IELTS Speaking for Success - 🎂 Describe a special cake you received from others (Part 2) + Transcript

Episode Date: June 19, 2026

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Hello, hello, lovely and welcome into IELD speaking part two. Describe a special cake you received from others. You should say, when it happened, where it happened, who you got the cake from, and explain why it's a special cake. Rory, are you ready to tell us your tasty story? Yes. I suppose the one that is. it immediately comes to my mind as my last birthday cake. So speaking about when I got it, this would have been the 24th of August 2025, actually, since that's when my last birthday was.

I went round to my parents with a few of my friends and some relatives from abroad joined us, just since it was a joint birthday party as well. One of my aunts has a similar birthday to me. I think she's the day before. So because it was happening at the same time, we were all together. And if we consider exactly where this was, I know I said it was my parents, but it was such a nice day. We decided to have the party in the back garden on the decking. And then when I think about who gave it to me, I actually don't remember. But I suspect it was a joint birthday cake from everybody. And they all covered it in candles.

Actually, almost to the extent it was a fire hazard. and there was one for every year and it was my 36th. As for why it was special, well, it's a birthday cake, or it was a birthday cake, and who doesn't love that? I think it was also just nice because of who it was from and what it symbolized as well, getting older and wiser and being surrounded by people who love and care about you, or in this case people who love and care about me. Plus, even though I'm not a big fan of sugar,

and I've always, well, I'm always trying to cut down, I absolutely love the taste of birthday cake and I seldom get to have it, so this was like a special treat for me. It wasn't a particularly special one in terms of like the toppings or the icing or anything, but it's just like a nice taste to have. If I hadn't been given it, I doubt it would have been a big deal, but it's nice to have these little gestures, isn't it? And what about your family? Did they enjoy the cake? I assume so because there was none of it left by the time the party was over. As you know, we now release all of our premium content for free, and it's available for one month. After one month, it goes into our super secret archive.

To sign up for the archive, click the link in the description below. See you soon. So, do you listen, describe a cake. Describe a special cake you received from others, or describe a cake, describe a cake you liked, you know, like anything about a cake. And we're talking about a birthday cake or a wedding cake or just a cake. I think we only really have cake for birthdays and weddings. Is that it?

No. Like sometimes, you know, like on a Friday, you just go shopping and you just buy a cake, you know? Oh, maybe this is you. I don't do that. No, okay. But if I feel like it, you know, why not? Yeah, I can get myself a cake and it's special. Right, the listener, but the vocabulary is.

is going to be very specific. We need to describe a cake. The easiest option is to talk about your birthday cake. Even if you didn't have a cake for your birthday, just say it. But you will have to describe it. Yeah. And you start off with one cake that comes to mind, that one cake I remember is my birthday cake.

The first thing that stands out in my mind. So the first thing you can think of. I got it in August. I got it last year. I got it last month or I got it in May like when's your birthday. I went round to my parents. I visited my parents or I went around to my friends. I went round to my boyfriend, girlfriend, to my colleagues. Maybe you got a cake at work. Ooh, that would be nice. Yeah. So I celebrated it with my colleagues at work. My colleagues gave it to. me or I went around to my my relatives were there, my aunts, uncles,

and it was a joint birthday party. So all of us got together, like family, friends. It was a shared birthday. A shared birthday. So I invited my friends and my relatives, my family. We had a party at home. We had a party in the back,

garden, or I had a party at work in the office, or in a cafe maybe, in a restaurant, or just in a park. Again, dear listener, you just can imagine, like, imagine, like your birthday in a park. Like, it was a picnic birthday, why not? You can say that I bought it myself, or I got it from my parents, my friends gave me the cake, or I just don't really remember. I don't really remember who gave it to me. Or I actually don't really remember. I still don't remember, even though I'm thinking about it now in more detail.

Yeah, kind of like, to be honest with you, I don't remember who gave it to me. It was a joint birthday cake from everyone. You can say that it was covered in candles. So there were a lot of candles. On the cake, right, Rory? Or in the cake. On the cake, yes. in the cake there will be the filling, the jam, perhaps, the sponge.

Yeah, when you describe a cake, you say it was filled with fruit. So fruit was inside the cake. Oh, do you want fruit in your cake? Yeah, why not like strawberries, for example? Well, that's okay, with jam. Yeah, yeah. Or kind of like, eat the cake had a nice feeling. So feeling is something that is inside the cake.

Or for example, the cake had a creamy feeling or a sweet feeling made of jam. So fruit feeling, cream feeling. And what do we say about the icing? Well, the icing is like the sugar covering of the cake. Usually it's got like bright colors on it. Or it can be white, I think. So filling inside the cake and icing on the cake. The cake was made with fruit, vanilla, chocolate.

Like, it had chocolate filling. Sounds ideal. I don't think mine had chocolate filling. I think it was just jam. All right. What flavor? Strawberry jam, maybe. This was a long time ago.

No, you don't remember. Okay. Yeah, it's okay. Just say, oh, I don't remember what flavor it had. Flavor is like the taste. So, like, vanilla flavor, chocolate flavor. You can say it had some nuts, fruits. coffee perhaps it had coffee flavor yeah or you can say like it was quite fatty the cake was

fat you know like full of fat and fatty cream sounds ideal yeah like it was very sugary it was very sweet and if you have the time you could talk about the different colors of the cake i didn't need to do that but if i remember correctly i think the icing was white and the candles were red, blue and white, for example. So you've got to keep talking until the examiner says thank you. So if they haven't said thank you yet, then you could just say, and the colors were also beautiful and then describe the colors in more detail. Yeah, I mean, it was like nice, like, what, red with fresh strawberries on top.

You can say that I'm not a big fan of sugar. Like, I don't like sugar much. I'm trying to cut down on sugar. Yeah, phrase of verb. Deal is that even if you eat sugar every day, you just use this phrase of verb, okay? Yeah, I'm not a big fan of sugar and I'm always trying to cut down on sugar. So to reduce my sugar intake. I try to reduce sugar in my life. I'm trying to cut down on sugar.

Or I'm trying to cut down on sweets, but I absolutely. loved the taste of this birthday cake. I rarely eat a cake or seldom, like almost never. I rarely eat a cake, I seldom eat a cake, but it was a special treat. Because you are talking about a special cake you got from others, so it was a special treat. Treat like it was a special event, like a special something for me. A special enjoyable occasion. Wow, Rory. A birthday treat is C2? Is it?

It is. Can you believe it? Wow. What a weird collocation to have is that. I know. Yeah, like it was my birthday treat. It was something special, enjoyable, like a celebration, a reward, a cake. So I like, C2, Ben 9.

An unexpected Ben 9 moment. Yeah, yeah, do you listen. So it was a special birthday treat. read for me. Then Rory used a crazy conditional. Dear listener, if you don't like conditionals, forget about it. But we can use the third conditional because the story is in the past. And we are imagining if no cake, if I hadn't had the cake, it would have been something

else. Okay. I would have had a pizza, but I did have a cake and I didn't have a pizza, okay? The third conditional. Or in the passive. So if I hadn't been given this cake, it would not have been a big deal. I would have been okay without the cake. It's crazy, I know. So if it's difficult for you, forget about it. No. Oh, try. No, but come on. Like, come on. It's difficult. Like, you can use the second conditional.

For example, oh, if I could, I'd buy this same cake for my friend's birthday. Okay, if I could, I'd buy. Right. If I had some time, I'd make the same cake for my friends. Yeah, you can also use some special words. Like, oh, it was a cheesecake. It was a homemade cake. Okay.

Just use ice. use feeling okay and you'll be fine what adjectives can we use about the cake so the cake was and mm hmm delicious yeah

tasty creamy if the cake is creamy oh it was sweet and creamy and if there's sugar in it then we could say it's sugary of course now we all feel hungry yeah de listen and then yeah like you say like I ate a slice of the cake, right? A piece of cake, like a slice. Like, I had three slices. Yeah, and you say, like, oh, like, my friends made it. It was a piece of cake for them. I was tempted to make that joke, but then I knew that you would do it. So I just let you go ahead and do it.

Yeah, a piece of cake is something easy. Yeah, so you can crack a joke and use this idiom. Or, like, or like organizing this party was a piece of cake. It was very easy for me. Oh, God. I know. And then it just like, come on. Right. If it was a special cake, again, like, just Google this cheesecake, the ingredients, and have about like three, four words to describe your cake. Okay, if, for example, you ate a healthy cake without any flour, okay? No sugar cake.

Roy, have you ever eaten, like, no sugar cake? A sugar-free cake? Oh, no. Oh. It was a flowerless chocolate cake. Like no flour. This white thingy that we usually put, no sugar. It was without flour, without sugar.

So sugar-free, flower-less cake. Flower-less, no flour. Maybe, like, it was made, it was like banana oat bread. Yeah, just a cake made of bananas and carrots. I don't know. Wow. Well, you can't have carrot cake, and that's all right. Yeah, like without, with like natural sweetness.

Yeah, you can say like, oh, it was a delicious cake with natural sweetness, no gluten, no gluten, and sugar-free. No dairy. Dairy, like milk products, no dairy. So pretty much like no cake, you know, it was something strange. It was just something else, not a cake really. And so totally pointless to mention. Right, dear listener, thank you very much for listening. Hopefully you are now hungry.

just try to cut down on sugar in your life, okay? Maybe a cake once a month, once in two months, all right? Two slices, all right? We'll get back to you in our next episode. About cakes in general. Is it about cakes in general? Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yeah, meals, food and cakes. Oh, nice, okay.

See you there. Bye. Bye. Describe a special cake you received from other. this. You should say when it happened, where it happened, who you got the cake from, and explain why it's a special cake. I suppose the one that immediately comes to my mind is my last birthday cake. So speaking about when I got it, this would have been the 24th of August 2025, actually, since that's when my last birthday was. I went round to my parents with a few of my friends and some

relatives from abroad joined us. Since it was a joint birthday party as well, one of my aunts has a similar birthday to me. I think she's the day before. So, because it was happening at the same time, we were all together. And if we consider exactly where this was, I know I said it was my parents, but it was such a nice day. We decided to have the party

in the back garden on the decking. And then when I think about who gave it to me, I actually don't remember. But I suspect it was a joint birthday cake from everybody and they all covered it in candles. Actually, almost to the extent it was a fire hazard. There was one for every year and it was my 36th. As for why it was special, well, it's a birthday cake or it was a birthday cake and who doesn't love that? I think it was also just nice because of who it was from and what it symbolised as well. I'm getting older and wiser and being surrounded by people who love and care about you,

or in this case people who love and care about me. Plus, even though I'm not a big fan of sugar, and I've always, well, I'm always trying to cut down, I absolutely love the taste of Burstay Cake, and I seldom get to habit, so this was like a special treat for me. It wasn't a particularly special one in terms of like the toppings or the icing or anything, but it's just like a nice taste to have. I hadn't been given it. I doubt it would have been a big deal, but it's nice to have these little gestures, isn't it? And what about your family? Did they enjoy the cake? I assume so,

because there was none of it left by the time the party was over.