Liam Charles’ recipe for New Year’s Eve banoffee trifle

Let’s set the scene: you’re hosting a New Year’s Eve party. You still have hours until the big countdown begins, but you’ve forgotten to make a dessert. Never fear: there’s hardly any cooking involved in this banoffee trifle, and it’s all about the celebration – just stick a few sparklers in it and get back to the party. Have an easy, happy new year.

Prep 20 min
Cook 20 min
Serves 12

For the toffee sauce
150ml double cream
40g unsalted butter
50g light muscovado sugar
¼ tsp fine sea salt

For the brittle
230g caster sugar
20g unsalted butter
150g mixed nuts, roughly chopped

For the trifle
600g extra-thick double cream
100ml Baileys
400g chocolate digestives, broken
5 large bananas, peeled and sliced
2 x 500g ready-made vanilla custard

To finish
75g dark chocolate, grated

Melt the cream, butter and sugar in a medium-sized saucepan, then leave it to bubble and turn a toffee sauce-like colour. Add the salt to taste, and set aside.

Put four tablespoons of water into a saucepan and slowly add the caster sugar, stirring with a whisk or spatula, until combined. Cook over a medium heat until the sugar turns a deep amber colour. Remove the pan from the heat and quickly stir in the butter. Tip in the nuts and stir until they’re well-coated in the sugar.

Carefully pour the sugary nuts on to a silicone mat or a tray lined with baking paper and leave to cool. Once cool, smash into shards.

Mix the cream with three tablespoons of Baileys and set aside. Divide the broken biscuits over the bottom of a large dish. Drizzle more Baileys over the biscuits, top with the sliced banana, custard and Baileys-infused cream. Squiggle over some caramel sauce and finish with grated chocolate. Pop in the fridge until needed. When ready to serve, top with shards of brittle (and some sparklers).

Liam Charles’ recipe for messy Eton traybake

It took me a while to like Eton mess – that classic combination of cream, berries and meringue. But as soon as the penny dropped, I started to think of other ways you might possibly put it together. So check this out. Trust me, it’s not that messy – it’s full of all those great summer ingredients, but all levelled up.
The messy Eton traybake

Leave the traybake to cool completely before spreading on the Eton cream, then grate on the white chocolate as if it were cheese.

Prep 30 min
Cook 50 min
Serves 12

200g unsalted butter
115g golden caster sugar
110g light brown sugar
225g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
3 large eggs
3 tbsp whole milk
150g vanilla yoghurt
1 tsp almond extract
300g raspberries

For the Eton cream
400ml double cream
4 tbsp icing sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
100g raspberries, halved
200g strawberries, hulled and quartered
6 meringue nests, roughly crushed
50g white chocolate, chilled

Heat the oven to 180C (160C fan)/350F/gas 4 and grease and line a 20cm x 30cm baking tray with baking paper. Combine the butter and both sugars and beat until light and fluffy. In a separate bowl, sift the flour and baking powder, and in another bowl, mix the eggs and milk. Add this to the butter mixture and combine well, then slowly add the flour and mix again. Spoon into the tin, level the top and bake for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine the yoghurt and almond extract, then, when ready, take the cake out of the oven, and quickly spoon the yoghurt over the cake. Scatter over the raspberries and pop the cake back in the oven for another 20 minutes, until a metal skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tray for 15 minutes, then remove from the tin and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the Eton cream, whip together the cream, icing sugar and vanilla until soft peaks form, then fold in half the raspberries and strawberries. Roughly spread the cream over the surface of the cooled cake, then top with the remaining fruit and the crushed meringue. Grate over the white chocolate, as if it were cheese, and cut the traybake into squares to serve.

Liam Charles’ recipe for Spider-Man cheesecake

Spider-Man is one of my favourite superheroes. To celebrate the release of the latest film, Spider-Man: Far From Home, I’ve created the spidey slicer.

Think New York-style cheesecake in the colour scheme of Spider-Man’s cool new suit – with some marshmallow webbing thrown in for good measure.

Prep 30 min
Chill 4 hr+
Cook 55 min
Serves 14

300g Oreos
100g unsalted butter, melted

For the filling
900g full-fat cream cheese
200g golden caster sugar
2 tbsp plain flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
100ml soured cream
100ml buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
50ml red food colouring
4 large eggs

For the webbing
100g white marshmallows

Heat the oven to 200C (180C fan)/390F/gas 6 and line a 20cm x 30cm rectangular tin with baking paper. Smash up the biscuits using a food processor or by double bagging sandwich bags and crushing the biscuits with a rolling pin.

In a bowl, mix the melted butter with the biscuits, press into the base of the tin and bake for 12 minutes. Set aside while you crack on with the filling; drop the oven temperature to 150C (130C fan)/300F/gas 2.

In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and caster sugar with an electric or stand mixer until smooth. Sieve the flour and cocoa powder into a separate bowl, add the cream, buttermilk, vanilla extract and red food colouring, then stir until smooth.

Add the red mixture to the cream cheese and mix on a low speed, adding the eggs one by one. Pour the filling over the biscuit base and bake for 40 minutes – the cheesecake should have a wobble in the middle when it’s ready.

Turn the oven off and leave the cheesecake in there to cool for one hour. Pull the door ajar and leave for a further hour, then remove from the oven and leave to reach room temperature. Transfer to the fridge to chill for at least two hours.

Melt the marshmallows in a heatproof bowl in the microwave in 30-second bursts, stirring occasionally. Take the cheesecake out of the fridge and carefully remove it from the tray.

When the marshmallow has cooled, it’s time to create the webbing. Put two fingers together, dip them in the cooled, melted marshmallow, remove them from the bowl, stretch them apart and wrap the “webbing” around the cheesecake. Slice into squares and serve.

Liam Charles’ recipe for deep-fried mince pies

There is a certain fast-food purveyor of legendary apple pies. Why are they so good? They’re fried, with a super-crisp pastry and a piping hot filling. Here’s my take on them and, hey, since it’s Christmas, I thought I’d introduce some festive flavours. My friends, I bring you deep-fried mince pies.

Deep-fried mince pies

You will need a deep-fat fryer or a deep pan and a cooking thermometer.

Prep 30 min
Chill 30 min
Cook 5-6 min a pie
Makes 12
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600g plain flour, plus extra for rolling
1 tsp fine salt
1 tsp ground mixed spice
Zest of 1 large orange
375g butter, frozen (pop it in the freezer for two hours or so)
2 litres sunflower oil, for deep-frying 600g mincemeat (homemade or shop-bought)
1 egg, beaten, for brushing

For the brandy glaze
250g icing sugar, sieved
75ml milk
75ml double cream
1 tbsp brandy

Start with the pastry: put the flour in a large bowl and stir in the salt, mixed spice and orange zest. Grate half of the butter into the flour and give it a quick toss. Repeat with the rest of the butter and mix through the flour mixture with a table or palette knife – you want to make sure all the butter is well coated in the flour.

Slowly pour 190-200ml cold water into the mixture, constantly stirring, until it comes together into a light dough. Divide the dough into two squares, wrap in clingfilm and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Heat the oil in a deep fryer or a large saucepan – you need it to come up to 180C/350F. Roll out the pastry to about 3mm. Using the base of a 15cm springform cake tin, or anything flat and round of that size, cut out as many pastry circles as you can; gently knead together offcuts to make more circles.

Now spoon a couple of heaped tablespoons of the mincemeat on to one half of each pastry circle. Brush around the edges lightly with the beaten egg. Fold the pastry over the filling to make a crescent shape and press together the edges with a fork.

Fry the pies a few at a time for two to three minutes on each side, until golden brown. Carefully remove the pies with a slotted spoon, to drain off the excess oil, then pop them on to paper towels to absorb any remaining oil.

Put all the fried pies on a wire rack with a baking tray underneath. Mix all the ingredients for the glaze in a bowl.

While the pies are still warm, coat them with the glaze, one side at a time, using a pastry brush. If you fancy a little extra sweetness, go for two coatings.

Wait for the icing to harden and … Merry Christmas!