Dress up and dine

WORDS Debbie Loots

Style it up in crystal and feathers. Dress it sweet with jelly and rosy champagne. Make it baroque and put gold everywhere. Set a cheerful table and celebrate!

1. Panna Cotta

MAKES 4

Ingredients

1 litre (4 cups) cream
seeds from 1 vanilla pod
125ml (1/2 cup) icing sugar, sifted
30ml (2 tablespoons) gelatine powder

SPUN SUGAR
90ml (6 tablespoons) water
250g (about ½ lb) sugar
65g (2 ½ oz) liquid glucose
30ml (1 tablespoon) peanut or sunflower oil

Method

Divide the cream equally between two saucepans and add the vanilla seeds. Heat to just under boiling point. Add the icing sugar to one pan and whisk until the sugar has dissolved and the cream is very hot but not boiling. Add the gelatine to the other and whisk until dissolved and the cream is very hot but not boiling. Whisk the two mixtures well. Cool completely, stirring occasionally. Strain into four individual moulds and chill until set.

To make the spun sugar, stir the water and sugar in a saucepan over low heat until dissolved. When it begins to bubble, skim the surface. Add glucose, partially cover the pan and cook over high heat until it reaches the hard crack stage (syrup separates into hard, brittle threads when dropped into cold water). Leave the sugar to bubble down and cool for two minutes. Protect the work surface with several layers of greaseproof paper. Oil a rolling pin and hold it by one handle. Dip a fork into the sugar and flick rapidly back and forth above the rolling pin. The sugar will run down and spin into threads on either side. Repeat. Place the sugar threads on a lightly oiled baking sheet. Unmould the panna cottas on to plates and decorate with spun sugar.

2. Pink sparkling wine and cranberry jelly squares

MAKES 40 SQUARES

Ingredients

1 litre cranberry juice
2 tablespoons sugar
½ cup pink sparkling wine
3 tablespoons gelatine
edible gold leaf sheets

Method

Place juice and sugar in a pot and bring to boiling point. Stir until sugar has dissolved. Add sparkling wine. Bring to boiling point again. Sprinkle gelatine over the mixture and stir to dissolve. Pour the mixture over into a shallow baking tray and chill overnight. Quickly dip the bottom of the baking tray into warm water the next morning and turn out onto a flat working surface. Place the gold leaf sheet over and cut the jellies into squares.

3. Gilded Gianduja Pearls

MAKES 50

Ingredients

500g 70% or 85% dark chocolate, melted
200g good-quality milk chocolate, melted
200g ground almonds
125ml cream
edible gold leaf

Method

Mix together ingredients, except for the gold leaf. Chill until set. Take a little piece of gold leaf and a small amount of chocolate paste in your hand and roll into a small ball. Chill until ready to serve.