Q: I'm hoping The Kitchn's talented readership can help me! My boss is British, born and raised, and although she's been in the States for more than half her life she understandably misses many of the things she grew up with that don't exist here.

Her birthday is coming up and I would love to make her favorite dessert, date and walnut cake. I had never heard of it before meeting her and I have no idea where to begin with recipes. I searched google.co.uk but there are predictably thousands and I would prefer one that can come personally recommended. Can you help a poor Yank out?

Sent by Jessica More

Is it time for your mid-day tea break? Then pour your self a cuppa and learn how to make authentic Cornish pasties in this short but entertaining video from The Guardian, a UK newspaper. Our cook today is Kay Bolitho and she's making her pasties as her mother and grandmother did before her in a delightfully eccentric manor house kitchen. More

The second series of "Downton Abbey" premieres this weekend on PBS and if you're as obsessed as we are, you might be planning your very own viewing party complete with period-appropriate food and drink. Here's an Edwardian-era cake that we highly recommend. It includes several ingredients you probably have in your winter larder ... and don't worry, it's much better than Mrs. Patmore's salty pudding! More

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I don't buy too many cookbooks (and when I do, there's a one in/one out policy), but a couple of times a year I log on to Amazon.co.uk and indulge in the pleasure of ordering new British cookbooks. Why on earth would one want cookbooks from the land of supposedly bland, unimaginative food? Because they're anything but! Lately it seems that some of the most colorful, flavorful, and inspiring cookbooks are coming out of the multicultural UK. Here are three that I've made room for in my collection… More

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