Cake recipes

There is genuine happiness in homemade cake at teatime. Shop-bought cake is all very well for pudding, but homecake cake is right and proper for tea.

Anyone can bake a cake and enjoy it-all you need is sugar, eggs, flour, butter, a little time and a modicum of patience. Cakes don’t like to be hurried, which is just as well, as it’s the process itself-beating, folding, mixing, tipping, spreading, waiting-that brings the warm glow of a job well done, making it all worthwhile. And if the end result isn’t quite perfect-well, who needs perfection anyway? It’s the thought that counts.

Discover some of our favourite cake recipes here at Country Life, from chefs including our kitchen garden cook: Melanie Johnson, Thomasina Miers, Elisabeth Luard and more.