cake

Lekach, or Jewish honey cake

December 16, 2012
Lekach or honey cake for Rosh Hashanah, by Claudia Roden

This honey cake originated in Germany in the Middle Ages, and became a staple of the Jewish kitchen, finding a place as the traditional cake of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. It symbolises a hope for a sweet and fruitful new year. Many dismiss honey cake as one of those traditional staples that simply [...]

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Fresh ginger cake

September 23, 2012
A spicy ginger cake made with fresh shredded ginger instead of the usual dried, powdered stuff. From a recipe by David Lebovitz.

Ginger is a common flavour in lots of cakes and biscuits, but the way it gets there is usually through the use of dried and ground ginger. Fresh ginger is more normally used as one of the first things in the pan at the bottom of an Asian or Chinese dish. In its dried form, [...]

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Hennickehammar’s toasted ginger cake

April 1, 2012
Hennickehammar's toasted ginger cake, from Roast Figs, Sugar Snow, by Diana Henry

This cake is like a lighter version of a Christmas fruit cake…many of the same ingredients, but without the stodge and the months of waiting.  It has all the same punchiness and body, but none of the heaviness. The usual medley of dried fruit is replaced by a single one – dried cranberries, plumped up in [...]

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M’hanncha, or the Moroccan snake

March 25, 2012
Jamie Oliver's M'hanncha, or the Moroccan Snake

There are times when I hit a blogging brick wall, where there’s nothing left to say, or where the ideas and half-posts won’t form themselves properly. That happened this weekend, and after binning the third draft of something attempting to articulate what I think of minimum alcohol pricing (short answer: probably good, some reservations, could [...]

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Maple syrup, walnut and pear cake

October 17, 2011
Maple, walnut and pear cake by David Lebovitz

This last week or so have been quite tough, and the coming ones aren’t shaping up particularly well, either. What to do? Well, baking a cake often helps. So, that’s what I did today, cashing in half a day’s holiday tucked away for a rainy day and heading off home in the wind and through [...]

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Rhubarb and ginger cake

May 26, 2011
Rhubarb and ginger cake

We’ve got a North facing garden, shaded by next door’s garage and four stories of Edwardian brickwork. There isn’t a lot of light back there, and the ground has a tendency to hold too much water because of the high clay content.  I can successfully grow only two things – those Jurassic style ferns that [...]

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Moroccan coconut cake

February 9, 2011
Claudia Roden's Moroccan Coconut Cake

I made a curry a while ago that called for a couple of tablespoons of dessicated coconut. As you can’t buy just a couple of tablespoons of dessicated coconut, the rest of the massive, opened packet has sat in the cupboard ever since, waiting to be thrown out in the next Great Clear Out, sometime [...]

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Wholemeal honey and almond cake

April 6, 2010
Thumbnail image for Wholemeal honey and almond cake

This has everything you’d want in a cake – it’s sweet, moist and delicious, it keeps well and it’s straightforward to make. I may go so far as to say that it’s nearly foolproof, but that I don’t want to tempt fate. Start – as you start every single cake baking adventure – by greasing [...]

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