Mixed spice recipe & ideas on how to use it

I use mixed spice is for many baking and cooking recipes, especially around autumn and winter time. It’s a lovely mix of spice to have on your spice rack as it has so many uses. Even if you don’t use it in baking, a sprinkle of mixed spice in your breakfast smoothie, porridge or hot chocolate always adds a great flavour.

Mixed spice is originally an English mix of spice with cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves being the dominant spices. There are subtle differences from Gingerbread Mix Spices (addition of cardamon and anise), Pumpkin Pie Spices (more ginger) or Apple Pie Spice mixes.

To make this mixed spice mix you’ll need all the spices in a ground form. It’s best to freshly ground them yourself, but if you don’t have a suitable grinder or pester and mortar, you can buy most of these spices in a ground version. You might have problems with ground coriander and dill, which is why I have included few options for mixed spice blend without these.

What is in mixed spice?

This is a little tricky to answer, because it depends on who is making it.

It depends on the manufacturer, country and different traditions. In most cases mixed spice consists of:

• Cinnamon
• Nutmeg
• Clove
• Ginger

but I’ve also seen spice mixes with

• All spice
• Mace
• Dill Seeds
• Coriander Seeds
• Caraway
• Cayenne Pepper

What can you use instead of mixed spice?

The easiest thing to do is to mix your own homemade version of mixed spice and have it ready whenever you need it.

But if you don’t have all the ingredients at hand, you can always replace the mix with cinnamon. Your cake or whatever you are baking or cooking will have a slightly different flavour, but it won’t change the recipe.

If you have other spices, you can add any combination of cinnamon, nutmeg or cloves (or all spice). Make sure that cinnamon is always the dominant spice, so for example if the recipe calls for 1 1/2 teaspoon of mixed spice, you use 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg (or mixture of other spices you have).

Simple version of mixed spice

I appreciate that my recipe mix needs a bit of shopping, so if you don’t have all the ingredients, here are few alternatives

Mixed spice blend (Supermarket Brand Name)

• 4 teaspoons of Ground cinnamon
• 4 teaspoons of Ground coriander
• 1/4 teaspoon of Ground caraway
• 1/4 teaspoons of Ground Nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon of Ground Ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon of Ground Cloves

Mixed spice blend (Simple version – supermarket budget brand)

• 4 teaspoons of ground Cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon of ground Ginger
• 1 teaspoon of ground Nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon of ground Clove

Mixed spice blend (unusual, but tasty blend)

• 4 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoon of ground coriander seeds
• 1 teaspoon of ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground dill seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground Nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground Clove

Mixed spice blend (well balanced version)

• 1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground all spice
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground coriander
• 1/4 teaspoon of ground mace
• 1/4 teaspoon of ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground cloves

What is mixed spice called in America?

Whilst it’s not exactly the same, you can use Pumpkin Pie Spice to replace mixed spice. Pumpkin Pie Spice has a lot more ginger in than mixed spice and it’s possibly less complex than mixed spice, but it can be used instead of Mixed spice in cakes, puddings or baking.

Is mixed spice the same as all spice?

No, not at all! Mixed spice is a blend of different spices (see the recipes & blends on this page) and all spice is an actual type of spice called in latin Pimenta dioica. All spice looks like a pepper, but the taste is very different. It does have a sweet taste very similar to a mix of cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. Out of all these three spices it’s probably closest to cloves, so if you have a recipe that calls for all spice you can use cloves instead.

In our mixed spices recipes, if you didn’t have cloves or nutmeg, you could increase the amount of all spice to achieve a similar flavour.

How to use mixed spice

• Add to cake baking – especially to any Christmas cake, winter biscuits or autumn muffins
• Add to your breakfast smoothie
• Add to hot porridge or oatmeal
• Sprinkle on hot chocolate
• You can use it in any recipe that includes cinnamon for a nice flavour mix
• Mainly used for sweet bakes and dishes, but you can also add it to sausage mixes, Christmas stuffing or sauces for game meats.

Recipes with mixed spice

• Blackberry Muffins with Yoghurt >>