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Tipsy Tart

This brandy-soaked tart provided the perfect excuse for a boozy tea time.

SERVES 8

For the tart:

100g dates chopped
150ml boiling water
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
125g butter softened
225g sugar
1 egg beaten
150g plain flour

For the syrup:

100g sugar
50ml water
1 teaspoon butter
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
25ml brandy (and a drop more to taste)

For the tart, preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas 4 and grease a 20cm pie dish. Soak the dates in the bicarbonate of soda and boiling water till soft.

Leave to cool. Cream butter and sugar together with the egg. Sift dry ingredients into mixture, fold in, then add dates and walnuts. Place it into a pie dish and bake for about 30 minutes (until a skewer comes out clean).

For the syrup, dissolve sugar and water on the stove until the mixture has thickened a little.

Remove from the stove and stir in vanilla essence, butter and brandy. Pour syrup over tart and serve with cream or ice cream

After Eight Ice Cream

The Royal Warrant for chocolate-making may have gone to Bond Street chocolatiers Charbonnel et Walker, but the Queen Mother always maintained a fondness for After Eights.

SERVES 6

2 boxes of After Eight choc mints
2 oz castor sugar
6 egg yolks
10 oz double cream
125ml wineglass of brandy

Boil sugar in 230ml water for three minutes. Put in blender with mints and mix until melted. Add beaten egg yolks and blend for 15 seconds.

Leave in blender and allow to cool until room temperature. Add brandy and cream before blending for ten seconds.

Pour into a dish and freeze.

Soufflé Rothschild

Created by French chef Marie-Antoine Careme in honour of banking scion James Mayer de Rothschild in the early 1800s, the essential ingredient to this extravagant souffle is Goldwasser, a clear, 80 per cent proof orange-anise flavoured liqueur containing flakes of 23 carat gold leaf.

The Queen Mother’s response when served the dish at a party hosted by her brother, David Bowes-Lyon, at a London hotel was: ‘Oh! What a treat ... I haven’t seen this since before the war.’

SERVES 4

4 tablespoons Goldwasser
100g grated candied cherries
100g sugar
50g flour
360ml half milk & half single cream
5 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla
Butter
Granulated sugar
6 egg whites
2 tablespoons sugar

Preheat oven to 400°F/200°C/Gas 6. Soak cherries in Goldwasser for 15 minutes. Mix sugar, flour and salt in a saucepan.

Add cream and whisk over low heat until mixture thickens. Remove from heat and add a little of the heated sauce to egg yolks.

Then whisk in yolk mixture to the cream. Add vanilla, cherries and Goldwasser. Let it cool to room temperature. Butter a 1.5 litre soufflé mould and sprinkle it with sugar. Beat egg whites until they begin to froth, gradually adding in two tablespoons of sugar until they form stiff peaks.

Fold egg whites into the custard. Fill the mould with the mixture and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until top of the soufflé is golden.