Caraway Seed Cake

Our answer

Nigella has two great recipes for seed cake and both would be ideal as a dessert, though as both cakes have different qualitities they will suit slightly different accompaniments. In particular they could be used to make a Nigella-style "free form trifle" with fruit and cream piled up on a large platter.

The first Seed-Cake appears in Kitchen (p298) and contains ground almonds (almond meal) which makes the cake very moist and also adds a marzipanny element to the cake. As this cake is quite buttery and rich we would suggest that it is served with a Greek yogurt or whipped cream. Rasperries and almonds go very well together so we would certainly suggest these as an option, though pitted and sliced apricots, peaches or nectarines would also match well with the flavours of the cake.

The other recipe is a variation on My Mother-In-Law's Madiera Cake from Domestic Goddess (p5) which is a slightly plainer cake and could be served with whipped cream or mascarpone. As this cake is slightly less moist it may be better to choose a fruit accompaniment with a little juice to dribble over the cake. Strawberries which have been macerated in a little orange juice or Grand Marnier and sugar would be an easy option or some poached plums would also be a good fruit to choose. We would suggest making the plums from the Cinnamon Plums recipe in Nigella's book Kitchen (p140) but omit the cinnamon stick as it could mask the flavour of the caraway seed.