Bake to impress! Nigella's showstopper cakes will definitely steal the scene!
This is my idea of a perfect cake: simple, beautiful, fragrant and beguiling. This is invitingly easy to make, and while I love the poetry of its ingredients, the cake doesn’t overwhelm with its Thous…
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There is no reason on earth why this, adapted from the Magnolia Bakery Cookbook, has to be a birthday cake, but since the first two times I made it were for my sister-in-law's and a friend's birthdays…
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This cake — simple and homespun, and not above using Bird's Custard Powder for its buttercream filling — has been an essential part of birthday celebrations in my house since my children were little.
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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…
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This is a reassuringly easy cake to make, and very popular in my house, requiring nothing more taxing than beating wet ingredients into dry: in other words, just a bowl and wooden spoon number. And wh…
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On days when I want the warmth of the hearth rather than the hurly burly of the city streets I stay in and read cookery books, and this recipe comes from just the sort of book that gives most succour,…
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This cake is magnificent in its damp blackness. I can't say that you can absolutely taste the stout in it, but there is certainly a resonant, ferrous tang which I happen to love. The best way of descr…
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This is one of those cakes that you make pretending it’s for the children. And of course they love it — and I have had more messages from people telling me that they’ve been under strict instructions…
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This is a favourite from a time, far in the distant past, when I went in for dinner parties! My late sister Thomasina brought it into my life about 40 years ago, and I still love it. Don't worry about…
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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…
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This cake. It confounds me. It delights me. I never ever thought I would be in raptures about the joyfulness of a — yes — vegan chocolate cake. I now make this as my chocolate cake of choice for peopl…
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Forget the name, this cake is heavenly. The crumb is tender, the filling and frosting luscious. When I made it one Friday, I expected my children, resident food critics much in the mould of the Grim e…
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This has been my Easter stalwart for years and years and I don't see that changing — ever. Make this just once, and you will be similarly convinced. Even if I wanted to stop making this, I wouldn't be…
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I should come clean about my interest in the traditions of the Epiphany: it also happens to be my birthday, and I am more than ready to follow French tradition by eating this. The galette itself is si…
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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…
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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…
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I was once in Dean & DeLuca in New York and saw a little chocolate cake decorated with sugar bees. Having gone through a Biedermeier period earlier on in my life, I have something of a weakness for be…
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In all honesty, the origin of this cake is simply that I cannot make a go of a lemon meringue pie. I've tried, and I've tried, and it's not that I've utterly failed, but I haven't completely delighted…
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Ever since my first pav in How To Eat, I have been something of a pavaholic. For me, acidity is key. So naturally, a lemon pavlova made perfect sense. You will note there are a lot of flaked almonds r…
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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…
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This is, for me, the quintessential chocolate cake: melting, luscious and mood-enhancingly good. A food technologist would explain this in terms of "mouthfeel" but I don't know quite how that makes me…
View recipeI've made this cake many times and never a crumb has been left ! Everyone I made it for has said how lovely it is and is become my go to cake for all occasions ! Thank you Nigella for all your lovely recipes x
This is a delicately perfumed confection: yes, a cake, but no ordinary cake; the fruit keeps it so tender and damp that it's as if it's been drenched in light, scented syrup. I've been bold with the a…
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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…
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The flavours sound so bold here and yet taste so delicate. My maternal grandfather used to eat strawberries with a grinding of black pepper; he insisted it made their berried freshness sing. I prefer…
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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…
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This is an Oz-emanating recipe from ages ago, long before I'd gone to Australia, one I scribbled down from a friend after a summer lunch in her garden. And you should know that I have never made it my…
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This beauty is the newest addition to my rhubarb repertoire and I couldn’t be more excited about it. It is splendidly celebratory, but not dauntingly difficult. You need a bit of elbow grease and a bl…
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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.…
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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…
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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…
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