Notes about Recipes in this book

• Sour cream chocolate cake with sour cream icing

  • Laurendmck on March 21, 2010

    p. 169. I used 9-inch pans because I don't have 8-inch. (Does anyone?)Check this cake after only 25 minutes to see if it's ready. I think the 35-minute baking time is too long. Several reviews on the web said the cake was dry, and I'm sure overbaking is the reason.I used 6 oz. of chocolate chips instead of the 3 oz. of milk chocolate and 3 oz. of bittersweet, and it was great. A lovely cake with a full flavor from the sour cream.

• Black cake

  • robinorig on July 06, 2013

    Related article and recipes online: http://www.boston.com/ae/food/articles/2006/12/13/black_cake_adds_intrigue_to_baking/

• Banana bread

  • featherbooks on January 24, 2010

    Best banana bread I've made - really moist and buttery good!

  • MsMonsoon on September 23, 2020

    Made this with whole wheat flour. I used Thompson raisins as I didn’t have golden raisins, and I used rum instead of bourbon. There are no spices in this banana bread and I thought it might be a bit boring but it was quite delicious! I wanted to try the chocolate variation that’s added at the end of the recipe, but I wasn’t sure about using chocolate chips with raisins. It seems to get great reviews on the Nigella site, though, so it’s worth trying. Edited 9.2.21: Tried the chocolate version and it's wonderful. Used Trader Joe's 72% chocolate. Baked perfectly in one hour.

  • Nikapai on February 09, 2018

    This banana bread is outstanding. Always moist, so delicious. Have used bourbon or rum and both work really well. Highly recommend this recipe.

• Rhubarb grunt

  • Breadcrumbs on June 23, 2013

    p. 127 – Lovely springtime dessert! This was my first “grunt” and based on the rave reviews from my grunt-tasters, it won’t be my last! We especially loved the rich, light-textured shortcake-like topping. The rhubarb was nicely tart with the 3/4c. of sugar and I wouldn’t go with any more in the future. This is quick to pull together and worth making for the enticing aromas that waft through the house as it bakes alone! Delicious. Photos here: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/906511#8153099

• Lily's scones

  • mziech on December 29, 2017

    I have the Dutch translation of this book. Some problems with the measurements. Recipe is supposed to be for 12 scones (3 cm high, 6,5 cm wide). I got 8 out of the dough. Baking time of 10 minutes was too short for the size. With increased baking time, taste was really good. Maybe a translation error in the Dutch recipe?

  • vikingcook on October 15, 2016

    These turned out beautifully. Don't expect the usual American heavy scone. These are light as a feather, easy to make and lovely to look at. No sugar added. I'm using these instead of biscuits from now on.

• Marzipan fruit cake

  • FJT on November 12, 2011

    I have made this many, many times and often use it as my Christmas cake recipe! Can easily be adjusted to gluten free by using a gluten free all purpose flour mix or ground almonds instead of flour.

• Cream-cheese brownies

  • FJT on December 04, 2020

    A good brownie recipe; the cream cheese is nice and savoury amidst the sweetness.

  • MsMonsoon on December 13, 2021

    Couldn’t be easier! I think an 8x8 is better than a 9x9 because these brownies are quite thin. Really like the generous layer of cool, savory, straight-up cream cheese here. I think I like it more than recipes with a sweetened cream cheese swirl. These are excellent chilled in the refrigerator.

• Hettie Potter's suet-free mincemeat

  • FJT on December 13, 2011

    Great mincemeat recipe - prefer it to a suet-based one. Totally delicious and - the real bonus - gluten-free too. The apples work really well as the binder. While the recipe says to rough chop the apples, I would advise cutting them small to start with as it can take a while for them to stew down completely. I used a fortified wine instead of brandy and this worked fine.

• Meringues (and meringue nests)

  • Melanie on May 26, 2014

    Not great - try a different recipe next time.

• Snickers and peanut butter muffins

  • Melanie on May 26, 2014

    Delicious, I thought these were best on the second day. Next time I'd add a little more chocolate.

• Jam-doughnut muffins

  • Melanie on May 26, 2014

    These are fantastic - delicious warm straight out of the oven. I don't think that these would benefit from sitting around.

• Peanut butter squares

  • Melanie on May 26, 2014

    Make sure you have people to share these with or you will eat them all - these are really tasty. I made these in a slightly smaller tin and simply greased the edges well as I found that the baking paper was useless. Tip upside down on a chopping board to cut to avoid squashing the squares.

• Brownies

  • Melanie on May 26, 2014

    I'm a huge fan of this recipe - these taste amazing and are very rich. Timed at 25 minutes, gooey but sets beautifully to form a nice fudgey brownie. Also works well with chopped white chocolate replacing the walnuts.

  • sarahduclos on October 15, 2023

    This is my go-to brownie recipe. It’s a massive hit with my family and friends and so simple!

• Pantry-shelf chocolate-orange cake

  • Melanie on May 26, 2014

    I made this to use up some marmalade however I wasn't a fan of the result. The cake sunk and the flavour wasn't great - I won't make again.

  • vikingcook on May 11, 2017

    Turned out perfectly. Incredibly easy and delicious.

  • MsMonsoon on March 31, 2017

    Delicious and very easy. Perfect for a last-minute dessert. Not only can this cake be made with things you already have on hand (chocolate, marmalade, butter, flour, eggs), but it can be eaten shortly after it comes out of the oven, no need to cool. It doesn't look fancy, but Nigella suggests dusting with powdered sugar and a stencil if you like. I love chocolate and orange together and it seems a quintessentially English combination (Terry's Chocolate Orange, anyone?) The recipe says you can try any other sort of jam, and raspberry would be wonderful. I may try reducing the sugar slightly next time. Recipe calls for a springform pan, but I used an 8x8 pan with removable bottom.

• Butterscotch layer cake

  • Melanie on May 25, 2014

    My sister made this for one of my birthday cakes. It was pretty tasty. Made as one cake and sliced into three layers. Take the caramel until it is close to being burnt.

  • Jojobuch on August 06, 2016

    Great caramel frosting! The cake was not as tender as I was expecting, maybe I overworked the gluten in it. Flavour was good, the husband loved it.

• Lemon-syrup loaf cake

  • herbietea on January 20, 2013

    This cake always comes out well. Poured most of the syrup on hot so it soaked in, but left a little for 15 mins to cool & thicken, then drizzled on top so it 'sat' there, and then sprinkled with a little caster sugar.

• Damp lemon and almond cake

  • Lepa on August 31, 2021

    This cake was not a success. It was a bit flavorless (not enough lemon!) and the texture is awful (rubbery and lumpy(?) because it baked for so long. I loved the idea of lemon and almond but I'll look elsewhere for future inspiration.

• Winter plum cake

  • lou_weez on October 08, 2017

    I needed a plum to make duck burgers (Nigel Slater), but as they are not in season I resorted to using tinned. So, what do you do with the leftover plums? Make this cake, of course! It is a lovely, homely kind of cake. I only used 1/2 tsp of almond essence and that was plenty. I imagine using the stipulated 1 tsp would have been quite overpowering. This cake would work well with any other tinned fruit that may be lying around forgotten in the back of the pantry.

• Snickerdoodles

  • MsMonsoon on December 28, 2020

    Different from the typical (if boring) American snickerdoodle. These have nutmeg in them and don’t flatten out, remaining ball-shaped. Nigella says she likes these as part of a dessert, with stewed fruit and creme fraiche, for example, which sounds lovely.

• Rhubarb cornmeal cake

  • MsMonsoon on June 05, 2022

    This was strange and vegetal to me, but I may be unaccustomed to rhubarb, or perhaps I didn’t let the rhubarb sit with the sugar long enough. But Nigella warns not letting it go past 30 minutes, so I don’t know what the solution is.

• Blueberry muffins

  • MsMonsoon on May 01, 2021

    Edited: made jumbo muffins this time, no liners. Still didn't get much rise but these are delicious and moist. Good, lots of blueberries, and not very sweet, with just 1/4 cup sugar. I used quite a bit of the optional orange zest which was nice. Mine didn’t rise a great deal. And my muffins stuck to the paper liners because I wasn’t using true paper muffin liners, but instead the paper separators that come between foil liners! Won’t do that next time. The muffins that used the foil liners didn’t stick at all.

• Christmas-morning muffins

  • MsMonsoon on August 05, 2022

    This couldn't be easier or faster to whip up! I only got 9 muffins instead of 12. Full of cranberries. Added a bit of orange zest. The recipe on Nigella’s site is a little different — it has slightly more sugar, cranberries, and liquid, and calls for oil instead of butter.

• Finnish rye bread

  • anya_sf on July 14, 2019

    Although Nigella describes this bread as dense and dark, it's actually rather light for rye bread (it's mixed with white bread flour), and it isn't sourdough like traditional Finnish ryes. I used medium rye flour and instant yeast. This bread was easy and fairly quick to make. Although it's not sourdough, it had a bit of tang from the rye. It made delicious avocado toast.

• Welshcakes

  • anya_sf on July 07, 2019

    Since the instructions say to chill the dough at least 20 minutes, I made it the night before. The dough was too dry, so I had to add a couple of tablespoons of milk for it to come together. My cutter was 3.5" across, so I only got 12 cakes. Nigella doesn't say what the griddle temperature should be; 325 F seemed about right. The welshcakes turned out tender, crumbly, and sweet. We enjoyed them very much for breakfast.

• Irish blue crackers

  • LouiseQuasiChef on August 14, 2017

    Need to let get darker brown to get close to "cracker" though never crisp. Odd. Some loved; some did not -- even me in different bites. Tastes like goldfish crackers!

• Sweet and salty peanut cookies

  • KitKatCat on October 12, 2019

    Baked up good and they are like a chocolate chip cookie with peanuts replacing the chocolate chips. However, I don't really think they are to my taste. Also, I don't like the use of "scant" in the recipe for anything other then a spice, especially when it is something important like butter and shortening.

• Dense chocolate loaf cake

  • benitamehta on February 24, 2022

    One of my favorite quick loaf cakes when I want something sweet and chocolatey. It comes together quickly and it perfectly dense and "squidgy," as Nigella says. I've made this many times and it does sink a bit in the middle but that's perfectly fine. If you bake it too long to avoid sinking, it will turn out too dry and you don't want that.