Gorgeous summer desserts with Saga Magazine

You know me, I’m all about the desserts, so when Saga Magazine - the UK’s bestselling subscription magazine - asked if I’d create some gorgeous summer desserts for their lovely readers, of course I was absolutely delighted. I wanted to include some simple recipes and fresh flavours, all perfect for an English summer, so I started thinking about sweet berries, fresh peaches, raspberries, zesty lemon, and obviously fluffy clouds of whipped cream. Plus, of course, it wouldn’t be summer without a big pitcher of Pimms, would it?

My final recipe choices ended up being: sticky lemon buns; a gorgeous fresh Victoria sponge sandwiched with home made strawberry jam, fresh cream and strawberries; a soft, no-bake peach melba cheesecake; and a home made, no-churn fresh mint and chocolate chip ice cream. I was super excited (and a bit nervous) when the team from Saga offered to come here to our house for the day to shoot all the recipes, but it was actually a really chilled day. Even though rain was forecast, the sun came out and it was fascinating to see how Shopping Editor Katy Morrison, Picture Editor Jasmine Perry and photographer Andrew Hayes-Watkins work so effortlessly together to get the perfect shot. Here’s how it all went - in pictures!

Behind the scenes with Saga Magazine

Sticky lemon buns

For these glorious, summery sticky buns, I used my favourite ‘milk bun’ recipe, drizzled over lots of lemony glacé icing, and finished them off with a generous amount of lemon zest. I learned so much on the day - the team have to keep so many things in mind: not just about how the finished pictures will look, but where the recipe will go on the page, how many pages they have, whether they need pictures of the food grouped together or separately… it was a fascinating process. We waited until the very last minute to drizzle over the glaze so Andrew could capture it in all its dribbly glory!

The perfect Victoria sponge

As with the lemon buns, I’d made all the individual elements in the morning, but we didn’t put the recipe together until right at the last minute. We really wanted the Victoria sponge to look ‘home made’, and not-too perfect, with generous amounts of freshly whipped cream and oozing with jam. Again, the team experimented with different place settings and backgrounds…

And we waited until the last minute to add the finishing touches (I was glad to see there were no weird tricks like you see on social media - no glue or hairspray was used on this shoot!)

Peach Melba cheesecake

Peach and raspberry are a classic summer combination, and luckily our local farmer’s market (where I also picked up a huge armful of peonies and foliage) came up trumps with some perfectly ripe peaches. Again, I kept it as simple as possible, with a simple, softly set cream cheese and whipped cream filling piled with raspberries and fresh, sliced peaches. I love the colour (and flavour) combination of this dish.

Fresh mint and dark chocolate no-churn ice cream

We decided that no summer garden party would be complete without ice cream, so I chose a really fresh tasting mint and dark chocolate combination. I picked mint from the garden and steeped it for a few hours in some just-warm double cream, before whisking with icing sugar for sweetness and shards of dark chocolate. Delicious, and so easy!

What a fun day. If you’d like to see my recipes they’re in the latest issue of Saga Magazine, which is out now! Many thanks to the team at Saga for making everything so easy and stress-free!