Apricot Almond Cake With Rosewater and Cardamom
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…
Nigella's Spectacular Cakes
Bake to impress! Nigella's spectacular cakes will definitely steal the scene!
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Can I Make The Apricot Almond Cake With Rosewater And Cardamom Without Eggs?
I have a friend who is vegan and I’d love for her to try the Apricot Almond Cake With Rosewater and Cardamom. Is there any way this could be made without eggs?
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Autumnal Birthday Cake
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…
Birthday Custard Sponge
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.
Cookbook Corner
Love Is A Pink Cake by Claire Ptak
I love everything about Claire Ptak, owner of the Violet Bakery and author of the gorgeous Violet Bakery Cookbook, and I brim with a special love for her uplifting new book. Everything she does, every…
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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 Cake with Coffee Buttercream
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…
Chocolate Cloud Cake
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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Can I Stop The Top Of The Chocolate Cloud Cake From Cracking?
Can the cream be omitted in Chocolate Cloud Cake? Is there any way to stop the top from cracking so badly in order to omit the cream?
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Chocolate Guinness Cake
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…
Chocolate Malteser Cake
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…
Cookbook Corner
Around The World In 80 Cakes by Ruby Bhogal
Ruby Bhogal is an enormously accomplished and inventive baker, as anyone who saw her on GBBO or has read her debut cookbook, One Bake Two Ways knows — and Around the World in 80 Cakes is the perfect s…
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Chocolate Meringue Truffle Cake
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…
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…
Dark and Sumptuous Chocolate Cake
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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Why Did My Dark And Sumptuous Chocolate Icing Turn Grainy?
When I made the Dark And Sumptuous Chocolate Cake icing, it went all grainy. What went wrong? I didn’t use coconut butter as I couldn’t find it in the shops. So I used butter instead. A little hot wat…
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Devil's Food Cake
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…
Easter Egg Nest Cake
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…
Galette Des Rois
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…
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…
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…
Honey Chocolate Cake
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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Why Did My Honey Chocolate Cake Sink?
My Honey Chocolate Cake, having tried several times and tasting delicious, burns on the top and sinks in the middle. This is despite covering with foil, cooking at 180°. Its taste is good but it looks…
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Lemon Meringue Cake
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…
Lemon Pavlova
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…
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…
Cookbook Corner
Say It With Cake by Edd Kimber
I am a compulsive collector of all cookery books, but baking books are my particular obsession, even if the books I often buy end up having similar renditions of recipes I have already written myself.…
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Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake
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…
I'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 xBy suzy28
Pear, Pistachio and Rose Cake
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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Can I Make A Layer Version Of The Pear, Pistachio And Rose Cake?
Can I make 2 of the Pear, Pistachio And Rose Cakes and put one on top of the other for my granddaughter's 21st? What would I use as filling?
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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…
Rose and Pepper Pavlova with Passionfruit and Strawberries
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…
Cookbook Corner
The New Way To Cake by Benjamina Ebuehi
Although this book came out last year, I didn’t come across it until recently, and I’m so very glad I did. It’s a wonderful book, but I have to warn you that reading it will make you almost unbearably…
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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…
Strawberry Meringue Layer Cake
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…
Toasted Marshmallow and Rhubarb Cake
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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Why Does My Rhubarb Not Roast Right For Toasted Marshmallow Cake?
I have no idea why my roasted rhubarb doesn't work - it's the easiest recipe and I've followed it to the letter but even at 20 minutes in the oven it explodes to mush. If I could get it right then I'd…
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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.…
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…
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…
Cookbook Corner
Bread, Cake, Doughnut, Pudding by Justin Gellatly
If the name of the title alone doesn't make you want this book, then I don't know what's wrong with you. Justin Gellatly is the man who has made people queue up for doughnuts of weep-inducing wonderfu…
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Guest recipe
Back-To-Front Baked Cheesecake
A simple baked cheesecake is one my favourite desserts. It can sit in the fridge and be enjoyed over the course of a week, and that ultimate slice is the best slice of all. But sometimes I feel short-…
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Guest recipe
Caramel Apple Cake
This is a simple cake, which in my eyes makes it a great cake, one that anyone can make. Choose an interesting variety of apple if you can. With it being autumn, this shouldn't be all that difficult.…
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Guest recipe
Caramelized Plantain Upside-Down Cake
Plantains are the food of my childhood. If you grew up in an African or Caribbean household, you know that the smell of sweet fried plantains wafting through the house was enough to make you do a happ…
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Chocolate Manjari Cake
This is my signature chocolate cake that I have baked for just about everyone I love over the years. It has been a cake for life, a cake for joy and even a cake for sorrow, proving that the healing po…
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Coconut and Passionfruit Slab Cake
We first ate this cake when we were having lunch at our local, Bondi’s Lox Stock and Barrel. After we’d demolished a few pastrami sandwiches, co-owner and chef Neil Gottheiner kindly sent out a piece…
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Courgette Ginger Cake with Lemon, Yoghurt and Mascarpone Icing
This cake has the most sublime texture and tastes like the very essence of summer. Lemony light, damply sweet from the courgettes (zucchini) and with a wonderful cloud-whip of tangy icing (frosting) i…
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Curd Cake with Caramelised Apples
My friend Jan once drunkenly asked me to cook for his dad Anton’s seventieth birthday, which I enthusiastically agreed to (also tipsy). Anton, aka Papa Florek or P Flo, grew up in Derby – his Polish f…
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Devil's Food Cake with Earl Grey Cream
This grownup chocolate cake is flavored with Earl Grey tea. I love the way the citrusy aroma, which comes from bergamot orange, pairs with chocolate. Although I am very fond of this combination, I thi…
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Double Marble Loaf Cake
A marble cake with a bonus marble glaze, as beautiful in flavour as it is in appearance. The cake itself is very straightforward, a one-bowl batter that is then split in two so that cocoa powder can b…
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Grapefruit-Thyme Almond Cake
The invigorating scent of grapefruit is one of my favorite ways to start the day. While I tend to skip orange juice at breakfast, freshly squeezed grapefruit juice is irresistible. I often use it in s…
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Honey Cheesecake
Melópita is a regional speciality of the Greek island of Sifnos. Méli means honey and, on the island, this dessert would be made using the local thyme honey. It’s a crustless cheesecake and typically…
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Karpatka — Carpathian Mountain Cake
Karpatka is also known as a Carpathian mountain cake, named after the Karpaty mountain range. The dough (in this case a choux pastry) creates the effect of mountains, and the icing sugar on top repres…
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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…
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Layered Cheesecake
This remarkable cake comes from Cato’s farming book. The name is Greek (and it had nothing to do with the modern meaning of placenta, invented by a seventeenth-century scientist). In Greek the word co…
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Malted Brown Butter Pound Cake
Not many cakes are as comforting as a pound cake. It’s simple in both name and appearance, but that’s where its beauty lies. Heavy with butter, the dense crumb is at home when thickly sliced and serve…
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Orkney Fudge Cheesecake
Any visitor to Orkney over the past couple of decades will have been unable to leave the islands without trying what has become a local institution — the Orkney fudge cheesecake. Rich and creamy, it i…
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Ottoman Sponge Cake
This is my take on a Victoria sponge: two light coconut and cardamom cakes, sandwiched together with fragrant rose petal jam. Cardamom is probably my favourite spice, its scent so reminiscent of Middl…
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Persian Love Cake
This enchanting cake reminds me of a Persian garden in the late spring, adorned with the floral scent of rose water and citrus, and decorated with bright green pistachios. If it is not devoured in one…
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Rhubarb Almond Pudding Cake
With its crisp cake-like crust and super-soft centre, this cake truly is the sweetest of both worlds. Serve it for dessert or afternoon tea.
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Rhubarb Meringue Cake
In Scandinavia, the first rhubarb stalks are a sign of spring; therefore, anything made with rhubarb makes people happy. It is a sign of the new season, a change in the light and the temperature, and…
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Silver Cake with Pink Frosting
This early to mid-twentieth-century white cake is made with nary an egg yolk but with copious amounts of stiffly peaked egg whites. I encountered many recipes for this cake, often with slight variatio…
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Southern Coconut Layer Cake With Divinity Icing
This recipe has been adapted slightly from the snowy white coconut cake that’s long been served at Miss Mary Bobo’s Boarding House in Lynchburg, Tennessee. Sprinkling the baked cake layers with coconu…
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Spiced Apple Cake
This recipe hails from my mother’s café, Eliza’s Pantry. It’s super simple and uses four apples with their skin on. The apples don’t have to be at their best, it’s a little like a banana bread recipe…
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Stefa's Stone Fruit Cake
This is inspired by my friend Marianna Dushar’s grandmother’s cake recipe... with the addition of cardamom, which another friend Katrya Kaluzhna uses in her plum tart. The original recipe uses plums,…
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Torta Di Compleanno - Italian Birthday Cake
This is perfect for big family gatherings, which happen often in my family. Ideal for anything from an eighteenth birthday, right through to a wedding celebration.
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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…
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White Chocolate Rainbow Cake
This cake is a monster – it has six layers and uses a lot of butter, but do keep in mind that it will serve a lot of people, and it will make a spectacular cake for a birthday or any other occasion. T…
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