Food writer Jane Dunn, famed for her hugely popular blog, Jane’s Patisserie, is back with a new recipe collection of absolute classic bakes.
If you haven’t watched hit chef drama The Bear, imagine the most stressful situation you possibly can, in which everyone you hate and love is shouting over one another, refusing to listen, and absolutely anything could combust in an instant.
“It very much represents what I trained to do,” says food writer Jane Dunn with a laugh. The 32-year-old studied at Ashburton Chefs Academy in Devon, but became a baking blogger when she realised high-pressure kitchens weren’t actually her Mecca. “Very quickly, I went, ‘I don’t think I can do this.’”
The Bear, she says, is “very accurate – the pressure people feel because food is love and life and a lot of care goes into it.” She is much happier watching it, than living it, and instead, Dunn, who grew up in Portsmouth, has spun her own incredibly successful corner of the food world into being – out of sugar, chocolate orange (her favourite flavour), and a wholesome, inspiring approach to baking, through her blog, Jane’s Patisserie.
Ten years into blogging, with around 2.2 million followers across her social platforms (“Which is eeek,” she says, wordless. “The fact this is my job still baffles me,”), she’s sold half a million cookbooks.
And while she’s not in The Bear’s frenetic cheffing world, she has had her own rather major TV milestone recently. Dunn appeared on Saturday Kitchen for the first time, baking scones to feed host Matt Tebbutt. “It’s something I’d grown up watching, so that was very surreal to be on the other side of the camera,” says Dunn. “I was stood in the studio going, ‘What is my life right now? I’m filming Saturday Kitchen. This is BBC One on a Saturday. This is insane.’” What helped was having faith that her scones would be delicious. Once it was done, “I was like, ‘I want to do it again, straight away.’”
Dunn’s latest recipe collection – which features her cheese, bacon and leek scones – is Jane’s Patisserie: Classic. Packed with “core baking and delicious treats”, there’s retro recipes such as black forest gateau that have leapt straight out of childhood memories from the Eighties and Nineties, homemade versions of supermarket staples, like checkerboard Battenberg cake and Jammy Dodgers, alongside some very on-brand ‘Jane’s Patisserie’ crazy baking mashups, including a brownie tart, cinnamon roll blondies and cookienuts (cookie doughnuts).
Her other challenge, this summer especially, is baking when it’s 30C outside. “It’s horrible,” she says grinning, noting that her oven goes on at 7am and then she gets out of the kitchen as quickly as possible, or resorts to no-bake bakes, like her no-bake white chocolate and ginger cheesecake.
Cookies are Dunn’s favourite bake to make, carrot cake is her favourite to eat, and she finds sweet peanut butter bakes the least tempting (“I have too much of an affinity for satay,”) but she’s always experimenting with flavours. The flavours of tiramisu are receiving a lot of love at the moment, popping up in a layer cake and truffles. “If I’m at a restaurant, typically there’s either tiramisu or sticky toffee pudding [on the menu]. If there’s both, I will order both, because I want to find out which one’s the better one,” she says solemnly.
Dunn is very much of the belief that sugar is not the enemy, and we all deserve something sweet every now and again – double puddings included. “Everything I do is about balance. I think you can have cake and dessert as part of a nice diet and treat yourself. And food is food. Food is fuel. It’s good for the soul,” she says.
Interestingly, the rise in people’s concerns around ultra-processed foods has nudged many towards her recipes. “People are appreciating homemade food a lot more than shop-bought or processed,” says Dunn. “It’s opening up the minds of people to go, ‘Oh, actually, we can still have cake. How about we make it ourselves?’ We know what’s in it. It’s cheaper, and it’s worth doing.” There’s an element of processing to almost all ingredients, whether it’s butter or sugar, “but knowing that it is just sugar, compared to a Victoria sponge on the supermarket shelf with 50 ingredients in it,” is different, she adds, “if you make it at home, it’s four or five.”
Dunn is very aware that the cost of ingredients and switching the oven on can put people off baking from scratch, but sees the act of baking as a treat in itself and “quite an indulgent” activity. “I can just take a minute and relax, and you get something delicious at the end. I love baking, because then when I feed everyone with all of my cakes, they also get happy. It’s a treat for everyone.” The washing up, not so much though: “I don’t think I could live without a dishwasher. I’m not gonna lie.”
Jane Dunn’s salted pretzel brownies recipe
Sweet, salty, moreish, these brownies won’t last long.
“Can I just say that I am utterly and completely addicted to baking these brownies. I can’t count the amount of times I have made them any more because I genuinely love them that much,” buzzes food writer Jane Dunn.
“They look satisfying, too, with every piece being covered in pretzels, top and bottom, and even with a caramel swirl on top … they are unreal. I sprinkle on extra bits of sea salt because I really do adore the salty crunch, and the thick, chocolatey nature of the base brownie is wonderful.”
Ingredients
(serves 8)
200g dark chocolate
200g unsalted butter or baking spread
4 eggs
275g soft light brown sugar
100g plain flour
50g cocoa powder
100g salted pretzels (roughly 72 smaller pretzels)
150g caramel sauce
Sea salt, for sprinkling
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC/160ºC fan and line a 23cm (9in) square cake tin with parchment paper.
2. Melt the dark chocolate and butter together in a bowl in the microwave in short bursts, or in a pan over a low heat, then leave to cool for 10 minutes.
3. In another bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar together for a few minutes until doubled in volume and mousse-like. Fold through the melted chocolate mix, followed by the flour and cocoa powder.
4. Layer pretzels on the bottom of the cake tin and carefully pour over the brownie mix. Swirl through the caramel sauce and sprinkle over some salt. Add a second layer of pretzels on top. Bake for 25–30 minutes until there is a slight wobble in the middle, then leave to cool fully in the tin.
5. Set the brownies in the fridge for a couple of hours for a super-fudgy texture.
Notes:
• I use the small crunchy pretzels that you can find in the snack/crisp aisle at the supermarket – the amount you need may vary depending on the size of the pretzel.
• You can add chocolate chips to the brownies if you want even more chocolate.
• You can air-fry half of this recipe in an 18cm square tin for 14–16 minutes at 160ºC.
Jane Dunn’s tiramisu layer cake recipe
Take this dessert to the next level – with lots of tiers.
“Tiramisu is one of the most iconic and classic desserts in the world, and my gosh, do I adore it! Typically it has a layer of coffee-soaked sponge fingers, with a whipped mascarpone topping. Oh my. However, translating that idea into a layered sponge cake is EVEN BETTER,” promises food writer and blogger Jane Dunn.
“I make a moist and light sponge cake, soak it with a coffee sugar syrup, then decorate it with a sweetened coffee soft cheese frosting, and it is so tasty. This cake is 100% the cake I would bring to a party and maybe just sit and eat myself, as I wouldn’t want to share.”
Ingredients
(Serves 15+)
400g unsalted butter or baking spread, at room temperature
400g soft light brown sugar
400g self-raising flour
7 eggs
1tsp vanilla extract
For the syrup
100ml water
100g soft light brown sugar
2tbsp instant coffee
75ml Kahlúa
For the frosting
200g unsalted butter, at room temperature
200g icing sugar
1tsp vanilla extract
1tsp instant coffee, dissolved and cooled
400g full-fat soft cheese
1tsp cocoa powder
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC/160ºC fan and line three 20cm round cake tins with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until combined. Add the flour, eggs and vanilla extract to the bowl and beat again. Split the mixture between the three tins and bake for 30–35 minutes.
3. For the syrup: While the cakes bake, add the water, sugar, instant coffee and Kahlúa to a pan. Heat over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Soak into the baked cakes once they are out of the oven and leave them to cool fully in the tins.
4. For the frosting: Beat the butter in a large bowl on its own for a couple of minutes until smooth. Add the icing sugar, vanilla extract and cooled coffee and mix again until smooth. Add the soft cheese, and beat in fully. Layer the sponges with the frosting, until you reach the top layer – I like to pipe mine onto the top, but you can swirl it over and sprinkle it with cocoa powder.
Notes
• You can make this alcohol-free by leaving out the coffee liqueur and replacing it with more instant coffee dissolved in water, or just more water.
• You can make the sponges chocolatey by replacing 75g of self-raising flour with 75g of cocoa powder.
Jane Dunn’s Battenberg cake recipe
The classic checkerboard cake isn’t quite as tricky to make as you might think.
“I think everyone has probably seen a Battenberg cake by this point, right? It’s famous for its shape and style, and even colours and flavours – so why not make a homemade version?” asks food blogger and recipe writer Jane Dunn.
“I want to show you that this bake is incredibly easy to achieve by yourself, and it’s far less scary than it may look or sound. I went for the classic yellow and pink colours for the sponge, flavoured with vanilla or almond, sandwiched with apricot jam and covered in marzipan. Of course, if you wanted to change up the colours for a theme, this is one of the best bakes in the world for that.”
Ingredients
(Serves 8)
250g unsalted butter or baking spread, at room temperature
250g caster sugar
4 eggs
175g self-raising flour
75g ground almonds
1tsp baking powder
1tsp vanilla or almond extract
Pink food colouring
For the decoration
100g apricot jam
400g marzipan
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC/160ºC fan and grab a 23cm (9in) square tin. Make a foil division in the middle of the tin, then line both halves with parchment paper so you get two rectangles.
2. Beat the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until fluffy. Add the eggs, flour, ground almonds, baking powder and extract of choice and mix.
3. Split into two, and colour one half pink. Pour each into a half of the tin and bake for 30–40 minutes. Leave to cool fully in the tin.
4. Once cooled, cut each cake in half lengthways. Sandwich the cake slices together with apricot jam. Cover with more apricot jam and then completely cover with the marzipan. Serve with the join underneath the cake.
Notes:
• You can flavour the coloured sponges as you like, such as lemon for the yellow and raspberry for the pink, if you have the flavourings available.
• Trim the edges of the sponges so you can fit the layers together neatly.
• You can colour the sponges whatever colours you want to suit a theme.
• One good top tip: you can use two 900g loaf tins instead to make it easier – the bake time for these is 28–32 minutes.
Jane’s Patisserie: Classic by Jane Dunn is published in hardback by Ebury Press, priced £25. Photography by Ellis Parrinder.
