Happy New Year and welcome to 2026.

I have to say, not much has changed. So much so, in fact, that I couldn’t even bring myself to write a reflection for 2025, because it would have looked almost identical to the reflections for 2024. I never quite managed to move forward in the ways I’d hoped, and there has been far too much drama, draining… and I am not sure that I am any the wiser for it.

So I did what I always do when I feel all at sea: I baked a cake.

This is what I did on the first day of 2026. Life is always better when something is pending in the oven. 

The cake comes courtesy of Sabrina Ghayour, from Persiana Every Day — one of her many books that I own and regularly consult with the best of intentions. While flicking through it before Christmas, thinking about what I might cook for family, I came across this cake. It’s the very last recipe in the book (page 226), and I was seduced by the combination of tahini and chocolate.

I didn’t actually bake it for Christmas. As you may have gathered from my previous post, December was all about keeping things minimal and reducing stress wherever possible. Still, I knew this was a cake that needed to be made at some point.

And here it is.

It is a marble cake — a style achieved where bakers swirled light and dark batters together to resemble veined marble stone. This version adds tahini, which is made from ground sesame seeds. It also made me smile because this is very much my sort of cake.

Back in 2014, I attempted another marbled creation, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Zebra Cake by Lorraine Pascale. You can see the evidence for yourself here:
👉 https://burbujachica.wordpress.com/2014/09/20/crouching-tiger-hidden-zebra-cake/

It’s fair to say that cake… needed work. Quite a lot of work, actually. Strangely enough, I never went back to it – and, if I’m honest, I might not. But never say never…

This cake, however, was so easy to make and a joy to put together. The only thing I did not have was sesame seeds, and it being New Year’s Day, there was nowhere particularly to go to get some. But I don’t think it mattered the cake was gorgeous.

I’m writing this on the second day of the year, sitting in my kitchen after a full day of work – first day back, same old, same old – enjoying half a slice of this cake with a cup of peppermint tea.

And honestly? I’m in heaven.

SERVES 6–8

Ingredients

4 eggs

200g golden caster sugar (I used 180 g)

1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

75ml double cream

100g unsalted butter, melted (I used salted butter)

175g plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

2 tablespoons tahini

2 teaspoons sesame seeds

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan), Gas Mark 4. Line a 900g loaf tin with a nonstick paper liner, or cut a rectangle of baking paper, scrunch it up, then smooth it out and use to line the tin.

Put the eggs, sugar and vanilla bean paste into a mixing bowl and beat together until well combined. Mix in the cream, followed by the melted butter, mixing again until evenly combined. Add the flour and baking powder and mix thoroughly until you have a smooth batter.

Tip one-third of the batter into a separate bowl and set aside, then add the cocoa powder to the batter in the main bowl and mix until evenly incorporated.

Pour the chocolate batter into the lined tin. Drizzle the tahini all over, then pour the plain batter on top. Swirl a butter knife or fork handle gently through the batter to make a few swirly patterns, then sprinkle over the sesame seeds.

Bake the cake for 45–50 minutes, or until a skewer or knife inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Remove from the oven, turn the cake out of the tin on to a wire rack and leave to cool. Serve in slices.

Reference: Sabrina Ghayour, Persiana Everyday, page 226