Fiona Cairns is a most accomplished British cookbook author with a fascination for dessert. And, she has a fascinating ability to develop recipes and present them to home cooks enabling us all to actually taste a fascination. The recipe presentation is easy to follow, easy to make, and very easy to consume. Other British authors you may have heard about, say, Diana Henry, love Fiona’s extraordinary creations. So will you.
If you pick up a British cookbook [okay, cookery book], and in particular if you pick up a British dessert book, then you are going to be instantly comforted. Imagine yourself in a British garden, filled with herbs and fruits and berries. The garden is warm, hopefully not rainy, and the cookbook is literally a treasure trove of recipes that never really leave that garden.
Honey, jam, rhubarb, lavender, berries, blackcurrants, and apples are among the ingredients woven through these recipes. These are not “standard” recipes in the American sense. These are British-garden inspired recipes. Oh, there is a Chocolate Tart but it’s a Cardamom Chocolate Tart. Spices abound here, too.
The book is set out by seasons and it is timely to review it now. Soon, very soon, we will have Spring and spring recipes include:
- Rhubarb Compote, to enjoy on its own or put atop cakes
- Lime Curd filled with zest and juice
- Rippled Chocolate Meringue Nest for Easter
The garden and the dessert options are at their peak in the Summer:
- Classic Victoria Sandwich, a rich butter-vanilla cake with jam filling
- Caramel Meringue Baskets with Wild Strawberries, stick, gooey and irresistible
- Earl Grey, Cardamom and Orange Loaf, every British book has to have Earl Grey
- Gooseberry Crumble Cake with Gooseberry and Elderflower Fool Cream, a lovely word is fool
- Honey Cupcakes with Lavender Buttercream, every book also has to have lavender
On the other hand, maybe the best baking is in the Autumn:
Coffee, Cardamom and Walnut Cake, a riff on a British classic
Poire William Mousse Cake, using that bottle of liqueur you do have resting away
Blackberry, Apple and Cobnut Crumble Cake, cobnuts are filberts
Fig, Blackcurrant and Fennel Tarts, a combination that you must consider
Winter poses challenges for anyone wedded to their garden, but the British always rise:
Dundee Cake, the most famous of Scottish cakes, a very light, delightful fruit cake
Chocolate Cardamom Tart, a classic blend of cocoa and spice
Fig, Port and Star Anise Christmas Cake, see the picture below and I’ll post the recipe in December!
Seasonal Baking is a book that you cannot breeze through. You turn a page, you pause. What would that taste like? Turn the page. Oh, that one? What would … This is a happy book. I think it does ring of that garden and summer in every season, but that may be just because I’m watching it snow now outside my window. I can dream. I can hope. Or I can start baking. With Seasonal Baking.
Update: you might wonder how I know this book is good, if it works. I understand. Suzen is the chef in the family, but I cook too. I know recipes and I'm very confident about this book. Oh, there's one more thing. In 2011 there was this wedding for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in Great Britain. You may have seen it on TV. Fiona designed and made their quite spectacular wedding cake. If she is good enough for the Royals, she's really just fine for us ex-colonists.
