Pink Grapefruit & Champagne Sorbet Wedding Cakes

Make sure your freezer is switched to maximum and that you make space in it at different times for 3 containers of sorbet, 3 trays of sorbets and 12 dessert plates of tiered sorbets.

Combine the Tate & Lyle Golden Granulated Sugar and the water in a pan and heat gently until dissolved. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 3 minutes, without stirring.

Pour into a large bowl and leave to cool.

Strain the grapefruit juice into the cooled syrup and add the champagne. Measure the syrup between 3 lidded containers suitable for the freezer into the following quantities: 1.35L (2¼ pts), 780ml (27floz) and 370ml (13floz).

Tint the largest quantity of sorbet the deepest colour using a fine skewer dipped into the rose paste colour, remembering that the colour will be a little less strong after freezing. Stir well. Then tint the remaining sorbets to the paler shades you’d like. Test all the colours side by side to make sure you are happy with their variations. Freeze for about 6 hours, stirring every 1 hour to ensure a smooth, crystal-free texture. If you wish, you can quickly whiz the frozen sorbet in a food processor to make it very smooth, rinsing out the bowl between each, then re-freeze.

Put the lined trays in the freezer to get very cold.

Starting with the largest quantity of sorbet, scrape it with a large fork. Working quickly, place the 6cm, (2½”) cutter on one of the trays, spoon in the sorbet, pack it down and smooth the top with a small palette knife. Carefully lift off the cutter to keep the shape, and repeat with the rest of the sorbet to make 12. You will have to keep returning both the sorbet and the tray of shaped sorbets to the freezer or they will melt too much. Also use the other cold trays for shaping, swapping them around so the sorbets remain frozen.

Do the same with the other sorbets. Leave the shaped sorbets in the freezer for 24 hours until they are frozen solid. Then, working quickly, stack the sorbets into tiers and return to the freezer again for at least 4 hours or until they are completely frozen.

On the day, put the dessert plates in the freezer for 1 hour, then transfer the sorbet ‘cakes’ to the cold plates. Return to the freezer again for an hour.

Prepare the berry garnish. With a pair of scissors, snip about 120 redcurrants off their strings, close to the currants. Don’t pull them off as they will ‘bleed’ onto the plates. Pick through the blueberries and find about 120 of the smallest.

Take 1 plate out of the freezer at a time and arrange a necklace of redcurrants and blueberries round the sorbets. Return to the freezer and repeat with the rest. You can leave the berries in the freezer for 1-2 hours without them completely freezing.

Serve the sorbet wedding ‘cakes’ straight from the freezer, each decorated with a crystallised rose petal.

Assemble the tiered wedding ‘cakes’ up to 2 days ahead.