STRAWBERRIES & CREAM CHEESECAKE

I really should start writing an autobiographical pocket novel called ‘The unbearable loneliness of a being on bank holiday weekends’ or ‘Izzy’s day out’ or ‘I should have stayed at home’ and the story would go like this. One weekend someone doesn’t have time in their life for vegan cake, and another obviously less antisocial individual escapes to mainland Europe for coffee leaving you all alone staring at the ceiling of your tiny tiny studio flat in a part of town that’s suddenly turned into something too trendy for your run-away-from-home self to hang out unaccompanied by a freelance jewellery designer husband and a toddler. But not all is lost. Never mind washing your hair (it adds to the charm), you jump on a train to dear Peckham, where people’s main concern appears to be the price of plantains and you can wander around middle Eastern bargain stores that resemble Narnia and art galleries and take photos of songbirds in alleys and sit in cafés sipping rhubarb tea and writing postcards to worried parents who now label you as bohemian, then go back home with a new-found quite concerning feeling of belonging, a bag of blackcurrant sweets and twelve hundred grams of strawberries for your (almost) raw vegan cheesecake because as it turns out, you are one of those people who do have time in their life for vegan cake and I fail at seeing anything wrong with that.

The end.

MANGO SORBET WITH CHOCOLATE

Spring really should sort itself out and shut the doors to winter once and for all, like the Stalinist Russian regime that rules my brain shuts tries but miserably fails to shut the doors to people who never opened theirs to me. But whether you too are a miserable Londoner who struggles to enjoy ten minutes of warmth and sun per day, or you live in a normal place where seasons are a thing, you can still relish some delicious raw fruity sorbet with a crunchy dark chocolate topping. It’s ready in an instant and provides instant peace for your tummy and soul, and who gives half a duck about doors or seasons or wastage of feelings after all.

QUINOA CAROB MUFFINS

Superfood muffins come to a very good use when you go clubbing on a Monday night and miss your last train to Hogwarts or when the cursed and blessed open road that people call life makes you emotionally unstable and incapable of deciding whether you want to spend the rest of your life in a Scottish mansion with a view or in a studio flat in Peckham that very closely resembles a bunker from the Great War. In fact, they are so good you can munch on them without really worrying about TV cables or overworked Chinese project managers or falling asleep on your keyboard at work or work in general or dressing appropriately or again being overqualified for relationships. There’s the wonders of quinoa carob muffins for you.

GOJI BERRY COCONUT CAKE

It’s during long dark weeks like this that your mind suddenly decides to sack reality off and bolts out to places where you can wear clogs every day without socks and you can cycle around without hitting cars nor having to go to work and where people first allow each other to hug and be hugged and then months after that they meet.

It is very unfortunate however that we also have a body (no matter how full of mucus and disgusting it may be) and you will find that they are incredibly more difficult to reposition than minds. In fact, my one is stuck in a very cold windy environment and it’s not coping well (see under mucus and disgustingness), plus it really doesn’t help that Pret’s gingerbread men there are not vegan and can’t be shared.

Thankfully, in this very same environment you can find goji berries and coconut and vegan cake, and a combination of the above makes it so worth it to tell your thoughts and dreams to resign. It worked a treat for me (ha), you let me know.

APPLE BUCKWHEAT CAKE

Getting ill on weekends seems to be my favourite thing to do in the world, and when you don’t have any sort of contact with human beings of any sort for three and a half days, and you stay all curled up in bed like an amoeba for three and a half days, then it’s quite understandable that you kind of wish you were home where caring human beings feed you ice cream and you don’t have to go out to buy carrots with a fever and toilet paper and that sort of things. So now that I am apparently succeeding in defeating disease, I gathered all the strength I had left (just enough to grate an apple to be precise) and baked something kind of home-related. Buckwheat flour is very common where I’m from in Northern Italy so here’s a buckwheat flour cake. It’s very light and moist because of the apple and apple puree and it’s usually served with a redcurrant or blueberry or raspberry jam filling. Now I am known for being a fan of sweet chocolateyness so to the redcurrant jam I added some chocolate filling. Sorry Italian food police. This is so good and sticky and chocolatey.