Guest chef Nicola Lamb!
GF recipe for Ricotta, Marmalade, and Hazelnut Chocolate-Chip Cake PLUS Baker's Dozen Questionnaire
Hello!
This week, I’m so pleased to welcome Nicola Lamb as a guest chef on Have Your Cake!
Nicola is a London-based pastry chef, recipe developer, and the author of Sift: The Elements of Great Baking, which just took home a James Beard Award for Best Baking Book. If you’ve read her Kitchen Projects newsletter, you know what a gift she has for blending exacting technique with creativity—and making even the most intricate pastry feel approachable. Nicola also hosts Lark!, a pop-up bakery in London; you can keep an eye out for the next one if you follow @bakerylark on Instagram.
Her timing on HYC couldn’t be better: I came down with COVID this week (first time—if you have recovery tips, comment below), and it’s been a challenge to get into the kitchen and test recipes as usual. I’m grateful to Nicola for stepping in with such generosity.
Nicola’s sharing her recipe for gluten-free Ricotta, Marmalade, and Hazelnut Chocolate-Chip Cake, which is everything I want in a cake right now: simple, creamy, citrusy, and punctuated with just the right amount of chocolate.
She also took the time to answer my Baker’s Dozen Questionnaire, offering a glimpse into her process, her pastry heroes, and simple food pleasures.
I’m delighted to share her work with you here.
While Sift isn’t a book on gluten-free baking, there are many GF recipes, such as Apricot and Rosemary Polenta Cake, Choconut Tart, Amarettis, Fruity Marshmallows, Maple Pretzel Buttercrunch (using GF pretzels), Panna Cotta with Burnt White Chocolate and Soy, Feta Whipped Cheesecake, and several others.
Baker’s Dozen Questionnaire
What food holds the happiest memories for you?
We used to eat out a lot as a family - we would visit our beloved local Chinese restaurant ‘Good Friends’ weekly. After two decades of it being our family favorite, it has sadly closed down. But those meals really felt like home - it was a huge deal finally bringing a boyfriend to ‘good friends’! Our order would change a bit, but it would always have clsssics like Black bean beef noodles, crispy prawns, morning glory, char siu - we all miss it so much.
2. Which chef, living or dead, do you most admire, and why?
I absolutely adore Jane Grigson. I think her books are essential reading - the acerbic wit is unmatched.
What three cookbooks will you keep forever?
Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater
Chez Panisse desserts by Lindsay Shere
On food and cooking Harold McGee
What is a meal/dessert you never tire of?
I could eat dim sum every day! Followed by ice cream. When I’m in a good ice cream weather country on holiday, I have three a day.
Is there an ingredient or flavor that you find particularly challenging?
I’m still learning to understand and appreciate melon. At the moment i can’t tell if I don’t like it or if I’m just bad at picking a “good” one! I’m sure I’ll get there someday though.
What’s on your playlist for a dinner party with friends?
Fat boy slim, David Bowie, mariah Carey, Diana Ross and Al green. Positive, energetic vibes always!
What's the most memorable meal of your life?
I had a truly extraordinary meal in San Sebastián recently. It was all drizzly and grey outside and we were recommended, by a lovely local, to visit a nearby port where you take a water taxi to a strip of restaurants. We managed to bundle in and get a table and the entire meal blew us away - the most perfect grilled seafood, a bisque served from a vintage dish, platonic ideal fries and a green salad I could eat for the rest of my life. We were all crying!
What kitchen tool do you reach for the most?
Scissors are my ride or die.
Who or what was the biggest influence on your culinary education? A place or chef you wish you could’ve worked with?
Working with Adam Sellar at little bread pedlar really changed the way I think about food. He was an incredible baker who shared so generously - he wanted everyone to know everything he did, and encouraged us to ask all the questions, experiment and to keep being curious. Gatekeeping was not his style.
And truthfully Liz, I’d loved to have worked with you at Tartine! I did come to San Francisco in 2017 and ended up doing a stage at another bakery - I’ll
Always regret not getting in touch.
What was your favorite dessert/sweet thing when you were a kid?
I am a biscuit (the English kind) obsessive. Custard creams, hobnobs, chocolate Leibniz, give me them all!
Favorite kind of birthday cake - either to make or receive?
It’s so funny you ask this as I’m about to launch a column on my newsletter kitchen projects called “my favorite birthday cake” (I hope you’ll guest on it one day!) and ultimately my top top top favorite is a lemon drizzle. That crunchy sugar top with soft yielding sponge is irresistible to me. I’ll be riffing on that this week.
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Feeling satisfied with your simple every day life. It’s good to have big dreams and goals - ambition is important. I like to remember that sometimes the “big” days, milestones or achievements wont feel exactly as you think they will, so I focus my energy on making sure each day is as fulfilling as possible.
What is a favorite saying of yours?
You can do anything, but not everything!
Ricotta, marmalade, and hazelnut chocolate-chip cake
Serves 8
This cake is based on a recipe passed on to me by Nichola Gensler. We’d make this at the bakery on Saturdays and it was always a hit. I’ve increased the fat slightly and used a mixture of hazelnuts and almonds, as well as adding chocolate chips. As someone who grew up eating Jaffa Cakes by the fistful, this is nicely reminiscent of it. It’s Nichola’s brilliant marmalade glaze that really sets this cake apart though. I’ll be forever grateful for it.
Total: 3 hrs 15 mins
Mix cake: 15 mins
Bake & make glaze: 50 mins
Cool: 10 mins
Glaze cake & let cool completely: 2 hrs
Equipment
8-inch/20cm loose-bottomed cake pan
Cake
340g/12-oz jar marmalade with shreds
165g/ ¾ cup butter, softened (68°F is great)
Zest of 1 orange
165g/ ¾ cup plus 1 Tbsp granulated sugar
250g/ 2 ¼ cups ground hazelnuts
70g/ ¾ cup almond flour
3g/ ¾ tsp baking powder
155g/about 3 whole eggs
330g/1 1/3 cups ricotta
2g/ ½ tsp flaky sea salt
100g/ ½ cup plus 1 Tbsp dark chocolate chips (1/8 inch)
Topping
Strained marmalade from above
90g/6 Tbsp orange juice
45g/ ¼ cup granulated sugar
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line the pan with parchment paper.
2. Heat the marmalade and strain through a sieve, retaining the marmalade and shred separately. Set aside.
3. To make in a food processor, blitz the butter, orange zest, granulated sugar, ground nuts, almond flour, and baking powder together, then add the eggs, one by one, andblitz until smooth. Pour the mixture into a larger bowl, then fold in the ricotta, salt, marmalade shred, and chocolate chips.
OR
To make in a stand mixer, cream the butter, orange zest, and granulated sugar together.
Add the eggs and beat with the paddle attachment until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Next, stir in the ground nuts, almond flour, and baking powder. Finally, fold in the ricotta and salt, along with the marmalade shred and chocolate chips.
4. Pour into the cake pan, smooth the top, and bake for 50 minutes, until springy to touch and very deep golden. Let cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes before adding the glaze.
5. To make the glaze, heat the strained marmalade with the orange juice and sugar in a saucepan. Bubble for 1 minute, then allow to thicken, until it can coat the back of a spoon, at about 86°F.
6. Pour the glaze over the still-warm cake and let completely cool in the pan for 1–2 hours. You can put it into the fridge to help the top set. This cake lasts in the fridge for 3–4 days.
“Sift” Copyright © 2024 by Nicola Lamb. Photographs copyright © 2024 by Sam AHarris. Illustrations copyright © 2024 by Nueker. Published in the United States byClarkson Potter/ Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division ofPenguin Random House LLC, New York.
Thank you! And best wishes to Elizabeth for quick recovery!