TIN FOIL BAG RECIPES

Steps:

• 1. Make a bag for your fish by tearing off a 35cm x 45cm strip of tin foil and folding it in half across the middle. Fold three of the sides up like an envelope, sealing the edges by brushing them with a little beaten egg before folding. Leave one side open.
  2. Roughly chop or slice the potatoes, then cook in a pan of boiling salted water for 6 minutes. Drain and leave to cool slightly.
  3. Trim and chop the fennel into wedges, reserving the fronds, then finely slice the lemon. Halve the cherry tomatoes, then squash the olives and remove the stones.
  4. Place the fennel, lemon, tomatoes and olives into a large bowl with the cooled potatoes and fish. Drizzle lightly with oil, and season with sea salt and black pepper, then toss gently to coat.
  5. Carefully transfer everything to the foil bag, sprinkle in the fennel fronds, then loosely fold up the open side and pop the bag in the fridge until needed.
  6. When you’re ready to cook, preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas 6.
  7. Unravel the loose side of the bag, pour in the wine, then reseal and place on a baking tray.
  8. Cook for 18 to 20 minutes, or until the fish and potatoes are cooked through.
  9. To serve, place the bag on a serving plate and gently pierce to release the steam – the tomatoes and wine will have made a delicious sauce. Delicious served with steamed broccoli or green beans.

Steps:

• Heat the oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5. Butter a 25 x 20cm baking tin, and line the base with baking parchment. Stack a sheet of baking parchment over a sheet of foil, then fold in half so the parchment is facing out. Use this to divide the tin into three sections crosswise, each about 8cm wide.
• Melt the butter, remove from the heat and set aside. Put the sugar and eggs in a large heatproof bowl over a pan of just simmering water, making sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water. Beat using an electric whisk until really thick and pale, about 4-5 mins.
• Add a fifth of the mixture to the melted butter and mix to combine. Pour the butter mixture into the egg mixture, and carefully fold in along with the flour. Divide the mixture between three bowls. Leave one bowl of batter plain, then fold a drop each of pink food colouring and raspberry extract into the second bowl, and a drop each of yellow food colouring and lemon extract into the third bowl.
• Carefully pour one of the batters into each of the three sections in the prepared tin. Bake for 12-15 mins until cooked through, or a skewer inserted into the middle of the cakes comes out clean. Leave to cool slightly in the tin, then carefully transfer the three cakes to a wire rack and leave to cool completely.
• To make the buttercream, beat the butter, sugar, vanilla and milk together for 5 mins with an electric whisk until pale and creamy. To assemble the cake, put the plain sponge on a board and spread with half the buttercream. Top with the raspberry sponge, then spread with the remaining buttercream and top with the lemon sponge. Trim the sides so they're straight, even and neat.
• To make the fondant icing, sift the sugar into a bowl and mix with 1½-3 tbsp water until you have a thick, droppable icing. Transfer a quarter of the icing to a second bowl, and mix in a drop of pink food colouring. Transfer the pink icing to a piping bag.
• Spread the plain fondant icing over the top of the lemon sponge, making sure it doesn't drip down the sides. Pipe thin lines of pink icing on top across the width of the cake, space apart. Drag a cocktail stick through the lines lengthways to create a marbled effect. Leave to set slightly, then slice the cake into six even rectangles.