166: Raspbery vanilla ice-cream cake, p316

Hmm, not convinced about this one... used nice buttery Madeira cake and vanilla icecream from Waitrose, and lots of raspberries and mixed summer fruits (moo, miscalculated and didn't have quite enough raspberries so added some berries from the freezer). Perhaps the late substitution was part of the problem, but the fruit was rock solid when it came to serving - even after over 30mins on the work surface before slicing as per the directions. The fruit shattered as the cake was being sliced, the icecream was very nice (mmm, Waitrose...), the Madeira cake was, well, just very cold Madeira cake which started to crumble when sliced. Posh Arctic Roll gone a bit wrong.

107: Raspberry ricotta pancakes, p330

Meh, these are annoying... a variation on these pancakes from earlier in the year, this time with fresh raspberries from one of the readers of this blog, they are a lot of faff for a pudding which we'd probably both prefer made with normal crepe style pancakes, instead of all this whipping egg whites and folding it all together carefully so as not to lose all the air... They are a nightmare to turn over in the frying pan as well - too early and they just mush, too late and they are blackened. Grr! Tasty, but the ricotta gives a slightly odd grainy texture which isn't my favourite. Nah, luckily no more of these pancake recipes in the book.