I was saying the other day how very much I love to have a good cake in the house. There is something so special about being able to sit down with a nice hot drink and a piece of cake. The world around you can be in chaos but if you have a piece of cake and a drink in front of you, somehow things seem to be a little bit more tolerable.
I am no stranger to cake on here, and over the past thirteen plus years of running this recipe page, I have baked many, many cakes. All of them are delicious because well . . . cake. I tend to only show the recipes that I feel are highly successful and what I think you, my readers, will enjoy.
I do have my favorites however, and these are cakes that I return to bake time and time again. These are the ones that I love above all others. I thought it would be fun today to share my top ten favorite cakes with you and why, so here we go!
RASPBERRY YOGURT CAKE - I love cakes which are made with sour cream and yogurt. Adding sour cream or yogurt add moisture and makes for a lovely tender crumb. This is a beautiful cake, with a lovely moist crumb. Its light in texture and filled with pockets of sweet tart raspberries.
QUEEN ELIZABETH CAKE - We are especially fond of this old, old recipe for Queen Elizabeth Cake. I don't expect there is a Canadian community cookbook without a version of this in it. It goes way back.
It is a simple and delicious cake! The dates make it incredibly moist. It is also studded with plenty of toasted walnuts. Topped with a sweet caramel icing and sprinkle of coconut, this is a real treat!
RASPBERRY CELEBRATION CAKE - This is always my birthday cake of choice. It is a deliciously buttery sponge, filled with fresh raspberries and baked into two moist layers. The cooled layers are then sandwiched together with a lovely vanilla butter cream icing and some seedless raspberry jam, and then drizzled with more sweetness with a lovely glaze icing. This is one very moreishly scrummy cake.
TRADITIONAL SEED CAKE - Seed cake is actually a very traditional cake which goes way back in British history. It was very popular in Victorian times, and a good seed cake recipe would have been included in most cookery books of that era.It has a texture very similar to a pound cake and is studded with caraway seeds. It was said to be William Wordsworth's sister Dorothy's favorite cake. All I can say is that she had exceedingly good taste! I absolutely adore enjoying a nice slice of this with a hot cup of herbal tea.
FRENCH ALMOND, PEAR & CARDAMOM CAKE - This is a lovely cake, gluten free . . . loaded with beautiful ripe pears . . . ground almonds . . . and I added a touch of ground cardamom as pears and cardamom are such a quintessentially beautiful partnership and marriage of flavours.It is delicious served warm, cut into squares with either lashings of pouring cream or softly whipped cream on top.
GLAZED COFFEE CRUNCH CAKE -Deeply flavoured with strong coffee, this is a moist cake, with a beautiful crumb. Indeed you will find yourself collecting the crumbs on the tips of your fingers to eat. You will not want to waste even the tiniest scrap of it. There is a fabulously moreish streusel topping stogged full of lovely toasted walnuts. As well the streusel contains chocolate chips and is delicately flavoured with cinnamon. It's crowning glory is . . . a sweet coffee drizzle icing.
ETON MESS CAKE - This cake is so delicious that the Canadian version of Hello Magazine featured it as one of my recipes a few years back when they were doing a feature on me and British Cooking. No small wonder as it is delicious.A beautiful vanilla sponge, studded with fresh strawberries and topped with crushed crisp meringues. This is a beautiful cake cut into squares and served topped with a dollop of either clotted cream or softly whipped cream.
BUTTERMILK CHOCOLATE CAKE - What cake recipe collection would be complete without at least one chocolate cake recipe and this buttermilk chocolate cake is the best of the best! This recipe is four generations old. It is fabulously old fashioned one-bowl chocolate cake, and perfect for family celebrations! Moist and delicious as one would expect with a lush chocolate frosting!
MARY BERRY'S LEMON DRIZZLE CAKE - No best cake recipe collection would be complete without a lemon cake of some sort and none is nicer than a lemon drizzle cake. You can't beat that beautiful lemon flavor and the lemon crunch on top.And when it comes to lemon drizzle cake recipes, you really cannot get much better than Mary Berry's Lemon Drizzle Cake.
SPANISH CAKE - I have really saved the best for the last. This is my all time, absolute favorite cake. So much so that I also recreated it in a small batch version. This cake is so good that I once baked it about three times in one week! It has a lovely moist crumb, flavored with cinnamon and that brown sugar penuche frosting is to die for. It is the absolute best! BONUS FAVORITE RECIPE!I could not post a list of my favorites without mentioning this next cake! It is an all time favorite and has graced the table of any tea party I have ever hosted!
VICTORIA SANDWICH CAKE - I guess when it comes right down to it, this cake has a slight edge on the Spanish Cake. It is not only delicious but very easy whip up at the last minute. You can basically have this baked and be eating it in about 45 minutes tops!
A fabulously tasty buttery cake filled with strawberry jam and topped simply with sugar, this is the best of the best of the best!
And there you have it. A delicious round-up of my all time favorite cakes. Do with it what you will, but if this doesn't tempt you to bake a cake this weekend I don't know what will! Enjoy!
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