Drunken Mess!

This is my version of Eton Mess. I obviously prefer it as it contains booze, lots of it :)

I'm afraid I can not give you any amounts for any of the ingredients, this is one which has to be purely your intuition, and how much you like each ingredient. One thing I would say, is be easy on the cream, too much will make the dish so rich, 4 mouth fulls and you will be done. At least double the amount of fruit to cream is a good general guide.

Double Cream
Berries (i love raspberries in this, however a mix of straw, blue and rasp is always good)
Caster Sugar
Champagne or Cava
Creme de Cassis
Brandy
Meringue

1, Soak the fruit in a couple of glugs of each type of booze, and a light sprinkling of sugar. Think here.... you definitely want to be more generous with the champagne than the other 2. The creme de cassis gives colour and sweetness, and the brandy gives that fantastic boozy taste.

• Also, this is always even better if you soak the fruit overnight.
  

Stir it all well.
2, Whip the cream until firmish. You don't want it too stiff!
3, Mash the fruit with a fork. Pour into a sieve, and reserve the liquid that comes through.
4, Mix the fruit into the cream. You can either totally combine or "ripple" it. To be honest, I always intend to ripple it, get a little overexcited and blend the lot. It still tastes nice!
5, Spoon over a little of the boozy goodness and stir through.
6, break up meringues and combine, then serve. (preferably with a glass of champagne!)