1¼ cups light cream
6 sweet-scented geranium leaves, bruised
1 tablespoon sweet-scented geranium petals
4 egg yolks
½ cup caster sugar
1¼ cup heavy cream
sweet-scented geranium leaves and petals, to decorate


Pour the light cream into a heavy pan, add the bruised geranium leaves and a few petals and slowly bring to the boil.

Remove from the heat, cover the pan and leave in a warm place to infuse for about 30 minutes.

Whisk together the egg yolks and sugar, then whisk in the infused cream.

Pour the mixture into the pan and cook over low heat, stirring continuously, until the custard is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon.

Remove the leaves and petals and leave the custard to cool.

Beat the heavy cream until fairly stiff.

Add the cooled custard and mix gently.

Pour the mixture into an ice tray and freeze until the edges are just firm.

Stir well with a fork, turning the edges into the middle and freeze until the ice cream is all one consistency, but not completely hard.

Turn it out into a bowl and whisk well.

Return it to the ice try and freeze until quite firm.

Remove the ice cream from the freezer about 1 hour before serving.

Serve attractive scoops in pretty glass dishes and scatter over tiny scented geranium petals.

Tuck a fresh leaf into each dish and serve with shortcake biscuits.
(Cooking with Flowers)