Recipes

Nigella Lawson

Forget the name, this cake is heavenly. The crumb is tender, the filling and frosting luscious. When I made it one Friday, I expected my children, resident food critics much in the mould of the Grim eater, to find it too dark, too rich, not sweet enough: you get the gist. Instead, I came down on Saturday morning to find nothing but an empty, chocolate-smeared cake stand and a trail of crumbs. And please read the Additional Information section at the end of the recipe before proceeding.

Nigella Lawson · How To Be A Domestic Goddess

Nigella Lawson · Nigella Bites

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

This cake tastes like Christmas pudding — a very, very good Christmas pudding — the sort the Quakers (as I’m fond of quoting) once magnificently condemned as “the invention of the scarlet whore of Babylon”. It’s rich, damp, treacly and so heady, it doesn’t even need the traditional alcohol in it. It also happens to be gluten- and dairy-free, and is a last-minute cake, so very useful if you haven’t got round to making that family recipe that needs to be baked ahead and fed with brandy for 6 months. And please read the Additional Information section at the end of the recipe before proceeding.

Nigella Lawson

This cake. It confounds me. It delights me. I never ever thought I would be in raptures about the joyfulness of a — yes — vegan chocolate cake. I now make this as my chocolate cake of choice for people where dietary restrictions are not an issue, and I don’t even need to explain it’s vegan. No need to offer explanations: you just need to offer the cake. On top of everything else, it’s incredibly simple to make. My version has coconut oil in the cake, and coconut butter in the icing, but of course you can use vegetable oil in the cake, and vegan butter/margarine for the icing if you prefer. Both the coconut oil and coconut butter need to stand out of the fridge for a good couple of hours before using. I often take them out the night before, as then they are easier to measure out. Please check the labelling on the chocolate you buy. It needs, whatever your concerns, to be dark (minimum 70% cocoa solids for my taste), but if you need this to be absolutely dairy-free or vegan, make sure it says so on the packet.

Nigella Lawson · How To Be A Domestic Goddess

I came across Beatrice Ojakangas’ joyfully easy way of making Danish pastry in Dorie Greenspan’s Baking with Julia. I’ve adapted it to fit my practice and prejudices, but her idea of mixing everything in the food processor is liberating. It’s good to know, indeed crucial, that this still produces an authentic Danish pastry. Beatrice Ojakangas helpfully writes, “Don’t think you’re cheating by taking the fast track – this is the way it’s done these days all over Denmark.” And I’m particularly pleased to have a Cheese Danish, as they are my favourite, and I don’t see them in bakeries, so have to make my own! By the way, when I say cheese, don’t think of it in a savoury way but, rather, as in cheesecake.

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson · How To Be A Domestic Goddess

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

I have what I like to think of as a Wildean thing about reproducing artifice by more natural means. Thus, in How To Eat, I gave a recipe for digestive biscuits, and now I find myself propelled towards the homely accomplishment of the custard cream, hitherto — at least in my lifetime — only known in its packet form. It

Nigella Lawson · How To Be A Domestic Goddess

Nigella Lawson · Nigella Express

If you want to make this with fresh vegetables rather than frozen, then up the water (keeping the amount of stock concentrate the same) and indeed I would double it to 500ml / 2 cups. But if using frozen — which is how I make this 99% of the time, and why it is a great storecupboard standby — I find it easier to use a cappuccino cup, or similar, and measure out 1 ½ cups of each frozen green veg rather than weigh it. This is what to cook when you find out mid-afternoon that you

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson · How To Be A Domestic Goddess

At about the time I started getting into top cupcake mode, ostensibly for children, I noticed that the people who really seemed to get excited by them were the children

Nigella Lawson

It occurred to me — while cleaning out my spice drawer, a task I soon abandoned — that it might be interesting to use cumin in place of the caraway in a traditional seed cake. It really works: the toasted cumin gives a subtle spiciness but does nothing to rupture the calm of a classic plain cake. Interestingly, caraway did used to be known as Persian cumin, and in many languages both cumin and caraway are known by the same name. Some ideas are just meant to be...

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

Like poor Becky Sharp biting into a green chilli thinking it looked so cool and refreshing, it is easy to be lulled by the soothing greenness of this — the salving avocado, the juicy cucumber — but do not overlook the fierce flecks, made even more zingy by the lime’s acid rasp.

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson