British food isn’t known to be one of the most raved about cuisines around the world, but if there’s one thing we can brag about, it’s our desserts. From cakes to crumbles and tarts to trifles, we do have our fair share of sweet dishes to be proud of.
As soon December arrives and the festive season begins, the craving for sweet dishes rises.
This is especially true this year, with our longing for endorphin boosts needed now more than ever. Holidu, the search engine for holiday rentals, compiled this mouth watering ranking for us all to savour!
Taking into consideration over fifty typical British desserts, the top ten was revealed by analysing both their popularity on Instagram as well as the number of Google searches for each dessert. Which will you bake first?
1. Apple Crumble
Wearing the crown this year is the delicious apple crumble. With 1,444,720 posts on Instagram (for ‘crumble’ and ‘apple crumble’ combined), it’s a clear winner.
The crumble has a history that dates back to Britain during the Second World War and has remained a favourite since then. This delightful dessert is most commonly made up of baked apples (or also sometimes with berries) topped with rolled oats and brown sugar.
This warm and sugary dish is the perfect comfort food for cold and wintery nights. Click here to view a recipe to make your own.
2. Lemon Drizzle
Light and fluffy on the inside with a kick of zesty goodness, it’s definitely easy to understand why the lemon drizzle scores so high on this list. It’s also incredibly easy to make yourself at home, with very few ingredients required. The lemon drizzle was searched for 213,100 times on Google in the past year, proving its place in the heart of the nation. Check out a recipe here.
3. Scottish Shortbread
Securing a respectable third place is the classic Scottish shortbread, with a huge 522,606 mentions on Instagram. Quite literally a block of pure sugar, butter and flour, this is a simple yet very effective biscuit to accompany your afternoon cuppa. This is also a common treat that’s shared at Christmas, making it perfect for right now! Make your own following this recipe here.
4. Banoffee Pie
Bananas, cream and toffee combined with a biscuity base – what’s not to love?! The banoffee pie is a family favourite, originating from the Jevington region of East Sussex.
Serve your freshly baked pie with a dollop of vanilla ice cream for the best combination. Join 170,783 others who have shown off their variations of the banoffee pie on Instagram and try this recipe here.
5. Bread and Butter Pudding
Another British cuisine classic, scoring a strong 94,900 searches on Google, we have the bread and butter pudding. This dish is created by layering slices of buttered bread and scattered raisins, with an egg custard mixture poured over the top before it is popped in the oven.
If you want to get creative, many people use variations with blackberries, rhubarb or pears. Find a recipe here.
6. Hot Cross Buns
This spiced sweet bun is made up of fruit, currants or raisins and coated in a sticky glazing. The buns are typically eaten on Good Friday in the UK, they also find themselves popular at Christmas time.
With 251,765 mentions in posts on Instagram, they are clearly a popular treat. Click here to learn how to bake your own.
7. Trifle
Now for the trifle, a classic which can often be found on dining tables across Britain as part of the pudding selection of the Christmas meal feast.
Made up of three or four layers of fruit and sponge (soaked in sherry or another fortified wine), jelly and custard.
The trifle scored 225,406 hashtags on Instagram, why not try your hand at making your own this festive season by following this recipe.
8. Bakewell Tart
A Bakewell tart is an English dessert consisting of a shortcrust pastry shell beneath layers of jam, frangipane, and a topping of flaked almonds. Originating from the Bakewell pudding, the Bakewell tart was created in the 20th century in the town of Bakewell in the Derbyshire Dales.
Ready to serve up your own? Add to the current 160,589 Instagram posts and bake your own by following the recipe here.
9. Jaffa Cake
Often finding itself at the heart of a heated debate about whether it should be classed as a biscuit or a cake, whatever you want to call it, the jaffa cake is an absolute British favourite.
Created by McVitie and Price in 1927, this small circular cake is made up of three layers: a sponge base, orange flavoured jam, and a coating of chocolate. It received 54,200 searches on Google and why don’t you follow this recipe to make your very own jaffa cakes here.
10. Sticky Toffee Pudding
Rounding off the ranking is the sticky toffee pudding, with 95,066 posts on Instagram and 49,500 searches on Google.
Warm and gooey, this English dessert consists of a very moist sponge cake that is smothered in a toffee sauce and commonly served with a vanilla custard or vanilla ice-cream. Find a recipe here.