First Term: Lesson 4 - Family Cakes

Lesson 4: Family Cakes – Sticky Prune Cake, Oatmeal Parkin and Apricot Oat Slices

In this lesson, Delia focuses on the kind of comforting, crowd-pleasing bakes that generations of families have loved. She calls them Family Cakes—recipes that are easy to make, wonderfully nostalgic, and popular with all ages.

As always, you can watch Delia make each recipe in her step-by-step videos, making it easy to bake along and pick up expert tips along the way.

Starting with a rich Sticky Prune and Date Cake. This is a melted cake mixture is quick and simple to prepare. Combined butter, chopped dried fruits, water, and sweet condensed milk, is gently simmered to bring out a deep, caramel-like flavour. Once cooled, it’s mixed with wholemeal and plain flours, bicarbonate of soda, and finished with a spoonful of chunky marmalade for an extra burst of citrusy depth.

Delia shows you how to line your 20cm deep round loose-based cake tin using both base and side liners—especially important for longer baking times. After baking, the cake is glazed with warm marmalade, resulting in a moist, sticky, dark toffee-flavoured cake that keeps beautifully in an airtight tin.

Next, continuing with the sticky theme, a classic Traditional Oatmeal Parkin—another easy, melted mixture packed with comforting spice and oats. Baked in an 18cm loose-based tin lined with pleated parchment, this cake actually improves with time. Simply store it in the tin, and it gets even stickier and more delicious as the days go on!

Finally, a recipe with a loyal following—Apricot Oat Slices. These traybake-style bars are incredibly easy to make and full of chewy, fruity goodness. Delia demonstrates the best way to bake them in her specially designed Oblong Tin, complete with a perfectly cut liner for fuss-free baking and easy clean-up.