Recipe: Chocolate-Orange Cheesecake

I recently made a cheesecake and then I made another and then, just for a good measure, I also made this cheesecake and this one was the winner by a clear mile. This cake is rich and creamy. The citrus seems to cut through a lot of the fatty flavors, I think this cake doesn’t need anything else added to it but you can top it with candied orange peel, dried mint, or more chocolate ganache if you want to really take it over the top.

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Recipe: Earl Grey Tea Cake

I’m a big fan of cakes that are soft and creamy tasty and this one is basically the perfect balance between eating a pound cake and drinking a cup of tea. The original recipe had a fairly heavy amount of other flavors and a thick frosting but I decided to go hyper minimalist with this recipe instead and just added orange peel inside and on top and coated them with a thin glaze so they have a slight extra burst of sweetness to match the smokey tea inside.

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Recipe: Plum Cake

This is a great way to use up plums and can probably be used with plenty of varieties of fruit, especially other stone fruit like apricots and peaches. This is a one bowl recipe that comes together so easily I made it with one hand when I accidentally grated my thumb and had to be extra careful about my left hand for a week. This cake has a mild, sweet flavor that contrasts perfectly with the tart plums, and texture like a cream scone making it perfect for an afternoon tea or coffee snack.

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Recipe: Chocolate Fool

If you’re not British you might not be familiar with the concept of fool which is usually a kind of puree fruit dessert. This parfait was inspired by a Christmas fool using fruitcake posted to the BBC but also didn’t really fit the definition of “fool”. In the end it’s basically a chocolate cake with fruit and whipped cream in a glass and you can call that whatever you like but the name “fool” is cute for a dessert so it’s fine if that’s what you want to call it. I used this chocolate cake recipe which takes about 5 minutes to throw together but feel free to use store bought cake or your own favorite chocolate cake.

Chocolate Fool

Recipe: Donauwelle

This is such an interesting cake and it’s really delicious too. The layers are supposed to look like the waves of the Danube. I’m not entirely sure I understood how to achieve this effect the first time I made this recipe but it’s certainly good enough that I’ll probably give it another try in a few months. It’s not complex per se but it does have quite a lot of parts. I cut down on the amount of buttercream frosting used as well because I like more balance in my cake but if you feel like you need 6 leagues of buttercream on your cake, I’m not going to stop you.

Donauwelle

Recipe: Cinnamon Coffee Cake Cupcakes

This isn’t a showstopper visually but these tiny little cupcakes pack a delicious butter and cinnamon flavor that pairs perfectly with coffee or tea. These cupcakes are best with an extra generous layer of topping so feel free to make extra for an extra decadent experience. While the recipe seems more complicated than your average cupcake the bonus is that all the work is done before you put them in the oven so once they come out and cool they’re immediately ready to eat – no frosting or decoration necessary.

Cinnamon Coffee Cake Cupcakes

Recipe: Cherry Pie

I think people are really intimidated by making pie but this is my first time making my own pie crust and I found it actually fairly straight forward. This is actually much easier than it seems on the surface but it does require that you properly rest the dough so it needs to be planned out ahead of time.

Cherry Pie

Recipe: Black Forest Cupcakes

Most of the time you’ll spend making these will be in assembly but they don’t really take much to assemble either. The flavor of these cupcakes is a really perfect blend of flavor. They look sweet but they have a really nice balance between the sourness of cherries and the savory frosting to go with the chocolate cake. These are really delicious and I recommend making them the next time you need cupcakes.

Black Forest Cupcakes

Recipe: Lemon and Raspberry Battenberg

Surprisingly this is both a very simple and a very difficult cake to make but I can assure you that guests will be impressed even if you deliver a technically imperfect masterpiece. Since its just one cake recipe all the work is in the assembly so if you’re like me you’ll probably make a mess and it will take you a surprising amount of time from start to finish. This can sit for a few days though because its covered so just block out enough time before you commit.

Recipe: Lemon and Raspberry Battenberg