A different dinner party...

I had an idea a little while ago. I really like to throw dinner parties, but I enjoy baking and making desserts more than I enjoy cooking. I also realised that it's much more difficult to cook proper food for lots of people than it is to bake for lots of people. So I decided to throw a dinner party where I would only serve my guests dessert... four times over. The party is going to be on Saturday, so preparations start now!

Waterchestnut Cake
Ingredients

• 100g Waterchestnut flour
• 600ml Water
• 1 tin (350g drained weight) Waterchestnuts (drained)
  
• 40g Butter
  
• 150ml Milk
• 250g Soft brown sugar
  

Method

1. Sift the waterchestnut flour. Stir in half of the water and beat to a smooth paste.
2. Finely chop the waterchestnuts. Place in a saucepan with the butter, milk, sugar and the rest of the water and bring to the boil.
3. Add one third of the waterchestnut flour paste and bring back to the boil, stirring constantly.
4. Remove from the heat, add the remaining waterchestnut flour paste and stir until combined.
5. Pour into a cake tin and cover with foil. Steam for 25-30 minutes.
6. Allow to cool and refrigerate to set. Serve cold.

Here's the mixture about to be poured into the cake tins (end of step 4). There's more of it than I thought there would be!
But sandwich tins also hold more than I expected - all of that mixture is in these two tins.
And in the steamer. Mine's actually perched on top of a frying pan full of boiling water, as that was the only pan I had big enough to accommodate the steamer.
The finished cake! It looks just like it did before steaming, except for a little wisp of steam. Incidentally, I only uncovered it to take a photo - it was recovered immediately afterwards to cool.Tiramisu
Ingredients

• 6 Egg yolks
• 150ml Marsala
• 5 tbsp Dry white wine
• 85g Icing sugar
• 500g Mascarpone
• 36 Savoy biscuits (sponge fingers)
• 5 tbsp Cold strong black coffee
• Cocoa powder
  

Method

1. Beat the egg yolks, half the Marsala, the white wine, icing sugar and mascarpone to form a smooth(ish) cream.
2. In a separate bowl, mix the remaining Marsala and the coffee.
   
3. Dip the biscuits in the coffee mixture and line the base of a tub.
4. Pour cream over the biscuit layer to cover.
5. Alternate layers of coffee-soaked biscuits and cream until all ingredients are used, finishing with a layer of cream.
6. Sprinkle the top with cocoa powder. Refrigerate to set.

I actually ran out of Marsala, so I was a bit short on that. I also tend not to add any wine, but I had half of a bottle sat in the fridge anyway, so I thought I might as well! Here's the finished article - looks pretty good, doesn't it?