White chocolate, ginger + sour cherry biscuit cake

‘I recommend cutting this into bite-size pieces’

This recipe took a few attempts to get right, but I knew I was finally there when I found myself having to post the results to friends to stop me standing and eating it straight from the fridge. It is very rich thanks to the industrial quantities of white chocolate, so I recommend cutting this into bite-size pieces.

MAKES 16 BARS OR 32 BITE-SIZE PIECES PREP 20min, plus chilling COOK about 5min

FOR THE BASE

• 400g white chocolate, broken into small pieces

• 75g stem ginger syrup

• 100g unsalted butter, cubed

• 250g ginger biscuits • 150g stem ginger, finely chopped

• 20g freeze-dried sour cherries FOR THE TOPPING

• 400g white chocolate, broken into small pieces

• Small handful freeze-dried sour cherries 1 Line the base and sides of a 20 x 30cm tin with baking parchment. To make the base, bring a pan of water to a gentle simmer, then remove from the heat and set a snug-fitting heatproof bowl over the top, ensuring that the water in the pan doesn’t touch the base of the bowl. Add the white chocolate, stem ginger syrup, butter and

1/2tsp fine salt to the bowl and leave to melt, stirring occasionally. It is important to keep the pan off the heat as white chocolate catches easily and will go grainy if it gets too hot. If you are struggling to melt it, you can put the pan on low heat for a few min and then remove it again, using just the residual heat of the water to melt everything.

2 Put the ginger biscuits in a large mixing bowl and crush with the end of a rolling pin – I like to leave some chunkier pieces to ensure the biscuit cake has texture. Add the chopped stem ginger to the bowl, then pour in the melted white chocolate mixture and stir well until everything is well coated.

Add the freeze-dried cherries and stir again to mix through. Pour the mixture into your prepared tin and level out in an even layer, ensuring the mixture fills right to the corners of the tin. Transfer to the fridge to cool and set for 2-3hr.

3 When the cake is almost set, melt the white chocolate for the topping as you did for the cake. Pour the melted chocolate over the cake and use a palette knife to smooth it out in an even layer. Lightly crush the sour cherries for the topping, then scatter them over the top of the cake. Return to the fridge for 30min to allow the chocolate to set, then use a sharp knife to slice the cake into bite-size pieces.

SHELF LIFE Wrapped in airtight packaging, this will keep well for 2 weeks.

SUBSTITUTIONS You can use dried sour cherries in this recipe instead of freeze-dried. Pistachios also make a nice addition.

HOW TO POST Wrap the slab tightly in cellophane and tissue. This is quite sturdy, so can be posted in a mixed box or on its own in a well-fitted box.