Over eight decades, Mary Berry has seen food fads come and go. And the latest one - kale - she deals with in typically firm fashion.

"No, I don't like it and I see it everywhere. I grew a new kale, which was rather big and a dark colour, and it looked so pretty in the garden. Then I started to cook it and it was so strong and bitter. I know it's good for us, but I'd prefer to grow land cress, or something a little bit different."

But Berry - who grew up with rationing, turned 80 in March and has written more than 70 cookery books since the late Sixties - is softer on other 'new' ingredients, including the basil she grows in the garden of her beautiful Buckinghamshire home.

"When I trained and when I was a housewife, I automatically used dried herbs. You couldn't get fresh ones in a supermarket, you could grow them but people didn't know quite how to do it.

"Basil was something you only got in France, and now we sow basil in the garden in May and we've got it in the garden from late June onwards. We make our own pesto. Things have certainly changed, and this is the joy of new ingredients. I can remember when butternut squash was new, and we all thought, 'Butternut squash?!' But we love it now.

"We also grow fennel," adds Berry, who makes a fennel slaw in her latest book, Absolute Favourites, which accompanies her new BBC Two show.

"My husband says, 'What are you putting fennel in? We didn't have it [as children], my mother didn't do it!' I say, 'Hard luck, you're going to have it!'

"I really enjoy fennel, I've worked out how to cook it. People say it tastes of aniseed, but it doesn't; if you cook it, it's just the most beautiful vegetable. If you finely slice it and marinate it as the base of the salad, it gives the most beautiful flavour, you've just got to convert people to it.

"But I'm never going to convert them to kale, because I think it will come and go, personally. There are certain things I will not do, because I don't like it myself."

She's certainly not a fan of deep fat frying either - "every chef's programme, they wheel in this machine, but at home, you do it on the cooker and it's dangerous" - b ut she gets her fill of chips when she goes out ("usually other people's"), and cooks oven chips at home for her five grandchildren when they visit, which makes her own children admonish her with an "Oh Granny!".

Her grandchildren appear in the BBC Two series, Mary Berry's Absolute Favourites. Her 12-year-old twin granddaughters, Abby and Grace, make biscuits, while her grandsons are put to work on a pasta bake.

"I've learned you don't have two stirring at the same time! I gave them their own jobs, I said, 'You make sauce, you cook the pasta', so they're separate, because boys will be boys!"

Food and family have always gone together for Berry, who married husband Paul in 1966 and had three children, Thomas, Annabel and William, who sadly died when he was just 19.

"I'm very lucky to have family and there's nothing better than cooking with children - there's no happier way of keeping children amused than teaching them," she says. "Our grandchildren can all use knives, they can all use a potato peeler to do Parmesan and things like that. If you teach them the right way, that's much better than saying you can't use a knife, isn't it?"

For all her TV success over the years, including most recently with The Great British Bake Off, Berry still likes to think of herself as a "family cook, with all the problems that everyone else has".

"I've had failures - I've used salt instead of sugar, I've had cakes going down in the middle, but that's good, because then we can commiserate!"

As for her absolute favourite meal, she loves nothing more than a nice plate of potted shrimps.

"If ever I was on my own, I would have one of my son's hens' eggs, some really good bread and some potted shrimps, which I would warm through with butter and a bit of spice, on toast. Those are the sort of things I like."

Try some of Mary Berry's favourite recipes for yourself at home...

:: WATERMELON, FETA, CUCUMBER AND MINT SALAD

(Serves 6 as a main dish or 10-12 as part of a buffet)

Berry says: "This is my favourite salad at the moment - fresh, full of flavour and crunchy texture. Any small black seeds left in the watermelon after deseeding can be eaten, although I prefer to remove the larger ones. This delicious salad is best made and served on the same day."

1/2 cucumber

1/2 small watermelon, peeled, deseeded and cut into 2cm cubes

200g good-quality feta cheese, crumbled into small cubes

50g pitted black olives in oil, halved

1 small bunch of mint, chopped

For the dressing:

4tbsp olive oil (or oil reserved from the olives)

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Peel the cucumber with a potato peeler, cut in half lengthways and, using a teaspoon, scoop out and discard the seeds. Cut into crescent shapes.

Layer half the watermelon, cucumber, feta and olives in a bowl, repeat again, then sprinkle with the chopped mint. For the dressing, whisk together the oil and lemon juice, season with salt and pepper and pour into the bowl. Serve chilled.

:: ROASTED SAUSAGE AND POTATO SUPPER

(Serves 4-6)

Berry says: "This will become a firm family favourite as it can be cooked in one dish and is so quick and easy to put together. If you're making this for young children, you can replace the wine with stock, if you prefer. Choose your favourite type of local, British sausage for this recipe - my family loves leek and sage."

2tbsp olive oil

2 large onions, sliced lengthways into wedges

2 red peppers, deseeded and cut into large dice

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1 tbsp chopped thyme leaves

500g baby new potatoes, unpeeled and halved

12 sausages, pricked with a fork

200ml white wine

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 220C/200C fan/Gas 7.

Place all the ingredients except the wine in a large, resealable freezer bag. Seal the bag shut and shake well to coat everything in the oil. Alternatively, put everything in a large bowl and turn the ingredients until they are fully coated in the oil. Tip into a large roasting tin, spreading the ingredients out into one even layer and ensuring that the sausages aren't covered by any of the vegetables. Season well with salt and pepper.

Roast for about 30-35 minutes until golden, then remove from the oven, turn the sausages over and toss the vegetables in the cooking juices. Pour in the wine and return to the oven for a further 20 minutes, or until browned and the sausages are cooked and the potatoes tender. Serve hot with a dollop of mustard on the side.

:: MALTED CHOCOLATE CAKE

(Serves 8-10)

Prepare ahead:

The filling will remain soft and ready to use in a bowl covered with cling film for two to three days. The finished cake can be kept in an airtight container for up to a day.

Freeze:

Freeze the cake and icing separately, then defrost at room temperature and assemble when ready to serve.

Berry says: "This cake is the perfect family treat, and a real crowd-pleaser. The malt extract gives a lovely creaminess to the sponge, while the malted chocolate flavour is echoed in the cake's topping."

30g malted chocolate drink powder

30g cocoa powder

225g butter, softened, plus extra for greasing

225g caster sugar

225g self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

4 eggs

For the icing:

3tbsp malted chocolate drink powder

11/2tbsp hot milk

125g butter, softened

250g icing sugar, plus extra for dusting

50g dark chocolate (at least 50% cocoa solids), melted

1tbsp boiling water

About 20 Maltesers, to decorate

Icing sugar, to dust

You will need two 20cm round sandwich tins. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/Gas 4 and grease the tins with butter and line the bases with baking paper.

Measure the malted chocolate drink powder and cocoa powder into a large bowl, pour over two tablespoons of water and mix to a paste. Add the remaining cake ingredients and beat until smooth.

Divide evenly between the prepared tins and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes. Set aside in the tins to cool for five minutes, then turn out on to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the icing, measure the malted chocolate drink powder into a bowl, add the hot milk and mix until smooth. Add the butter, icing sugar and melted chocolate and mix again until smooth, then add the boiling water to give a gloss to the icing.

Place one cake on a plate and spread over half the icing. Sandwich with the other cake and spread (or pipe) the remaining icing on top, using the tip of a rounded palette knife to create a swirled effect from the centre to the edge of the cake. Arrange the Maltesers over the top and dust with icing sugar before serving.

:: Absolute Favourites by Mary Berry (photography by Georgia Glynn Smith) is published in hardback by BBC Books, priced £25. Available now

THREE OF THE BEST... Summer cakes

:: Taste the Difference Triple Layer Blackcurrant Cake, £6 (www.sainsburys.co.uk)

A layer of blackcurrant sponge is sandwiched with blackcurrant jam between two layers of plain sponge, all covered in buttercream and topped with a swirl of blackcurrant jam. It tastes as good as it looks - heaven!

:: Signature Fruity Raspberry Roulade, £3.50 (www.morrisons.com)

This light, fresh dessert features melt-in-the-mouth meringue, hand-rolled around raspberries, raspberry sauce and whipped cream. We think it could almost pass for home-made.

:: Specially Selected Carrot & Walnut Cake, £1.79 (www.aldi.co.uk)

Punching well above its modest price tag, this deliciously moist carrot cake packs in juicy sultanas, coconut and pineapple, which give it a tropical, summery flavour. Topped with just enough sweet cream cheese icing, it's oh-so moreish.