Expert Advice to Bake & Decorate a Perfect Cake

Welcome to all cake bakers and cake lovers! We want to inspire you to bake and help you bake better. Our site is full of tips and recipes, so if you're wondering why your cake sank, which types of tin to buy, or how to create an authentic cream tea, then we are here to help. If you run a cake making business or want to start one up, we have lots of expert cake business advice right here - and our gadgets, the CakeUlator and CakeOmeter will be sure to bowl you over.

Baking a Twelfth Night Cake

The celebration of Twelfth Night, the traditional last day of Christmas, is a custom that has largely died out now but at one time there was a bigger party on Twelfth Night, 5th January, than on Christmas itself. Twelfth Night used to be marked by the baking of a special …

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How to Make Christmas Stollen

Stollen is a spicy enriched fruit bread with a rich marzipan filling, that’s especially popular at Christmas celebrations across Europe. There are many different varieties but the most famous is probably that originating in Dresden, Germany. Stollen, in its first manifestation way back in the fourteenth century, was a bit …

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How to Make Baked Cheesecakes

It’s thought that cheesecake probably has its origins in Ancient Greece when a version of it was served to athletes participating in the Olympic Games. Its popularity has remained through the years, and it’s probably more popular than ever today. We have two recipes for baked cheesecakes, one using Pastry …

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How to Make Chilled Cheesecakes

Cheesecake lovers tend to be divided into those who adore the rich creaminess of a calorie-laden baked cheesecake, and those who prefer the lighter, fresher-tasting chilled cheesecakes. We’ve three chilled cheesecakes for you to try, all light and fruity and making ideal summer desserts – or to follow a rich …

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Cakes With Literary Associations

“Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?” Sir Toby Belch asks the question in Shakespeare’s comedy, Twelfth Night, suggesting that he, and Shakespeare himself, could not conceive of a life that didn’t include cake! Though Sir Toby isn’t too specific about what …

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Bake Perfect Meringues

Meringues, those lighter-than-air delicacies that can fool us into thinking they’re calorie-free, were created in the early eighteenth century by a Swiss pastry-cook named Gasparini, and they’ve been popular ever since. Meringues can be made as Individual Confections or as part of larger desserts as we’ll show you. When whisking …

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Making Tea Breads

Tea bread is the name generally given to fruit breads that are served sliced and buttered. Simple homely cakes, they originally formed part of an early supper or tea-time meal. They may or may not use yeast as the raising agent, and only in some recipes will a pot of …

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How to Make Doughnuts

Doughnuts have been around in some shape or form for hundreds of years. In England, it’s said that thrifty bakers, unwilling to waste scrap dough, took to shaping it into dumplings as a filling addition to soup, while in Germany and Holland, they dropped the leftovers into hot oil to …

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Boiled Cakes

Let’s start off by explaining that boiled cakes aren’t actually boiled. They’re baked in an oven like any other cake but the ingredients – the fruit, fat, sugar, spices and liquid – are boiled before being combined with the flour and eggs. Boiled cakes tend to be a little lighter …

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Fruit: Lemon, Apple or Orange Cake

All of these fruity cakes can be served simply as an accompaniment to a cup of coffee or dressed up with cream or yogurt as a special dessert. Either way they’ll taste delicious. The orange cake is a particularly moist one that will keep well and actually tastes better when …

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