This week I'm going to do something a bit different.

We're launching a new dessert in the restaurant tonight called the layered banana thick shake with apricot compote, hazelnut granola and orange zest sponge. It a fantastic dish and I'm going to tell you how to make a simple version of it at home.

It might sound complicated but it's not so why not give it a try?

Layered banana thick shake with apricot compote, hazelnut granola and orange zest sponge

Serves up to 8 people. Can serve in bowl or individual cups.

Compote

-          12 dried apricots, chopped

-          Zest of an orange

-          Stock syrup (made by mixing equal amounts of water and sugar)

-          Vanilla essence

-          Lemon juice

1 Chop the apricots into quarters.

2 In a pan mix together the apricots, orange zest, stock syrup, vanilla and lemon juice.

3 Cook for 30-40 minutes to allow the stock syrup to soak into the apricots.

4 Allow to cool.

Banana mix

-          4 fresh bananas, cut into thumb sized pieces

-          Cinnamon

-          Orange and lemon zest

-          Sultanas

-          Currants

-          Stock syrup

1 Mix the ingredients together in a pan and bring to the boil.

2 As soon as the mixture starts boiling, take it off the heat and leave to cool.

Banana powder

-          Dried banana chips

-          Icing sugar

1 Dip the banana chips in icing sugar.

2 Put them under the grill to melt the icing sugar.

3 Take them out from under the grill, put them in a blender and blitz them to create a powder.

4 Mix with the granola and put to one side.

Granola powder

-          Granola

-          Hazelhuts

1 Mix the granola and hazelnuts together.

2 Put the mixture in a blender and blitz into a powder.

3 Put to one side.

Hazelnut topping

-          Milk

-          Cream

-          Hazelnut liqueur

1 Mix together equal amounts of milk and cream in a pan.

2 Warm the mixture.

3 Add the hazelnut liqueur to the mixture and whisk until frothy.

Extra ingredients

-          A tub of soured cream

-          A packet of biscotti

Assembly

1 Put the soured cream in the bottom of the bowl.

2 Layer it with some biscotti and slices of fresh banana.

3 Now add layers alternating layers of banana powder, granola powder and apricot compote.

4 When you reach almost the top of the bowl add the hazelnut topping.

5 Take some of the apricots, cut them horizontally, dip them in icing sugar and put them under the grill. Let them go cold and then add to the top of the trifle.

6 Sprinkle some hazelnuts with icing sugar on top.

7 Serve.

 

Oranges are a fantastic addition to sweet and savoury dishes but did you know that they are the largest citrus crop in the world?

Here are 10 more fascinating facts that you might not know about oranges.

1 The orange is technically a kind of berry.

2The sweet juicy oranges that are consumed in America originally came from China.

3 Brazil produces the largest amount of oranges and grapefruits in the world, growing about 30% of the world's oranges.

4 Florida and California produce nearly 25billion pounds of oranges each year.

5 The bottom of a navel orange looks like a bellybutton, hence its name. Fruit specialists believe that the navel is a smaller fruit attached to the main orange. You can see this smaller fruit when you peel and separate a navel orange.

6 If you plant a single seed from an orange you will probably get more than one plant growing from it.

7 If ripe oranges are left on the trees for too long, they may turn back to green. This process, called re-greening, only affects colour and not nutritional quality or taste.

8 After chocolate and vanilla, orange is the world's favourite flavour.

9 Christopher Columbus brought the first orange seeds and seedlings to the New World on his second voyage in 1493.

10 Oranges are a hybrid of tangerines and the Chinese grapefruit