It’s a blustery autumn day in North London, and at the door 
of her Grade II-listed home, fashion designer Elspeth Gibson 
is flustered.

It is half-term and she has seven girls under the 
age of nine and their mums arriving for a picnic on Hampstead Heath in an hour. She’s been working round the clock (on a girls’ line of clothing for Tesco), the builders are in and have ripped up her kitchen floor, and she has not made Cornish pasties for… well, quite a while. She’s afraid they’re like rocks.

Like a lot of working mothers, the 45-year-old is juggling furiously. All things fashion, she admits, “come easy. Because I’m creative, it just comes out.” But kitchen-craft requires tried-and-tested recipes and “standard items that I know work”. Which is why she’s resorted to the rather old-fashioned menu she’s devised for her two girls, Evie, 9, and Amelie, 6, and their friends.

First up is nettle soup, “which my granny used to make for us, and which, having tried it in Primrose Hill, I got really excited about again. It’s delicious, such a lovely colour, and so good for you.” Then it’s mini Cornish pasties from an old Radio 4 Woman’s Hour recipe, followed by 
a lavender sponge cake that they love in their local tearoom, High Tea in Highgate, and balls of chocolate-coated Rice Krispies.

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Making the latter elicits yelps of excitement from the girls when they see the brown goo melting in a bain-marie on the stove. “Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate!” they shriek, in anticipation of the sugar rush that will come on later on the heath. Evie says her favourite dinner would be “chocolate soup, chocolate sushi, chocolate fountain and chocolates”. The only item her younger sister adds to it is “maybe strawberries”.

So it’s somewhat surprising to find not just a green soup, but a rather uncommon nettle soup on the menu. “My granny’s side of the family is from Cornwall, so I’m trying to get my own girls to appreciate food that I tasted there,” Gibson explains. “Not that I’m succeeding. We stopped at a service station in Cornwall recently for a break and they couldn’t believe it didn’t stock sushi. Talk about London tastes…”

Having packed stylish green floral china, colourful Indian throws, 
a Fortnum & Mason hamper and Snowy the Jack Russell into the 
car, the family drives to the heath, where friends are waiting beneath 
a glorious yellow beech. Reactions to the picnic are mixed. One six-year-old, Sylvie, pronounces the nettle soup “yummy; like garlic bread” (which it is: thick, herby and delicious). Others opt for a pasty rather than “the green stuff”.

However, the cake is a big hit; cut by six-year-old Amelie into “big, big, big pieces – mine the biggest”, it’s moist chunks of sponge with a hint of lavender within, and a sprinkling of purple petals in the white icing. Even Snowy seems to like it when he’s finally allowed an inch.

“To me, what’s great about this picnic is that it took me so little time to prepare,” says Gibson. “The girls and I picked the nettles for the soup on the heath. With ready-made pastry, the pasties only took an hour. And the cake couldn’t be more simple: equal butter, sugar and flour, with eggs and lavender.” Both soup and cake, she says, can be adapted for adult tastes: simply add more garlic, crème fraîche and chopped chervil or parsley to the soup, and serve lavender cream with the cake.

“Really, if I can do it, then anyone can,” she admits. “Entertaining to me means a roast with family and friends for Sunday lunch. Possibly apple pie. To be honest, I only made this lavender cake because I love the purple; I thought it would look so lovely with the girls’ dresses 
and the autumn colours.” Once a fashion designer…

Nettle soup

Serves 6

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