Don’t feel like baking?
No problem

“There are times when I love the simplicity of being able to rustle up something delicious for dessert or for a party treat quickly without the need to bake – this is the art of “No-Bake” cakes.” Hannah Miles

Behind the cookbook with Elisabeth Luard on Sacred Food

“Certain foods have universal significance but without requiring explanation from professors of ethnology. Seeds, nuts, fruit, eggs, and grains signify renewal; new life from old. Blood, shed or shared, is a metaphor for sacrifice. Sweetness, sugar and honey, makes the heart glad. Wine and strong drink, together with some hallucinogenic substances extracted or obtained by one means or another, are useful to the priesthood, since they allow men to believe they are gods. These foods—presented and prepared in a million different ways, or absent and marked by regret at their absence—are to be found at the heart of all our rituals.” Elisabeth Luard

In Behind the Cookbook: Sacred Food Elisabeth shares insight into how her early work as a natural history artist, and then food and travel writer, and broadcaster, is rooted in research and an anthropological approach. And how this work exploring place and identity is also the basis of Sacred Food, her book on food in religious ceremonies.

For example her chapter on Initiation documents the rich nature of foods that accompany a young person’s welcome into adulthood and their place within the family and society—rich and celebratory foods like this Yeast-Raised Butter Cake that are good for sharing and bringing community together.

The book itself is also very much a cookbook, with dishes to explore and savor. Find German Carnival Donuts, Ramadan Chickpea and Lentil Soup, Provençale Marriage Broth with Saffron, and a feast of further recipes.

Ingredient focus: plums

6 of the best sponge cake recipes

When thinking of cake, it is likely a sponge cake comes to mind first—the first cake many of us attempt to bake, and universally popular and adaptable. So, let’s hear it for the sponge cake! Now dig out that mixing bowl and wooden spoon...