With berries in at the very biggest, what better way to celebrate summer, than with a delicious summer pudding, a classic British dessert made of sliced white bread, layered in a deep bowl with berries and their juices. You’ll need a ±1L pudding basin or deep glass bowl.

750g mixed summer berries

±180g caster sugar

1 medium loaf good-quality white bread, slightly stale, sliced, crusts removed.

1. Place the fruit in a pan. Pour the sugar over the fruit and stir gently to mix together.
2. Cover the pan with a tea towel or cling film and leave for 3-5 hours (or overnight) in the fridge to get the juices running. Place the pan over a moderate heat and bring gently to the boil. remove from the heat immediately.
3. Cut a round out of one slice of bread to fit the bottom of the bowl, then cut the remaining slices into triangular wedges.
4. Dip one side of the bread circle into the juices in the pan containing the fruit, then place the circle in the bottom of the pudding basin, juice-side down. Do the same with the bread triangles, dipping one side of the bread into the juices before placing them around the edge of the bowl, with the dipped side facing outwards. The tips of the bread triangles will be sticking up from the top of the bowl at this stage.
5. Once the bowl is completely lined with the juice-soaked bread (be sure to plug any gaps with small pieces of bread if necessary), spoon all of the fruit and their juices into the pudding basin. Trim the tips of bread from around the edge. Cover the top of the fruit with more wedges of bread. Place the pudding basin on a plate to collect any juices.
6. Find a saucer that fits neatly inside the bowl. Place it on top to cover the upper layer of bread, then weigh the saucer down with weights – bags of rice, tins of baked beans, or whatever comes to hand. Let it cool, then place in the fridge overnight.
7. The next day, remove the weights and the saucer. Run a thin blade around the edges, then invert the basin onto a shallow serving plate.
8. Turn the pudding out, cut into thick slices and serve the summer pudding with cream.