7 inspirational cake recipes to get ready for Bake Off

Most keen home bakers can whip up a passable lemon drizzle cake, but a lemonade cake? That’s much more impressive. With three layers of zest-infused sponge, a zingy lemonade syrup, candied lemon slices and a lemon icing made with sherbet for a bit of fizz, this is an ideal choice for summertime baking. A few edible flowers on top make it look as good as it tastes.

Blackberries are everywhere during late August and early September, so it makes perfect sense to incorporate them in a beautiful four-tier chocolate layer cake. Everything is sandwiched together with a blackberry liqueur jam, before being enveloped in icing made from marshmallow fluff. To top it all off, there’s a chocolate glaze and plenty of fresh whole blackberries, adorned with edible gold and dark chocolate curls.

Claire Clark is the queen of cake making, so it’s no surprise that her coffee cake looks fit for royalty. The sponge is baked in a bundt tin before being soaked in rum-infused sweet coffee and covered in whipped vanilla cream while a dusting of freeze-dried raspberries, a sprinkle of crystallised rose petals and quartered fresh figs provides the decoration. For such an impressive looking cake it’s a cinch to make, too.

If you like chocolate then you’ll love this – a perfect marriage of mousse and cake from the very talented chef William Drabble. Thick, rich chocolate mousse is sandwiched between two thin layers of chocolate cake, which is then covered completely in a shiny chocolate glaze. To counteract all that richness, there’s a raspberry sorbet served on the side, with some tangy raspberry sauce added for good measure.

If you’re looking to impress, then the sheer height of Angela Field’s layer cake is guaranteed to do the job. Four layers of espresso and cacao-flavoured sponge are stuck together and covered with a thin layer of chocolate buttercream, before a mocha-flavoured glaze gets poured on top. The cacao nibs offer a bit of crunch against the fluffy cake and smooth, rich icing, which contrasts perfectly with the bitter coffee. An absolute beauty of a cake.

For something a little more contemporary (and very Instagram-friendly), Sally Abé’s ombre cake looks like it’s come straight from a fashion shoot. The sponges – stuck together with raspberry jam – are flecked with lemon thyme leaves, with crystallised lemon thyme to garnish. The gradient effect on the outside is achieved by making several batches of buttercream with different amounts of red food colouring, then smoothing them all together.

Raspberry, rose and chocolate is a tried and tested flavour combination that’s guaranteed to please, and this cake puts all three centre-stage. Three perfect cocoa sponges are sandwiched together with pretty pink blobs of rose Swiss meringue buttercream, with a central core of raspberry jam hidden away inside. A few dried rose petals on top set this cake off perfectly, and it’ll go perfectly with a cup of fruit tea.