Sweet things

A very simple, utterly delicious rich mocha chocolate cake with a great coffee flavour thanks to Brazier's Altitude House Blend coffee, and an intense chocolate flavour. I've baked this in our Chicago Metallic Unglazed Professional Sponge Cake Tin (20cm/8-inch diameter), especially good as it's 5cm (2 inches) deep so it can bake a generous thick layer of cake easily.Method Line the base of a deep ... Read more

A baba is a small bread-like dessert "cake" that is soaked in a lightly flavoured sugar syrup, and served cold or at room temperature with big spoonful of slightly sweetened cream and a slosh of rum that gives it its name. As desserts go it’s very simple and unfussy, yet for people like myself who love it we class it as one of the classics of French patisserie. Under the hood this is based ... Read more

Quick to make, dairy-free and utterly rich, dark and delicious, this pound-cake style banana cake uses stoneground wholemeal rye flour and roasted barley malt flour to give a hearty texture and flavour. You can swap the walnuts for pecans if you like, or leave them out. Keeps very well, and freezes perfectly either as a whole cake or sliced. I've baked this in our BakeryBits Traditional 2lb or ... Read more

Make great coffee an extra special event with this butter-rich cake flavoured with freshly-brewed Brazier’s filter coffee. It’s a straightforward cake to make and bake, and whether you ice it with a vanilla or coffee buttercream – or follow our lead and ice it with both – it will absolutely keep you buzzing with pride. Top it with some crushed toasted hazelnuts and shards ... Read more

Such a great flavour, and relatively easy to make once you get the hang of folding flour into a very aerated whisked egg. What the semolina does is absorb moisture from the mix during baking which means they dry very quickly in the oven. This makes them perfect for soaking up liquids, from the fruit and jelly in a classic trifle to the coffee in our Tiramisu recipe. Here I’ve added nutmeg to ... Read more

Tiramisu is the most famous Italian dessert, and such a classic I only wanted to enhance it gently. Great coffee, like BakeryBits range of Brazier's Coffee, has many complex flavours depending on the region it’s grown in, the bean varieties used, different altitudes and climates, farming methods, roasting techniques, so many factors. And one flavour I taste in some is a maltiness, so I ... Read more

A rich, soft, spiced traybake that is absolutely packed with stoneground flour, rolled oats, and shreds of marmalade peel. It’s also not too sweet so perfect for a mid-morning slice of ginger cake. The combination of stoneground rye flour with wholemeal wheat flour, and just a little roller-milled white flour, gives you the perfect balance between a flavour-rich cake as well as a light delicate ... Read more

Though a simple icing can be made by mixing together icing sugar and water until smooth, it sets with a dull surface and a brittle texture that can fall off pastries. This is because sucrose, what icing sugar technically is, recrystallizes as it cools. Adding glucose, another kind of sugar, to the sucrose interferes with this recrystallization and creates a semi-glossy sheen to the icing and ... Read more

A rich but simple-to-make bake-stable custard perfect for piping into pastries before baking. Or to use when cold whisk together with double cream for the most luxurious custard imaginable. A perfect way to show off our BakeryBits Madagascan Whole Pod Vanilla Powder. The custard powder just adds a little extra yellow colour to the cream, but you can simply use cornflour (cornstarch) as the ... Read more

Like the croissant is to France, boller are to Norway, although we eat them with coffee at parties and when walking the forests and mountains. They are a milk-based bread, lightly sweet with just a hint of cardamom. Boller are available everywhere in Norway with and without raisins but I have an overwhelming sense of disappointment when having one without, so always include them. The most ... Read more

Our BakeryBits Christmas recipe is a 1950s sweet candied-fruit focaccia with flavours reminiscent of a great panettone, the crumb swirled with sugary ground almonds in a Sfogliato-style, and of course using the very best ingredients available to you here at BakeryBits, delivered fast. Easy to make, the perfect small gift for friends when you visit this Christmas. It's based on an old 1940s sweet ... Read more

A dark rich fruit cake with a tang of sourdough that slices well and keeps for a few months perfectly if wrapped well and stored in a tin. The crème fraiche is boiled with the sugar and baked into the cake, so like butter it will add richness and keep perfectly well. The excellent Mulino Marino Organic Chestnut Flour adds a subtle earthy background to the sweetness of the fruit and honey.Method ... Read more

BakeryBits is known the world over for making it easy to buy and enjoy excellent and unusual stoneground flours, heritage grains, as well as the finest roller-milled flours used by the best artisan bakers. So, we thought that this year our mince pies should continue that celebration and combine stone-milled flour – from one of our many great millers we stock, or out of your own Mockmill – with ... Read more

I'm writing this in the run-up to Christmas, and if you're like me, you're probably wondering what to make beyond the usual mince pies and some fantastic loaves of bread: a big ol’ fruit cake, maybe, or a yule log? Perhaps you're also finding that it gets trickier every year to find the right gifts for the budding bakers in your family, or something to hint that you'd be more than happy to ... Read more

This is a three-day adventure to take you towards all-butter croissant perfection. Much easier and less effort than classic puff pastry, with much less rolling to do. This recipe only makes 6, but I’d like you to start here, getting your technique as sharp as you can, before you set up making dozens to supply your entire neighbourhood as the local viennoiserie star baker. You can do it, I ... Read more

This recipe has grown out of one I wrote back in 1998 for my first book, “Baking with Passion”, where I was making a honey cake and wanted it to have a fresh bright ginger flavour. The bran-rich nuttiness of the Foricher’s Farine Complet T150 Brun de Plaisir flour suits this cake to a tee and helps to make a mixture that's high in natural fructose and glucose more stable, as the bran soaks ... Read more

Madeleines are quick and easy to make sponge cakes, baked in a special tray that gives them their shell shape. Perfect when you can find a quiet 10 minutes with a mug of freshly ground coffee. The recipe here is based on one by Eric Lanlard, which makes enough to fill the shells of our Madeleine trays. I've used some Fiori di Sicilia instead of the orange blossom water suggested, which gives the ... Read more

I've always loved malt loaf: the bought stuff, but only because I've never been able to make one that comes close to that moist malty consistency that just needs some butter on it for a delicious snack.... Until now! With help from our friends at Muntons, we've got an easy recipe that makes a marvellous malt loaf. The secret to the rich, malty flavour and colour is to use a little roasted barley ... Read more