Spiced Apple Cake
Olive Magazine
The daily raiding of the spice cupboard for cinnamon and mixed spice need not (and indeed should not) abate post Christmas. The scent makes the entire house feel instantly cosier and, when used liberally, transforms baked goods so that resistance becomes futile. Throw a treacle icing into the mix and we can no longer be held accountable for our actions (namely surreptitious trips to the kitchen for extra slivers – just to ‘neaten things up’, you understand). Get the recipe.
Winter Sunshine Cake
Anna Jones
How could any cake fan (all of us, surely?) resist a confection known as Winter Sunshine Cake? This comes from the brilliant Anna Jones, who entreats us to serve it instead of the traditional Christmas cake – an edict with which we are on board, but only with the added entreaty not to stop there. After all, through the cold days of January and February – with their absence of twinkling lights as recompense – the need for reminders of the erstwhile sunshine becomes all the more acute. This delightful carrot cake brings just that. As Ms Jones says, ‘It’s a cake that manages to feel bright and fresh tasting at the same time as feeling rich and festive. It’s hit with grated fresh ginger and fresh turmeric (though you could use ground turmeric too), which brings the sunny brightness. There is, of course, carrot, but there is also apple which brings a sharpness that means it’s not too sweet.’ Winter perfection. Get the receipe.
Ginger And Treacle Spiced Traybake
BBC
Mary Berry can always be relied upon for producing something fiendishly moreish when it comes to tea. As long-standing fans of a good traybake, we can confirm that this one is ideal as part of a winter teatime repertoire – cosy, spicy and warming thanks to the ginger. Not a soggy bottom in sight. Get the receipe.
Plum Upside-Down Cake
Olive Magazine
Is it a cake or is it a pudding? And do we, in fact, care? This plum upside-down cake has three notable things to recommend it: it a) is beautifully vivid and thus showstopping; b) features the left-field addition of couscous, lending a pleasingly grainy texture; and c) is absurdly delicious. As they suggest, serve it with yogurt if you’re going down the pudding route. Meanwhile, we’ll take a hunk of it as it is, washed down with a nice cup of tea. Get the receipe.
Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake
Nigella
Sometimes only a good old-fashioned chocolate cake will do. Nigella’s is one of the best we’ve found, the sour cream cutting through the richness, the golden syrup in the icing adding a pleasingly sticky sweetness, and the edible flowers bringing the prettiness. Get the receipe.
Skye McAlpine’s Raspberry and Marzipan Cake
The Home Page
Skye McAlpine’s A Table Full Of Love is stuffed full of the most joyful recipes – the kinds that, as its title suggests, engender a sense of intense bliss amongst those people you most love to feed. This pretty-as-a-picture Raspberry and Marzipan Cake would make us feel very loved indeed – whether for a birthday or, simply, a chilly weekday afternoon. Get the receipe.
Flora Shedden’s Pear, Chestnut and Bay Leaf Cake
Toast
The sublime Flora Shedden, former winner of GBBO turned cookery writer and proprietor of Aran Bakery, is an absolute master of conjuring the most beautifully seductive food for the winter months (see her latest and most gorgeous tome, Winter In The Highlands). This is a case in point: bay-infused butter, chestnuts and pears: how could you possibly not want to eat this cosiest of cakes? Get the receipe.
