The Viennese have their kaffee und kuchen (coffee and cake) and the Swedes have fika, the essential coffee, cake, and company break. Brits have afternoon tea – quietly indulgent, encompassing sweet and savory nibbles and a gentle kick of caffeine. Recipes from Downton Abbey, Fiona Cairns (baker to royalty), Lorraine Pascal, and Ginger & White hold the key to afternoon tea.
Legions of Downton fans will relish recipes for wobbly jellies and glossy veal and ham pies, but there is much to learn about the social role of food in the Edwardian era, and Annie Gray dispenses copious amounts of delicious wisdom in this carefully researched book. The recipes are timeless; the book is a new classic.
British baker Fiona Cairns is no stranger to celebrity; she baked the cake for the wedding of Prince William and Katherine Middleton in 2011, and her clients range “from rock stars to royalty.” Keen decorators will be delighted with cake designs for the likes of Alice’s Teapot, Football Boots, and more (and yes, there are simpler recipes, too).
Ginger & White is famous for its wonderful baking and delicious comfort food created from superb artisanal ingredients. Its devoted customers range from toddlers to grannies, who are all drawn to the family-friendly atmosphere and the exceptional flavours on offer. Now you can bring some Ginger & White magic into your own kitchen with this, their first cookbook.
British-born model-turned baker and TV presenter Lorraine Pascale specializes in baking recipes that take away much of the faff factor but still deliver on looks and flavor. While the 125 recipes promise to be showstopping – and many are certainly very colorful – they’re nonetheless achievable by novice home bakers.
Curated collections from ckbk's editors
People are pulling out the stops to celebrate Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee, marking her 70-year reign. Celebrating royal milestones with food is a great British tradition and to help you celebrate the Big Jubilee Lunch on June 5, we’ve rounded up five dishes with a connection to the British monarchy.
Watch the replay of this ckbk livestream in which Michael Daniel, author of The Gate Vegetarian Cookbook , is joined in the kitchen by Guardian columnist Felicity Cloake. Michael cooks a beetroot soup dish reflecting his Indo-Iraqi-Jewish heritage, and answers questions from ckbk users on vegetarian cooking.
Nawal Nasrallah is an Iraqi-born food writer, food historian, English-language scholar, and translator. She is author of ‘Delights from the Garden of Eden,’ a leading text on Iraqi food, ancient and modern. We quizzed Nawal about her research and her love of cookbooks, and about her upcoming talk at the British Library Food Season.
