Elderflower, strawberries, wild garlic pesto—these are the flavors of Irish summer. Learn to incorporate them into your baking with Cherie Denham. 

What’s on the Menu:
Elderflower & Strawberry Sponge Cake with Elderflower Cream
Homemade Elderflower & Rose Blush Cordial or Rhubarb & Raspberry Cordial
Wild Garlic, Nettle, Ham & Gruyère & Soda Bread
Homemade Wild Garlic or Basil Pesto

Cakes soaked with elderflower syrup. Soda breads studded with wild garlic and rich cheese. This is the Irish countryside in summertime, and guest teacher Cherie Denham, author of “The Irish Bakery,” is your expert guide. Join Cherie for a livestream Small Group Workshop—capped at just 25 people!—where you’ll venture into advanced, seasonal Irish baking. You’ll make your own elderflower cordial, which Cherie describes as smelling “like hedgerow heaven.” Don’t worry if it’s not elderflower season where you are; you can also make a Rhubarb & Raspberry Cordial following the same steps. We’ll cover the secrets to perfect sponge cake, which should have an extremely light, tender crumb. Then, we’ll layer cake, infused whipped cream and strawberries together to make a showstopper dessert you’ll want to make all summer long. More of a savory person? We have just the thing for you. Cherie’s favorite summer soda bread includes swirls of homemade pesto layered with thin slices of ham, plus pockets of nutty Gruyère in the mix for good measure. You’ll learn how to incorporate add-ins to soda bread without over-working the dough, how to shape your bread for optimal enjoyment and how to test for doneness—no stodgy, underdone breads are allowed here. Plus, you’ll get Cherie’s advice on storing your homemade pesto and adapting the recipe for fall and winter. At the end of this workshop, you’ll be so comfortable making two essential Irish baked goods that pretty soon, you won’t even need to glance at the recipes.

About Cherie: Cherie Denham grew up in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. After teaching at Leith’s School of Food and Wine, she spent time as a private chef before starting up her own catering company and cookery business. Her 2022 TikTok teaching viewers how to make Irish butter has clocked up 32 million views to date. She is the author of “The Irish Baker.”

What's Included: You will receive a .zip file that includes the cooking school video as well as PDFs of the recipe instructions.
How to Download: After you purchase your Milk Street Cooking School Video, you will receive an email from the Milk Street Store with the subject line "Your Cooking School Video is Ready for Download." Within this email there is a link that will direct you to a download page, click download now to download the .zip folder. To unzip the folder, double-click the zipped folder to open it. Please note: your video download file will have an approximate size of 500 MB.