1. Chill your summer cocktails with frozen berries or grapes – not only will they jazz up drinks, they won’t dilute them the way ice cubes do.
2. Looking for a super-easy way to make white sauce? This recipe serves 2 and takes only 15 minutes. Melt 50g butter in a saucepan over medium heat. In a bowl, mix together 50g cake flour, salt and pepper to taste and 375ml (1½ cups) milk. Add the flour mixture to the melted butter and stir until thickened, 5 minutes. Serve immediately over 150g steamed broccoli or cauliflower.
3. Leftover cake with butter icing can easily be frozen and used to make cake pops at a later stage. Just remove from the freezer, allow to defrost and roll the sponge and icing together into cake-pop shapes. Secure on a plastic stick, dip into melted chocolate and decorate with edible sprinkles or desiccated coconut.
4. Use those leftover herbs or preserves to make flavoured butter. Simply soften your butter by leaving it at room temperature, then mix in your leftover chopped herbs or preserves, such as sun-dried tomatoes, olives, etc. Roll the butter into a sausage shape, place in cling film and refrigerate for use in cooking and savoury bakes.
5. Fresh potatoes make gnocchi watery! Use older potatoes instead.
