Quick fix — Desserts

Take pancakes to the next level with some homemade flavoured sugars. Simply add your ingredients to a jar of sugar and leave for a week or two. Or, if time is tight then you can speed up the infusion by just whizzing the ingredients in a food processor for 30 seconds or so. Besides adorning your pancakes, flavoured sugars are great sprinkled on biscuits before baking in the oven, to dredge French toast, caramelise desserts under the grill, scatter over fresh fruit salads or fold into buttercreams. Our favourite flavour combinations included cardamon and mint, clementine and cinnamon, lemongrass and...

Set a saucepan over a low heat and dissolve 125g of caster sugar into125g of double cream. Do not boil. Pour over 100g of grated dark chocolate in a bowl and stir to melt, then beat in 75g of unsalted butter until glossy. Cover with cling film and allow to cool and thicken, then apply to a cake with a palette knife.

Melt 150g of dark chocolate in a bain-marie. Once melted, turn off the heat. Beat in 150ml of sour cream. Sift over 100g of icing sugar and 1 tsp of vanilla extract and continue to stir. Leave to cool until icing reaches a spreadable consistency.

Melt 90g of unsalted butter in a saucepan over a low heat. Stir in 3 tbsp of milk, 20g of cocoa powder and 1⁄2 tsp of vanilla extract. Whisk this into 190g of sifted icing sugar. Add 40g of finely chopped nuts. Pour over a cake and allow to set.