Chocolate Fruit Cake
This is the perfect cut-and-come again cake for any time of the year. It lasts for a fortnight, but has the squidgy fabulousness of something so much less serviceable-sounding. I know there are a lot…
Nigella's Christmas Baking
Fill your kitchen with the delicious scents of Christmas - cakes, cookies, biscuits, and other treats to fill you with seasonal cheer.
Ask Nigella.com
Can I Make A Smaller Chocolate Fruit Cake?
Hey! Any tips if you want to make a smaller version of the Chocolate Fruit Cake? Is it as simple as half the ingredients? Thinking of doing the cake as a present - but it’s for a solo person. Thanks!
Find out answer
Easy-Action Christmas Cake
I just throw everything into a pan, let the heat from the stove send buttery rum and citrus juices permeating into the currants, sultanas and raisins, add flour and eggs, a can of chestnut purée to gi…
Pomegranate Jewel Cake
Many cultures use food that resembles money — lentils for coins, saffron for gold — in celebratory meals, to invoke a wish for prosperity and good fortune ahead, and this fragrant, light, flourless al…
Ask Nigella.com
Can I Freeze The Pomegranate Jewel Cake?
I would like to make the Pomegranate Jewel Cake for Christmas and wonder if I can make well ahead and freeze it at the stage before the pomegranate seeds are added? Thank you.
Find out answer
Christmas Cupcakes
These beauties also make a very good alternative to mince pies. I buy the icing ready made and dyed (which is why it isn’t a very convincing colour for holly, let’s be frank) and use cranberries as th…
Clementine Cake
This, an adaption of Claudia Roden's magnificent orange and almond cake, is a wonderfully damp, dense and aromatic flourless cake: it tastes like one of those sponges you drench, while cooling, with s…
Cookbook Corner
Advent by Anja Dunk
Hardly surprisingly, this time of year abounds in Christmassy cookbooks, but Anja Dunk’s Advent offers something excitingly different. For one thing, the Germans do Christmas like no one else; or perh…
Find out more
Christmas-Spiced Chocolate Cake
I love a fallen chocolate cake, and have found most everyone else does too. The cakes are so called because they are compact and flourless and, when cooling out of the oven, their rich centres drop an…
Gorgeously Golden Fruit Cake
This is the fruity blonde sister to that brunette temptress, my chocolate fruit cake from Nigella Christmas. It delivers, as promised, a cake of apricot-pear-and-ginger goldenness and goodness, so squ…
Spruced-Up Vanilla Cake
This is a sleight of hand, or a trick of equipment rather than an act of brilliance. True, the cake does look incredibly complicated and seasonally impressive as it comes to the table, but that is all…
Ask Nigella.com
Can I Make An Orange-Flavoured Version Of The Spruced-Up Vanilla Cake?
The Spruced-Up Vanilla cake is super, but this year I’d like to make it like an orange cake. Any ideas on what would work best as a substitute for the vanilla?
Find out answer
Smooth Hatbox Icing
I love a plain white-iced cake: smooth icing, wrapping the cake almost like a hatbox. I am happy to have this decorated, but I'd just as soon the decorations were also white. Here, I've cut out a wibb…
Cookbook Corner
CookbookCorner Christmas Special 2025
I am an inveterate list-maker, and my kitchen and desk are always littered with scrawled-on post-its and random bits of paper with itemised injunctions to self, on top of which there’s the agglomerati…
Find out more
Cider and 5-Spice Bundt Cake
Most of the time I refer to this as my Cider and 5-Spice Gingerbread, but I changed the name out of concern for those who expect a little more gingeriness from their gingerbead (although anyone is fre…
Yule Log
I know the recipe looks finicky, and I can’t promise it’s a doddle, but it works easily and you will soon find you are rolling chocolate logs without a care. In fact, if you have a lot of people comin…
Ask Nigella.com
How Do I Roll Up The Yule Log?
For the Yule Log do you let the sponge cake cool before putting the buttercream on it? If so, how do you roll it without it breaking up?
Find out answer
Chestnut Cheesecake
There is no doubt about it, anything with chestnuts in it, even if they come vacuum-packed or canned and are perennially available, is so right for this time of year. The chestnuts are present, in the…
Date and Marmalade Christmas Cake
This cake tastes like Christmas pudding — a very, very good Christmas pudding — the sort the Quakers (as I’m fond of quoting) once magnificently condemned as “the invention of the scarlet whore of Bab…
Gleaming Maple Cheesecake
This is an exquisite cheesecake, tangy and delicate, with the pronounced smokiness and subdued sweetness of the maple syrup. It has a fabulously light, smooth and voluptuous texture, and two things he…
Ultimate Christmas Pudding
I don’t deny it: there is something unattractively boastful about calling one’s own recipe “ultimate”. But having soaked my dried fruit for this pudding in Pedro Ximénez — the sweet, dark, sticky sher…
Ask Nigella.com
Can I Make The Ultimate Christmas Pudding In Individual Portions?
I wanted to make the Ultimate Christmas Pudding in individual portions for Christmas presents. Do you have any advice on cooking times for these? I can only see this for 1 pint, but wanted to try a sm…
Find out answer
Chocolate Pudding for Christmas Pudding Haters
Christmas pudding isn’t for everyone and, even though I have faith in my pudding’s ability to convert, there’s no point nagging or, indeed, fighting against real, die-hard antipathies. Besides, I have…
Mini Pavlovas
These may be mini pavlovas, but there's a big old batch of them, as this recipe comes from a time when my children were little and I would make these for the school summer bake sale. Obviously, you ca…
Glitzy Chocolate Puddings
If you've got an electric whisk — either a hand one or a freestanding mixer — this is very low effort indeed, but it is a real showstopper. There's something quite extraordinary about the greedy silen…
Ask Nigella.com
What Is The American Alternative For A Crunchie Bar In The Glitzy Chocolate Puddings?
For those of us in the US, what exactly is a Crunchie bar, as used to top the Glitzy Chocolate Puddings? Is there a similar bar here in the States that I could look for? Thank you.
Find out answer
Holiday Hot Cake With Eggnog Cream
A warming, welcoming pud full of seasonal spice that can be thrown together in a matter of minutes. Truly a pudding to give thanks for. As for the eggnog cream, by all means add a grating of nutmeg if…
Marshmallow Crispy Squares
You'd think this was designed to keep the children happy, and while that's OK with me, it is the adults who seem to find this particuarly irresistible. If I can find a tub of edible disco glitter in o…
Cappuccino Pavlova
I am inordinately proud of this, and am not ashamed to say so. I have long been a pava-holic but this is my first venture into a fruit-free (though far from fruitless) version. The instant espresso po…
Chocolate Gingerbread
I’d never come across a chocolate gingerbread, and after making this one for the first time, I wondered why not. There’s something about the glottally thickening wodge of chocolate chip and cocoa that…
Chocolate Raspberry Pavlova
You just cannot beat a pav in my book, and I glory in particular this dark beauty. The crisp and chewy chocolate meringue base, rich in cocoa and beaded nuggets of chopped plain chocolate, provides a…
Christmas Chocolate Cookies
I love these dark, fat patties of chocolate shortbread exuberantly topped with festive sprinkles. There’s something so cheering about the sight of them, but they have more in their favour than looks:…
Ask Nigella.com
Can I Make The Christmas Chocolate Cookies Dairy Free?
My friend is dairy free and I would love to make the Christmas Chocolate Cookies for her as a gift. I think I can substitue the butter but will the cocoa have any dairy that would be an issue? Thank y…
Find out answer
Edible Christmas Tree Decorations
I couldn’t have Christmas without these, or at least, not happily. Rituals are essential to give us meaning, a sense of ceremony, and making these peppery, gingerbready edible decorations is how I hav…
Star-Topped Mince Pies
This is the way I make my mince pies, and there is no changing me or them: they are small, to be popped straight into the mouth in one go; the pastry is plain, the better to contrast with the rich, fr…
Christmas Morning Muffins
I have never quite understood how people can go in for vast, rich breakfasts on Christmas morning. I am hardly a modest eater by anyone's standards, but even I can't quite accommodate a platterful of…
Vanilla Shortbread
Even if you have never baked anything in your life, you will be able to make these with untroubled ease. And I hate to say this — as someone with a once-serious Bahlsen habit — but they are so much be…
Christmas Puddini Bonbons
These are delectable little bonbons made by mixing up cooked and cooled Christmas pudding (see Additional Information below), liquor, syrup and melted chocolate, rolling them into small balls, then dr…
Ask Nigella.com
Can I Freeze Undecorated Christmas Puddini Bonbons?
Can I freeze the Christmas Puddini Bonbons in advance and add the white chocolate topping when I defrost them?
Find out answer
Chocolate Salame
I’ve encountered quite a few versions of chocolate salame in Italy — coming to the conclusion that it’s really an Italian version of our chocolate refrigerator cake — and although I am not normally a…
Baklava
This is so temple-achingly sweet that one small marked-out diamond, or maybe two, is enough. But even so, I love its perfumed sugariness — as much as I love the tender, rose-shot green of its equally…
I felt like I was transported somewhere else when I first ate these...By manonlescaut
Hokey Pokey
Hokey pokey is a Cornish term for honeycomb. It is wonderful eaten in golden shards or crumbled into the best vanilla ice cream. It is also the perfect present to take to a dinner party. Better than f…
Ask Nigella.com
Should I Use The Cinder Toffee Or Hokey Pokey Recipe?
I have the Nigella recipes for both Cinder Toffee (in How To Be A Domestic Goddess) and Hokey Pokey (Nigella Express). They are both honeycomb recipes but very slightly different. Is one recipe an imp…
Find out answer
Forgotten Cookies
These little cookies — described by one friend as tasting like a cookie within a cookie — are really a mixture between a meringue and a cookie. Hence they've become known at home, where they're immens…
Vanilla Fudge
For some reason this is known in the Antipodes (and I got this recipe from a Kiwi) as Russian Fudge and, although I like this name better, I feel that it perhaps leads the rest of us to expect somethi…
Linzer Cookies
In its wildest dreams, a jammy dodger could never aspire to the melting tenderness and celestial lightness of the Linzer cookie. The idea is the same: two biscuits, sandwiched together with jam, a hol…
Ask Nigella.com
Where Can I Find Cutters In Christmas Shapes For The Linzer Cookies?
I am trying to find a set of mini cutters to make Nigella's Linzer Cookies. I can't find cutters that look like the shapes in the photo of the recipe. Can you help?
Find out answer
Luscious Vegan Gingerbread
I am preposterously proud of this squidgy gingerbread, and I don't mind who knows it. It's everything you want out of a gingerbread — sticky, spicy, deeply aromatic — and you would never miss the butt…
Cheese Stars
This is a new variant of an old and easy party favourite. The dough is mixed up in the processor and rolls out easily. It may crack a bit for the first roll-out, but just resquidge together and roll o…
Cookbook Corner
The Get-Ahead Christmas Cook by Jane Lovett
I am far from alone in finding that cooking is so much more enjoyable and relaxing if much of what I’m making can be done ahead — and never does that feel more to the point than at Christmas. Jane Lov…
Find out more
Chocolate Chestnut Refrigerator Cake
This is another of my maternal grandmother's recipes. I've changed it a bit, not least substituting dark rum for her juice and zest of an orange and a slug or two of Grand Marnier. It's not that I did…
Christmas Creme Brulee
I don’t need to tell you how beautiful this is: you can see. It’s extravagant, certainly, but it’s meant to be. And it feels like a treat, breaking through that gilt-tortoiseshell crust to the voluptu…
Christmas Rocky Road
It’s not that I felt my usual Rocky Road Crunch Bars needed any improvement (though fiddling with recipes is one of life’s pleasures) but I thought they would benefit from some seasonal adjustment. So…
Ask Nigella.com
What Can I Use As An Alternative To Nuts For The Christmas Rocky Road?
I'm wondering if there is a no-nut alternative to the nut ingredient for the Christmas Rocky Road? I have a nut allergy and would love to make this, but can’t think what can be substituted.
Find out answer
Egg and Bacon Pie
This recipe (which started off as Boxing Day Pie) comes from Beryl Scoffield, the mother of one of my oldest friends, and a woman with a reputation for her pies. It’s wonderfully old-fashioned and com…
Forgotten Pudding
There is a wonderful poetry to the name of this pudding which, thankfully, once eaten could never be forgotten. It's an old, old recipe rediscovered — I believe — by the late, great Richard Sax. Think…
Girdlebuster Pie
I confess: it was the title that lured me. Tell me you don’t feel the same. I came across this in a recipe by Elinor Klivans, whom I often turn to for chocolatey solace, in her The Essential Chocolate…
I made this and I busted my girdle.By kimcooksforyou
Ask Nigella.com
Can I Make The Girdlebuster Pie Using The No-Churn Coffee Ice Cream?
Can you make the Girdlebuster Pie using Nigella's One-Step No-Churn Coffee Ice Cream, or does the ice cream have to be shop bought?
Find out answer
Irish Cream Tiramisu
I've long been tinkering about with a bottle of Bailey's, seeing how it could best be called upon in the kitchen, and I think, with this, I've found it. An Italian friend of mine, who makes a killer t…
Once you try this recipe you’ll never make tiramisu any other way. It is the best ever! People talk about it for years and years. Thank you.By Happeehappeejoyjoy
Italian Christmas Pudding Cake
This recipe is my own but at the same time a conflation of a couple of Italian Christmas must-haves: the glorious, fruit-studded panettone and crema di mascarpone, which is best described as tiramisu…
My Brandy Alexander Pie
This dessert has mixed parentage: I put a recipe for a Brandy Alexander cocktail into the Cookbook Corner section of the old website and almost immediately was tweeted about the wonderful creation tha…
Panettone Stuffing Squares
I have written a recipe for panettone stuffing before: the sweet seasonal fruit bread was cubed, toasted and mixed with Italian sausage; this is very different, not least because I see it not as an ac…
Parmesan Shortbreads
This is an Italian-inspired recipe that comes to me from Australia via Brazil. To explain: a Brazilian friend, and the best cook I know, Helio Fenerich made it for me, and I had to keep (rudely) askin…
Ask Nigella.com
Can I Make Parmesan Shortbreads Last Longer So I Can Give As Gifts?
I was planning to make the Parmesan Shortbreads and give them as gifts at Christmas with a homemade chutney. Will they really only last five days in an airtight container? Is there any way to make the…
Find out answer
Sticky Toffee Pudding
There is very little that can compare with the glory of a sticky toffee pudding. My STP is altogether deeper and darker than the original version: it is still sweet, but the muscovado sugar and black…
Sticky. Toffee. Pudding. Three of the greatest words in the English language. This is rich, indulgent and so comforting. The recipe makes a large amount of sauce but the leftovers were fantastic on my morning porridge!By BunnyMayfair
Vanilla Layer Cake with Ermine Icing
This is the sort of cake you’d find in an old-fashioned diner of your dreams: a majestic creation, frosted with fluffy, super-sweet buttercream, just made to stand aloft and enticingly on the counter.…
Ask Nigella.com
Can I Use All Butter For The Vanilla Layer Cake With Ermine Icing?
Can I replace vegetable shortening with extra butter for the Vanilla Layer Cake with Ermine Icing?
Find out answer
White Tiramisu
This pudding is always a success: it always works, and everyone always loves it. And I have the great Anna del Conte to thank for it. It is also the recipe that converted me to Tiramisu in the first p…
No-Knead Black Bread
I love proper Eastern European black bread, but I must confess that this loaf, although it tastes the part, is hardly traditional, let alone authentic. For one thing, it’s made following the no-knead…
Tres Leches Cake
If you are lactose-intolerant, turn away now. This is, sadly, not for you. This triple threat of dairy desserts is Latin American in origin, though which country in Latin America is contested (there i…
Ask Nigella.com
How Do I Wrap The Tres Leches Cake?
Please explain how to wrap the finished Tres Leches Cake without the wrap touching the topping too much?
Find out answer
Christmas Loaf Cake
I can’t tell you how long I’ve yearned for a Christmas loaf cake, nor why I’ve come up with one only now. But I won’t waste my time or yours by lamenting the lost years without it; I’d rather concentr…
Winter Wonderland Cake
Perhaps, like me, you find yourself at Christmas surrounded by those who abominate dried fruit in all its seasonal manifestations. If so, this may well be the cake you need in your life. Its snowy mar…
No-Bake Advocaat and Ginger Cake
I have a bit of a weakness for this sort of cake, which is essentially an assembly–job number, a construction of alternate layers of a rich, boozy cream and some storebought sponge or other. The thing…
Ask Nigella.com
Can I Use Grand Mariner In The No-Bake Advocaat And Ginger Cake?
Watching Nigella make the No-Bake Advocaat And Ginger Cake was a Boxing Day highlight. I wonder if using something like Grand Marnier might work as an alternative to Advocaat?
Find out answer
Guest recipe
Bacon Cheddar Biscuits
We make these mini-biscuits as a snack in the Tavern, but I'll make them anywhere, anytime. Try them for breakfast, split in half and topped with a spoonful of scrambled eggs and melted Cabot Clothbou…
View recipeCookbook Corner
Scandinavian Christmas by Trine Hahnemann
'Hygge' is a Danish word that denotes the warm, cosiness that emanates from the warmth of the hearth in general and from a kitchen, fragrant with baking, in particular and it is what this book is all…
Find out more
Guest recipe
Black Forest Log
Damn, this is a fine Yule log, the sharpness of the sour cherries cutting through any chocolate excess. A subtle hint of kirsch works wonders too. It looks lovely plain, but feel free to add your own…
View recipe
Guest recipe
Proper Black Forest Gateau
I know this cake has got a bit of a kitsch reputation but when done properly it is extremely delicious and light, and will take you on a trip down memory lane.
View recipe
Guest recipe
Chewy Molasses Spice Cookies
These cookies will look nearly raw in the center when you pull them out of the oven, but they will continue to set as they cool. The key to the soft and chewy texture of these cookies is, simply, unde…
View recipe
Guest recipe
Christbrot - Christmas Bread with Dried Fruit
Christbrot is very similar to a Weihnachtsstollen, but lighter in texture, and is best eaten freshly baked without needing time to mature. This is one of the reasons why a Christbrot is more popular t…
View recipe
Guest recipe
Festive Sausage Rolls
What's a party without a sausage roll? Especially when it comes to feeding the family at Christmas. Everyone loves these, warm from the oven and smelling of good times... Here I've customized a tradit…
View recipe
Guest recipe
Gluten-Free Deep-Filled Mince Pies
What would Christmas be without mince pies? Fortunately, I never struggle to find gluten-free mince pies in the supermarket, but trust me — you absolutely can’t beat making your own, especially when i…
View recipe
Guest recipe
Latvia Celebration Cake
Not only rich with its cuisine, Latvia hosts many fascinating pagan traditions, particularly around Christmas. Such as a yuletide log being lumbered through Old Riga, followed by dancing and burning i…
View recipe
Guest recipe
Pinza di Pane
This is an ancient recipe — possibly the most ancient of the Venetian dessert repertoire — that has a special role for the Epiphany, on 6th January, and the start of Venice’s Carnival season. As old t…
View recipe
Guest recipe
Pistachio-Cherry Danish
New Year’s Eve is a holiday I have little patience for and barely celebrate. I have two methods of coping: either leaving the country for someplace that isn’t teeming with tourists and Best Night Ever…
View recipeCookbook Corner
Fortnum & Mason: Christmas & Other Winter Feasts by Tom Parker Bowles
My mother’s idea of the perfect Christmas treat was a box of Fortnum’s Violet & Rose Creams, and so there has always seemed something seasonal and celebratory about the place to me. They must have tho…
Find out more
Guest recipe
Christmas Stollen, Dresden-Style
The most famous and celebrated Stollen is Dresdner Stollen, now trademarked, from the city of Dresden in Saxony. It is laden with fruit and is made with double cream and lots of butter. For me, it is…
View recipe
Guest recipe
Apple Marzipan Tart
Marzipan has always been a favourite of mine, and this cake uses it to give a humble apple tart a rich almond flavour and a beautiful creamy texture. German Baking by Jürgen Krauss is published by Kyl…
View recipe
Guest recipe
Gingerbread Present Brownies
Brownies always seem like an untouchable recipe for me — not only are they a staple of American baking, they’re also a very difficult bake to decorate. I’ve faced my fears and done both, altering the…
View recipe
Guest recipe
Vegan Christmas Cake
A classic made vegan, you can bake the cake up to 2 weeks in advance and store undecorated and well wrapped in an airtight container for up to 1 week, during which time you can feed it with extra rum…
View recipe
Guest recipe
Vegan Mincemeat Pancakes
If you have leftover mincemeat or just a jar hanging around, this is a nice way to jazz up pancakes — a perfect Christmas Day breakfast treat. They can be served with maple syrup or a squeeze of lemon…
View recipe
Guest recipe
Gluten Free Mini Christmas Puddings
Two of the most common questions I get asked about my Christmas pudding recipe (in my second book) are: how do I make multiple smaller Christmas puddings in a 1-pint tin? And how long do I steam them…
View recipeCookbook Corner
A Special Christmas CookbookCorner
CookbookCorner, as you know, usually features just one book and one recipe, but — to celebrate seasonal abundance — I bring you a special Christmas CookbookCorner, with a pick of 6 books and 11 recipe…
Find out more