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Baking & Afternoon Tea

Sponges, scones and tea-time bakes

13 recipes

Baking & Afternoon Tea
Victoria Sponge
Named for the Queen herself: two golden sponges, raspberry jam, softly whipped cream and a snowfall of caster sugar. The Women’s Institute standard against which all cakes are judged.
Serves 8–1050 min totalModerate
Baking & Afternoon Tea
Scones with Clotted Cream & Jam
The cream tea at the centre of Britain’s politest war: Devon says cream first, Cornwall says jam. We take no sides — only seconds.
Makes 827 min totalEasy
Baking & Afternoon Tea
Bakewell Tart
Born of a misunderstood order at the Rutland Arms: raspberry jam under a soft frangipane in crisp shortcrust — Derbyshire’s gift to the tea table.
Serves 8–1075 min totalModerate
Baking & Afternoon Tea
Eccles Cakes
Flaky pastry parcels around buttery currants and brown sugar — sold in Eccles since 1793, banned by the Puritans, unstoppable ever since.
Makes 1048 min totalModerate
Baking & Afternoon Tea
Chelsea Buns
Sticky, glazed spirals of fruit and spice from the old Bun House on Pimlico Road — once so popular that George III queued for them.
Makes 950 min totalModerate
Baking & Afternoon Tea
Simnel Cake
The Easter fruit cake with a marzipan heart and eleven marzipan apostles on top — served since medieval Mothering Sunday.
Serves 12145 min totalInvolved
Baking & Afternoon Tea
Battenberg Cake
The pink-and-yellow chequerboard wrapped in marzipan — created for a royal wedding in 1884 and still the most architecturally satisfying slice on any cake stand.
Serves 870 min totalInvolved
Baking & Afternoon Tea
Lemon Drizzle Cake
Year after year among Britain’s most-baked and most-searched cakes — a soft lemon sponge impregnated with a crackling citrus syrup.
Serves 8–1065 min totalEasy
Baking & Afternoon Tea
Yorkshire Parkin
Sticky, dark ginger-and-oat cake that improves with a week in the tin — the edible essence of Bonfire Night in God’s own county.
Cuts into 12 squares75 min totalEasy
Baking & Afternoon Tea
Egg Custard Tart
Silky nutmeg-dusted custard wobbling in crisp pastry — the bakery-counter classic that England has loved since the court of Richard III.
Serves 870 min totalModerate
Baking & Afternoon Tea
Dorset Apple Cake
A sturdy, apple-crowded cake from cider country — served warm with clotted cream after a walk, as is the law in Dorset tearooms.
Serves 875 min totalEasy
Baking & Afternoon Tea
Lardy Cake
A Wiltshire bakery legend — enriched dough layered with lard, sugar and fruit, baked until the bottom becomes a caramel. Not for the faint-hearted; entirely for the happy.
Serves 1275 min totalModerate
Baking & Afternoon Tea
Manchester Tart
Jam, custard, coconut and a cherry in crisp pastry — the school-dinner tart that Mancunians defend with the same passion as their football clubs.
Serves 865 min totalModerate