Eton mess with blackberries and Amaretti biscuits

Eton Mess requires organised chaos, not just chaos (as occurred the first time I made it).  It's really nice with ice-cream, cream, strawberries or raspberries and crushed meringue, but I also recently made a variation with blackberries, adapted from a recipe in Vegetable Heaven by Catherine Mason.

Blackberry Eton Mess
(serves 2)

1 punnet of blackberries
1 small tub of clotted cream
six amaretti biscuits
A scattering of sugared violets (optional)

Crush the amaretti biscuits in your fingers into crumbs and set aside.

Slightly crush the blackberries with a fork, so the juices begin to escape, but not so that they've formed a pulp.




Take two glasses (tumbles size works well) and place a small layer of biscuit at the bottom.  Add a tablespoon of the clotted cream.  Push down slightly, but don't worry about it being too accurate.  Add a spoonful of the blackberry mixture, then another layer of biscuits, cream and blackberries, and on until you reach the top.  Finish off with any extra biscuits, and a few sugared violets if you have them.  Leave for an hour or so before serving.

Wikihow explains how to make your own sugared violets if you are interested.  Sometimes we drop them in Cava, although they can turn it bright blue, the sahde of the teenage Irn Bru and vodka (as I recall) favouraite, WKD.