Anna Higham's Flourless Chocolate Cake

Meet Anna and her delicious cake ... and enter to win a copy of her book!

Anna Higham’s Chocolate Cake, Olive Oil Ice Cream, and Blood Orange and Olive Oil Dressing (recipes below!)

A few months ago, I shared a recipe for a Lemon and Olive Oil Tart with you from my friend Claudia Fleming’s new book, Delectable, and we did a giveaway. There was so much interest in her book that I gave away two copies! So, let’s do it again, shall we? 

Over the summer I received a copy of Anna Higham’s new book, The Last Bite, and, while I was immediately smitten with the gorgeous cover, I didn’t get a chance to try any of the recipes or even spend that much time looking at it. I was up to my eyeballs working on my own book, which I finally finished writing. I’m now in the editing phase, which is a bit like a game of hot potato. Yesterday I threw the potato back to my editor, so I have a moment to breathe. 

When I finally came up for air, The Last Bite was one of the first books I pulled off my shelf. I met Anna when she was the pastry chef at Lyle’s, a lovely restaurant in the Shoreditch neighborhood of London, which was the last place we visited before the pandemic. All of the memories and experiences of that trip became especially poignant when I thought back to them over the next few years. We had a beautiful dinner at Lyle’s (it was our second time there). It was especially hard to forget the beautiful dessert that capped off the meal.

I was captivated by this beautiful and delicate dessert at Lyle’s a few years ago.

The Last Bite is for the more serious aspiring pastry chefs among you. It’s geared toward the kind of plated desserts that Anna served at Lyle’s, and later at The River Café — meaning, they are often made up of several components. If you wanted to make all of the components for a particular dessert, it might take a day or two, and I assure you it would be worth it for the layers of flavors and textures that it would bring to the plate. Not to mention the understated beauty.

The book is organized by the four seasons, and is mainly fruit focused, with entries in the spring section (when not much is growing) for chocolate, grains, and nuts. There are quite a few interesting ice cream flavors, and inspiration galore.

From Anna:

“Use this book to build desserts of your own. I don’t expect you to replicate every dish but rather look to see how elements can be put together.”

That’s what I did for the recipes I’m sharing today. I chose a chocolate cake (because Valentine’s Day), olive oil ice cream (because I’ve always wanted to make it), and blood orange dressing (because they’re in season and seem kind of sexy for V-Day). Of course I’ll add some sections of the fruit too. Mixing and matching is exactly what Anna encourages you to do with this book.