The 5 best Nigella desserts for your new baking skills, as picked by Sydney Opera House staff
Bring some decadence and indulgence into your quarantine home baking
In need of a therapeutic bake or dessert to impress your socially distant dinner party of (maximum) five? Now is a better time than ever to fill your kitchen with copious amounts of chocolate.
Following the broadcast of Nigella Lawson's full talk (as part of our digital program From Our House to Yours), we asked some of our staff to share their favourite desserts from the culinary goddess of scrumptious, irresistable cooking.
Chocolate Raspberry Pudding Cake
Alice Nguyen, Communications Coordinator:
Once upon a time in a boardroom far, far away, some really clever advertising executives asked themselves an important question: porque no los dos?
That's how I feel about this hybrid pudding-cake. If you love pudding and cake, but also chocolate and raspberries, why not have them all at once?
The decadence of the gooey chocolate paired with the occasional zing of raspberry in every mouthful means you'll be silently basking in the glory of your baking skills and kicking yourself for not making it sooner.
Make this if: It’s cold outside. It’s the dessert equivalent of getting a warm hug.
Brownies
Christina Erksine, General Manager, Marketing:
How much sugar is too much sugar, in isolation? The answer? Don’t even ask the question.
I recently experienced another kind of isolation: the first few weeks (read: months) of maternity leave. As the mother of a then-newborn I found release in these warm, oozy bites, while couch bound and deep in Netflix binging. So not hugely different to my weekends now.
My husband has made it his life’s mission to land the perfect brownie, and this recipe is one of his top picks. Deliciously gnarly, he adds coconut flakes into the flour and nut mix, and another sprinkle before baking.
Make this if: You need a pick me up.
Nutella Cheesecake
Sophie Penkethman-Young, Digital Programming Associate:
Nigella’s Nutella Cheesecake is one of those dishes where the amount of effort it takes to make is so outweighed by the outcome, you start to believe the fridge is bewitching ingredients during the setting process.
The bitterness of the cream cheese and sweetness of the Nutella combined create something so light and fluffy it’s hard to stop eating. It’s also also a super flexible recipe; my tip is to swap the hazelnut topping for raspberries and use half the suggested icing sugar.
If you haven’t seen your friends in a while and are worried you’ve overstated your cooking prowess, this is a go to.
Make this if: You only have twenty minutes in between Zooms before a 6pm dinner party.
Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake
Mimi Nightingale, Marketing Associate:
This truly is the chocolate cake of all chocolate cakes. Rich, melting and deliciously nostalgic.
Growing up, my mum was my very own Nigella, constantly baking all kinds of cakes to satisfy her three sugar-hungry kids. My brothers and I were her best taste testers and biggest critics, and the Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake was a ten out of ten.
Do yourself a favour and indulge in this mouth-watering recipe from the queen of chocolate and see for yourself.
Make this if: You need some nostalgic comfort.
Chocolate Molten Babycakes
Georgia Cockerell, Digital Video Manager:
My dear friend Lizzy is the ‘Nigella’ in our friendship group. She’s sultry, ingenious and an excellent baker. She’s taken up crocheting during lockdown. She’d quite like to retire to the South of France and never go into the office again. She has a risqué routine to Destiny’s Child ‘Survivor’ which she treats us to after a few glasses of wine and a Nigella-inspired decadent dinner party.
And she adores Nigella.
So this one's for you Lizzy, and for all of us in need of a dinner party. May we laugh, dance and eat Chocolate Molten Babycakes together again soon.
Make this if: You fancy something oozy and rich.
Read the original recipe on Nigella.com
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