMON

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (fan)
2. Prepare your fruit of choice and set aside
3. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper and unroll your pastry on to here (I didn't have to roll out my pastry any further but you're looking for it to be around 5mm thick)
4. Spread the apricot jam over the base leaving a 5cm border around the pastry
5. Pile your fruit over the jam
6. Fold the edges of the pastry up over the fruit (you only have the 5cm border to do this with so it just forms a tray of sorts that the fruit sit in)
7. Mix together the butter, ground almonds, flour, caster sugar and cinnamon with your fingertips to create a crumble
8. Scatter the crumble across the top of the galette
9. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown and the fruit bubbling
10. Serve with custard, cream or ice cream :)

Raspberry Friands

Hurray, it's Friday! We've had 7 days back at school and now have a bank holiday to look forward :) Cue sunshine (wishful thinking?) and the seaside. Double hurray! It's been a busy cake week but I wanted a little treat to welcome us into the long weekend.

I love raspberries. I love friands. And now I love raspberry friands. These gorgeous little cakes are dainty, yummy and with quite a dense texture, rather filling too. They are best served warm and straight from the oven but are still delicious several hours later. Um, I'm hoping there might actually be some left by the time the boys get home from school...

These are very simple to make and can be made with different types of fruit which will be a project for the future. I had some amazing friands from a small bakery in New Zealand at Christmas which were filled with delicious lemon curd. They were my absolute favourite. These raspberry ones are very simple where the almond taste really shines through and then the raspberry gives it a lift. All they need is gentle folding through of the ingredients (making the effort to sift the icing sugar and flour) and well greased friand tins (otherwise you may find that they break up when you try to remove them from the tins). 

These are perfect for a lunch in the sun or afternoon tea. Go on, give them a go and treat yourself this bank holiday :)

Raspberry Friands (makes 9 friands)

Ingredients 

• 200G LIQUID EGG WHITES (or 5 egg whites if you want to crack open your eggs)
• 150G MELTED BUTTER
• 90G GROUND ALMONDS
• 185G SIFTED ICING SUGAR
• 50G SIFTED PLAIN FLOUR
• 125G RASPBERRIES (you need 18 raspberries with 2 on each friand)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (fan)
2. Grease a friand tin - you need to grease these well getting into all the nooks and crannies to make sure that your friands don't stick - you will need to grease 9 holes
3. Whip the egg whites for a few seconds just to mix them up
4. Then add the rest of the ingredients (except the raspberries) - the butter, ground almonds, icing sugar and flour
5. Mix on the lowest setting until just combined
6. Pour into the friand tin, filling each hole until it's 2/3 full
7. Then pop 2 raspberries on the top of each friand
8. Bake in the oven for 25 mins or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean
9. Loosen the friands in their tin and then tip them out gently onto a cooling rack
10. Serve warm (ideally) and sprinkled with icing sugar
11. Try not to eat them all before your guests arrive!

Raspberry Scones

I had the best start to the day today.  Not only was the sun shining on the school run this morning, promising the start of spring (am I tempting fate??) but when I arrived at school I was given the fantastic baking book Babycakes by a lovely friend. This book is from the NYC bakery of the same name and has achieved acclaim through being "vegan, gluten-free and (mostly) sugar-free" although not necessarily all at the same time - and has lots of celebrity endorsements for its vegan and healthier favourites.

Before I started this blog, I hadn't tried any Free From recipes before (gluten, dairy or vegan) or at least, I hadn't wittingly tried them. But I have friends and friends' children who have some dietary restrictions and I'm enjoying trying new ways of baking as well as tasting them for myself as I'd always assumed that Free From meant that there was something lacking. Oh, how wrong I was! Armed with my new book, I wanted to try out a new recipe immediately although some of them are going to require a little more product sourcing (I am putting Agave-Sweetened Brownie Gems on my baking list for the next few weeks when I've gathered the ingredients for it!) and so I opted for a simpler recipe whose ingredients I already had with the exception of the spelt flour, agave nectar and a punnet of raspberries - Raspberry Scones. Now these aren't gluten-free as they have spelt flour but they are vegan and therefore dairy-free. 

This is a very simple one-bowl recipe but the flavours are fantastic in them. There's a faint taste of coconut, then a sweetness from the Agave Nectar and a freshness from the raspberries which all work together incredibly well. My only criticism is that the batter was quite wet so even though I used an ice-cream scoop for portion control, they tended to spread into random (messier) shapes on the baking tray. However not everything fits into a neat circle! I did think that making them into muffins might make them tidier next time. And although the recipe calls them "scones", the texture of mine are a mix of cake and bread.

But it's great to know that they're a healthier alternative to the usual sweet treats the boys would want for pudding and one of the boys wolfed one down super-fast declaring it to be "very yummy", praise in its highest form from my younger son and it even featured in his daily news report to daddy at bedtime!

Raspberry Scones (Vegan & Dairy-Free) from Babycakes

Ingredients (Makes 8)

• 2 CUPS (225G) WHOLE SPELT FLOUR (I got this from our local health food shop but you can get it from supermarkets)
• 1 TBSP BAKING POWDER
• ½ TSP SALT
• 1/3 CUP (70ML) COCONUT OIL PLUS A LITTLE EXTRA FOR BRUSHING
• 1/3 CUP (100ML) AGAVE NECTAR PLUS A LITTLE EXTRA FOR BRUSHING (again I got this from our local health food shop but then saw it in our local supermarket)
• 1 TBSP VANILLA EXTRACT
• 1/4 (59ML) CUP HOT WATER
• 1 CUP (200G) FRESH RASPBERRIES

Method

1. Pre-heat the over to 175 degrees and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and salt.
3. Add the oil, agave nectar and vanilla and stir together until a thick, dry batter has come together.
4. Pour the hot water into the batter and combine.
5. Using a rubber spatula, mix through the raspberries until they're just marbled through the mixture.
6. Using a 1/3 cup ice-cream scoop, drop mounds of batter onto the baking tray leaving them 1 inch apart as they will spread. Lightly brush the top with coconut oil.
7. Bake the scones for 14 minutes rotating them 180 degrees after 7 minutes.
8. The finished scones should be golden brown and slightly firm. Remove them from the oven and brush the top with a little agave nectar.
9. After 10 minutes, gently slide a spatula under each scone to remove them and tranfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Raspberry & Lemon Curd Madeleines

I love lemons.  I love freshly squeezed lemonade, lemon cakes, limoncello (especially as a syrup soaked into cakes!), Absolut Citron, lemon curd...everything about lemons!  When I'm baking I often reach for short cuts, especially when I have two little boys at my ankles, but when I have some extra time, it's much more rewarding to make things from scratch. I was hosting a clothes shopping coffee morning and needed some baked goodies to feed everyone and decided to make this lovely Madeleine recipe but no short cuts on the lemon curd - homemade all the way this time!

This is my absolute favourite Madeleine recipe and it's from Rachel Khoo's Little Paris Kitchen. I remember seeing her make these years ago when she had the Saturday morning show and it has been a firm favourite of mine ever since - but I'll confess that I usually reach for the store-bought lemon curd to save on time.  Madeleines are always best served straight from the oven, but what I love about this recipe is that after you make the batter, you then refrigerate it and can leave it there overnight.  And to make the process even easier, I store it in a piping bag, ready to pipe straight into the Madeleine tins the morning of baking.  It does take a bit of concentration to bake them (and I can be easily distracted by kitchen chat with my friends!) so I make sure I religiously use timers to keep me focused.

Once made, the lemon curd is kept in the fridge overnight to set but it was really simple to make - and there's nothing better than the scent of freshly squeezed lemons bubbling away on the stove. I made double the quantity of this as my little boy has requested a special sweet treat for his birthday at the weekend and lemon is his favourite flavour too :)

Raspberry & Lemon Curd Madeleines (from Rachel Khoo's Little Paris Kitchen)

Lemon Curd Ingredients

• 1 UNWAXED LEMON (JUICE AND FINELY GRATED ZEST ONLY)
• PINCH OF SALT
• 40G SUGAR
• 45G BUTTER
• 2 FREE-RANGE EGG YOLKS

Lemon Curd Method

1. Place the lemon zest and juice, salt, sugar and butter into a small saucepan and heat gently until the sugar and butter have melted. Remove from the heat.
2. Whisk the egg yolks in a bowl, then add to the pan and whisk vigorously. Return the pan to a low heat and whisk constantly as the curd starts to thicken.  Keep whisking until one or two bubbles start to appear and the curd coats the back of a metal spoon.
3. Pass the curd through a sieve into a bowl, cover with clingfilm (preferably so that the clingfilm is in direct contact with the surface of the curd) and put into the refrigerator overnight.

Madeleine Ingredients

• 2 FREE-RANGE EGGS
• 130G SUGAR
• 200G PLAIN FLOUR
• 10G BAKING POWDER
• 1 UNWAXED LEMON (FINELY GRATED ZEST ONLY)
• 20G HONEY
• 4TSBP MILK
• 200G BUTTER (MELTED & COOLED)
• PUNNET OF RASPBERRIES (OR AT LEAST 24 RASPBERRIES)
• ICING SUGAR (FOR DUSTING)

Madeleine Method

1. Heat the oven to 190 degrees.
2. Melt the butter and put aside to cool down.
3. Beat the eggs with the sugar until pale and frothy.  Put the flour and baking powder into a separate bowl and add the lemon zest.
4. Mix the honey and milk with the cooled butter, then add to the eggs and stir through.  In two batches, fold in the flour. Cover and leave in the fridge for a few hours or overnight - I store it in a piping bag so I'm ready to go when it's time to bake.
5. When you're ready to bake them, butter and flour two 12-shell Madeleine tins and put around 1 heaped tablespoon of batter into each shell.  Then place a raspberry deep into each Madeleine.
6. Bake for 5 minutes and turn the oven off for 1 minute. Then turn the oven back on to 160 degrees for a further 5 minutes.  Remove from the oven, ease the Madeleines gently out of their tin and cool on a cooling rack for a few minutes.
7. Place a little lemon curd in a piping bag and squirt a little into each Madeleine.
8. Then try not to eat the whole batch in one go!

Raspberry & Champagne Marshmallows

I mean, yum!  Three of my favourite things all bundled up into a little square of squishy delight that makes you feel like a kid and a grown-up at the same time. I've made marshmallows once before but have been intrigued by the hip and happening Marshmallowists and their very grown-up flavours, so this time I wanted to make us a little treat for a special birthday weekend.  The whole marshmallow process is very therapeutic, from the sweet aroma of raspberries wafting around the kitchen to watching the marshmallow mix billow up into complete fluffiness.  

There are all sorts of interesting flavours to experiment with: Blackcurrant & Mint, Coconut, Passionfruit & Ginger, Blueberry & Gin - and these are just a few of the Marshmallowist flavours but you could come up with your own dream blend.  Then it's so easy to cut them into fun shapes.  These marshmallows have a sort of soufflé texture and are very light.  I thought the Raspberry & Champagne flavour might put the boys off (fingers crossed) but they absolutely loved them too!

The process is very straightforward...the hardest part is waiting so long to eat them!  And they would make a wonderful home-made Valentine's present for a loved one :)

Raspberry & Champagne Marshmallows (recipe from The Marshmallowists)

Ingredients

• 15 LEAVES OF DR OETKER GELATINE
• 300G RASPBERRIES
• VEGETABLE OIL
• 300G WHITE GRANULATED SUGAR
• 240G LIQUID GLUCOSE SYRUP
• 2TBSP CHAMPAGNE (I USED PROSECCO IN PLACE OF THIS)
• 75G CORNFLOUR
• 75G ICING SUGAR

Method

1. Measure 200ML cold water into a shallow, microwaveable bowl and then add the gelatine leaves one by one ensuring that each leaf is fully covered with water. Leave them to soak for 10 minutes.  Next make the raspberry purée by blitzing the raspberries in the food processor and then sieving them to remove the pips - you will need 175G raspberry purée.  Line a square tin (I used a square 24CM x 24CM tin but a square or rectangular one of a similar size will work) with clingfilm trying to get it as smooth as possible and then lightly grease it with a little vegetable oil.  
2. Heat the soaked gelatine and water in the microwave for 1 minute until it's fully dissolved.
3. Put the sugar, 120G of the glucose syrup and 100G raspberry purée into a medium pan and bring to the boil.  Keep heating until it reaches 112°C on a sugar thermometer (this should take around 5 mins) and then pour it into a mixer.  Add the remaining 80G raspberry purée and the remaining glucose and mix on low speed.
4. Whisking all the time, add the melted gelatine and its liquid and then increase the speed to medium.  You need to wait for it to thicken so that it doesn't splash out of the mixer as it's scalding hot.  Then increase the mixer to maximum for a further 12 minutes until you can lift the whisk out and the mixture holds its shape.  It should have quadrupled in size.
5. Reduce the mixer to low and add the Champagne (or Prosecco) and continue mixing for a further minute.  Then tip the marshmallow mixture into the prepared tin, level it and leave it to set at room temperature for 4-6 hours (or overnight).
6. Sift the cornflour and icing sugar into a bowl.  Cut the set marshmallows with a hot, wet knife and dust with the icing sugar mixture. If you prefer to cut them into shapes, like the hearts above, dip your cutters into hot water and then cut your shapes out of the marshmallow.