When I was a child in the 1970's summer holidays were spent at our caravan on the east coast of Yorkshire. Each July I, along with my mum and my grandparents, was loaded in to my dad's trusty Hillman and driven the 50 miles from our home to the seaside for six whole weeks.
My dad could only spend the first week with us before having to drive back home to work, so most days were spent on the beach building sandcastles, splashing about in the sea with friends or picking fruit in nearby hedgerows and helping my grandma turn them in to delicious fruit pies. My dad returned each weekend with the car so that we could so the weekly shopping in the nearest town. I used to look forward to these weekly shopping trips, not because I enjoyed being dragged around the shops, but because thy always culminated in a visit to the ice cream parlour on the seafront.
Cherry Side Tables
The ice cream parlour was only small, it seated about twenty people on red leather banquettes next to grey formica tables. It served coffee in glass cups and saucers and a huge array of different ice cream sundaes. The menu was totally wasted on us however as we always placed the same order every week, a Knickerbocker Glory for me, a Banana Split for my dad and a Peach Melba for my mum. It became a family tradition, a ritual which we all followed, and each week when the towering confection was placed in front of me my grandad would steal my spoon and pretend to eat my Knickerbocker Glory while I shrieked in mock horror.
A few years ago I found myself back in Yorkshire at my home town, and 50 miles not being what it was back then I soon drove to the seaside town for a trip down memory lane. As the waves crashed against the crumbling sea wall and the wind blew fast food wrappers and other detritus down the shabby seafront filled with amusement arcades, fast food restaurants and discount stores I mourned for a once glorious seaside town. As I walked along the promenade wishing I hadn't returned I came across a small shopfont and opening the door entered the same ice cream parlour from my childhood, red banquettes, grey formica tables and still serving Knickerbocker Glorys and coffee in glass cups and saucers.
Below I have recreated my favourite desserts from my childhood. They are not the most sophisticated versions of these desserts you will ever find and I make no excuses for that. They are the versions that I love as they remind me of happy carefree days in a small seaside town where an ice cream parlour, a relic from different days, is still holding its own, it's light undimmed among the big boy chains.Most of all though they remind me of people long gone who made me the person I am today and made my childhood such a happy time.
Recipe for Knickerbocker Glory
2 scoops of homemade Vanilla Ice Cream
1 scoop of homemade Strawberry Ice Cream
4 tablespoons homemade Strawberry Syrup
6 Peach Slices (tinned)
3 Pear Halves (tinned)
3 tablespoons Pineapple Chunks (tinned)
1 tablespoon Cherries (tinned)
1 tablespoon Toasted Almonds
Whipped Cream
To construct the Knickerbocker Glory
Place two peach slices and one pear half (cut in to two) in the bottom of a tall glass and add a tablespoon of the strawberry syrup.
Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream and two more peach slices, another pear half, a tablespoon of pineapple chunks and a third of the cherries to the glass. Pour over another tablespoon of the strawberry syrup.
Add the scoop of strawberry ice cream and the fruit as above to the glass. Pour over the final tablespoon of strawberry syrup
Add the final scoop of vanilla, the remaining pineapple chunks and cherries (leaving one cherry for garnish). Cover with whipped cream
For a garnish sprinkle the toasted almonds over the cream and place the final cherry on the top.
Recipe for Banana Split
1 scoop homemade Vanilla Ice Cream
1 scoop homemade Chocolate Ice Cream
1 scoop homemade Banana Ice Cream
2 tablespoons homemade Strawberry Syrup
1 Banana
75g Dark Chocolate
One tablespoon Toasted Almonds
Whipped Cream
To create the Banana Split
Pour the two tablespoons of homemade strawberry syrup on to a plate. Split the banana length ways and place one half on each side of the plate.
Place the three scoops of ice cream in the middle of the banana as though you were making a hotdog shape
Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan of boiling water and pour over the ice cream. Add the whipped cream and toasted almonds and serve
Recipe for Peach Melba
3 scoops of homemade Vanilla Ice Cream
6 Peach Halves
2 tablespoons homemade Raspberry Sauce
To Create the Peach Melba
Place three tinned peach halves in the bottom of a glass sundae bowl and cover with a tablespoon of raspberry sauce. Take three scoops of vanilla and place on top of the peach halves.
Cover each scoop of vanilla with three further peach halves, placing these on top of the ice cream so that the outside of the peach is uppermost. Cover with a further tablespoon of raspberry sauce.
Top with a swirl of whipped cream and a handful of toasted almonds