Banana bread is one of my all-time favourite cakes. It has a texture all of its own; moist and dense. Quite unlike almost any other cake. And that’s no bad thing. But the texture of banana isn’t something everyone gets along with. For those of you who reside – rightly or wrongly – in that camp, but want the flavour of banana in their cake, my Chocolate Orange Banana Traybake is the answer.
Though not currently in season, I was surprised to find a box of beautiful English pears being sold at my local grocer. On the look out for cake ingredients, I dutifully filled my basket with this succulent, juicy fruit – perhaps my favourite – and retreated to the kitchen to bake my Pear and Almond Cake.
Everyone purports to have, in their possession, the recipe for the perfect chocolate cake. This is, of course, nonsense. There is always something better, if only because variety is something we crave. Having said all that, I’ll now dismount my high horse to admit that my recipe for Chocolate Prune Cake is among the most enjoyable and moist chocolate cakes you’re likely to find.
The Hevva Cake – or, heavy cake – is a traditional Cornish cake, made simply without leavening or eggs. Associated with the Cornish pilchard industry, its name is associated with the landing of a shoal of fish at which point the huer on the clifftops would cry “hevva, hevva”, the cue for the wives of the fishermen to return home to bake.
The Bûche de Noël, or Yule Log, is a log-shaped chocolate cake traditionally eaten during Christmas. But the origins of the yule log lie away from the decadent realm of cake, though not so far from festive feasting; even taking us as far back as the Iron Age.