Strawberry-misu

Place the water, sugar and lemon juice in a pot and bring to the boil. Boil for five minutes. Remove from the heat and whisk in the strawberry Bols and crème de cassis (if you’re serving this to children, add the liqueurs at the beginning to cook off the alcohol content).

Add the mascarpone, cream, vanilla and icing sugar to a mixing bowl and whip until it is stiff.

Dip the sponge fingers one by one into the flavoured syrup and line the base of a deep casserole or pie dish, approximately 12 inches x 6 inches. Dip them for no longer than one second each side; any longer and the end product will become too soggy.

Use half of the sponge fingers on the base layer. Now pipe a single even layer of cream over them. Make another even layer of approximately 15 halved strawberries. Repeat the sponge layer, followed by a very thin layer of cream. Pipe a cream rosette border, leaving the center open, as pictured. Fill the gap with the remaining strawberries.

Leave for at least one hour before serving to allow the syrup to soak into the sponge.