RAW BLUEBERRY TARTLETS

After making the prettiest cake ever, I found myself overloaded with blueberries. This was because my plan B after miserably failing at acquiring edible flowers (Turnips @ Borough Market, I forgive but not forget. Or maybe not even forgive), which you could also call “running around M&S during my lunch break, desperately looking for a pretty-enough alternative to edible flowers to use on a cake I am meant to make in less than 3 hours”, was decorating with more blueberries and other berries. Luckily, boyfriends saved the day and a plan B was never needed, so I was quite ridiculously happy to have not only a successful cake but also a lifetime supply of tasty berries. Some of them had already been shovelled into my mouth and digested and everything, the rest feature in these delicious vegan, raw and gluten-free tartlets that, just so you know, have been partly shovelled into my mouth too and are in the process of being digested. Too much information? Omonomnomnom

BLUEBERRY & LEMON SANDWICH CAKE

I’m so happy with this pretty pretty little cake. Not only is it the first proper sandwich cake I’ve made in my life, it’s also the first proper birthday cake I’ve made in my life, and therefore the first proper sandwich birthday cake I’ve made in my life. Lots of firsts in there. And lots of cake.

It required an intense baking session that lasted until 12 am last night, which included the production of four different kinds of filling/icing creams (I’m never happy am I). And during which I did not grate my finger. Did not. Plus, another session at 6 am this morning for decorating, carried out in sleep-walking mode. Prior to this, I also sent my boyfriend all the way to Canary Wharf to get me edible flowers (he’s a good, good person). And previously had an argument with evil grocers who forgot to get the aforementioned edible flowers I ordered five days in advance. But all this, plus a very awkward bus ride to work this morning, holding a cake tin in my arms like my life was depending on it, all this was oh-so-worth-it because this cake, this very pretty and very delicious cake was for our dear, dear Alejandra. Also called Aleyandra. And also called Alexandra. To everyone’s favourite Maverick, happy birthday, or feliz cumple, or a mixture of the two. 

SEEDY FRUITY FLAPJACKS

On Sunday I made muffins to take to work because I’m nice, but as I’m also forgetful I left them at home. Therefore yesterday I made flapjacks to take to work because I’m nice, and wasn’t on this occasion forgetful. Here they are in all their seedy fruity golden-syrupy goodness for all you nice people out there (and not-so-nice, I’m not here to judge). Gluten-free and everything, and so so easy to make.

ORANGE MUFFINS WITH HIBISCUS GLAZE

Muffin Sunday is back with a vengeance. Well, I had a small diatribe with myself about these muffins, as they kind of look like cupcakes, with the pretty pink glaze and everything. But they have the typical muffin texture and typical muffin taste (?) and typical muffin deliciousness, so they definitely are muffins. Also, it’s not Cupcake Sunday, it’s Muffin Sunday, you know! Anyhoooww, if you can get hold of the dried hibiscus flowers, go for it and use them for the glaze as hibiscus goes really well with orangey citrusy stuff (and makes super good tea) (downside: it’s pink). 

I’ll make up for the unbearable girly prettiness of these things next week, with some vegan deep-fried cow or something to that effect.

CANDIED HAZELNUTS

These tasty nut things are so so easy to make. The weather has been so merciful to us that I didn’t want to spend ages in the kitchen, melting in front of the oven or on the hob to prepare some cake or cream or ganache or baked stuff. I’d rather go to the park with all my friends and enjoy the sun and drink lemonade and be merry.

No, I’m only joking. I’m munching on these whilst watching Masterchef with the curtains down and the company of my only friend Calvin the yak. Living the dream.

MINI BANOFFEE PIES

It took me three long days to complete this recipe, and I’ve made it just. I decided I wanted to make banoffee pie on Sunday, but didn’t have any tartlet tins. So I bought tartlet tins. Then I realised I didn’t have any coconut milk, so on Monday I got the coconut milk. But to make the caramel, you need to refrigerate your can overnight. So on Monday night, I put the can in the fridge ready for Tuesday. But on Tuesday, after making the caramel, I remembered you also need four hours for it to set. And, as I wasn’t particularly excited at the idea of staying up until 1am staring at the fridge and waiting for it to work its magic on my jar of caramel, I just gave up and saved the date for today. Several complications with cling film later, I can definitely say these mini banoffee pies were a bit of an effort to make. You’d expect there’s a but here, yes? Well there’s actually two. But number one: these are deliciousness in a tartlet tin. And when I say deliciousness, I mean I-don’t-care-if-they-haven’t-set-yet-I’m-going-to-eat-two-right-now-as-a-starter-before-a-bowl-of-tomato-soup deliciousness (that was a long one). And just when you think that’s enough of a reason, but number two: you get an extra half a cup of caramel from the recipe, and may I suggest that you have it as a dessert after your tomato soup that you ate after two banoffee pies?

RAW SACHERTORTE

You may have noticed that I’ve been completely ignoring Muffin Sunday for two entire weeks. I know I’m being very ungrateful towards muffins, but the truth is, I have two very embraceable reasons for this lack of muffin-making. The first is, I got myself a blender! Haha. Sorry. But I did. So I had to make something using it this week. Period. The second is, this is Sachertorte! The most delicious cake on the face of the earth, in my very valuable opinion. We used to get this from the bakery every year for my dad’s birthday and I think it’s been at least two or three years since the last time I was home for one (sadness creeping in). How can you not miss this chocolaty and jammy moist deliciousness. Anyway, I thought, it’s (British) Father’s Day today so it makes a bit of sense to make Sachertorte. It’s like I’m at home for my dad’s birthday, except I’m not at home and it’s not my dad’s birthday. Ha. Anyway, let me get to the blender part. As I bought myself a blender (I need to stop this, I know), I can now grind almonds and cashews and all sorts of stuff, which makes it so much easier to make raw desserts. So I thought I’d make my own version of Sacher: vegan, gluten-free and 100% raw. And also kind of 100% blended. I don’t want to give too much away but I had a quarter of this cake in one go whilst taking pictures of it, it’s that good (camera covered in chocolate). I’m considering to start selling it under the label “I can’t believe it’s not Sacher”. I’ll let you know how it goes.

COCONUT PANNA COTTA

It is now in the public domain that I bought a blender. And if you didn’t know, now you do. I thought I would be blending away stuff all day long, but in fact I was quite intimidated by it at first. It might be because I am known for breaking stuff in very mysterious ways. However, after spending several moneys (!) on it, being stopped in the street by jealous passers-by on my way home from the blender shop (!?) and having received a giant parcel from my mamma full of nuts and dried fruit (which, I think you should know, also included a mouse kitchen timer) (awww), it’s only a matter of time before I fully master it. In this recipe, I take it easy on the blending, and, in fact, you don’t really need one, but I used mine anyway because did you know I got myself a blender. I also used my new mouse kitchen timer (awww). But anyway, this time I’m making vegan and gluten-free panna cotta using coconut milk, and I might lose Italian points if I say it, but this one’s better than the traditional one, serious. It’s so full of flavour and goes perfectly with the raspberry sauce, which I made using a blender. Because I got myself one. Ok enough. Try it it’s yummy.

CHOCOLATE ORANGE CAKE TRIANGLES

This started off as a relaxed after-work baking session, but slowly turned into an adding-up of over-excitement and oh-my-god-this-is-so-good baking spree. I was meant to bake some super plain and simple orange cake slices, to use up a couple of lonely oranges I had on top of my kitchen counter. But, I also had a can of coconut milk and some chocolate chips, and everyone knows that chocolate and orange are perfect together, am I right. So after making the cake, I started making a chocolate glaze, and after making the chocolate glaze, I made an orange glaze. And only after making the orange glaze, only then, could I stop. But that’s fine because I got myself a blender and from now on I’m going to blend everything around me, be it breakfast, lunch, dinner or dessert, so this might be the last non-blended product I ever make in my life, but anyway, it’s delicious, try it, you know you want to.

LEMON & LAVENDER BAKED DOUGHNUTS

So yeah, it turns out I missed Doughnut Day. My brand new doughnut pan, after my cheap, awful-quality one let me down quite some time ago, arrived on Thursday but apparently it wasn’t a clear-enough reminder (I am very forgetful, you should know). But I had to make up for it somehow. So, dear Muffin Sunday, I apologise, but not this week. This week we’re celebrating Doughnut Sunday instead. And before this gets unbearably confusing, I shall introduce you to my new creation, brought to you by the aforementioned new doughnut pan and a very lucky find from Borough Market, a pot of dried lavender. They’re the perfect spring flavour and aren’t they prettyyyyyy.

ORANGE BLOSSOM BRIOCHE

It might be that I had a very challenging week, and I'm just going to name a few happenings to give you the picture, such as blocked-off roads, car crashes, buses dropping me off twenty kilometres from my destination (let me get to work will you?), next-door buildings on fire, fifteen million leaving parties on school-nights, and some good old drama, but I was on a roll already. So I thought I might as well face the challenge of yeast once again, this time going the brioche way. Because, to make up for all the apocalyptic incidents of the past 6 days, this week we also booked our Eurostar tickets for a quick trip to Paris in August. Celebratory yummy brioche in my belly. 

ALMOND TRUFFLES

There’s a special recipe for you today. Today is the Italian National Day, Festa della Repubblica, or Republic Day. Sixty-eight years ago, Italy officially became a republic. Although it’s public holiday in Italy, it’s obviously not in the UK, so I went to work as usual. But tonight I’ll have a mini personal celebration for the occasion. And shovel some very Italian sweets into my face, as one does.
I was saying yesterday that I’ve been reading through really old Italian cookbooks. Well, whilst exploring among dozens recipes calling for obscure ingredients like “odour of vanilla” and Crataegus azarolus, whatever fruit that is, I also came across this really cool book written in 1891 by Pellegrino Artusi, who, Wikipedia informs me, was “an Italian businessman and writer, best known as the author of the cookbook La scienza in cucina e l'arte di mangiare bene (The Science of Cooking and the Art of Fine dining)”. So, three hours spent on Google Books later, I got crazy excited about this whole vintage Italian recipe thing. The cookbook is brilliant in all ways – amazing recipes even to modern standards and the best writing ever (I mean, Jam Roly-poly renamed “English sausage”. Ha). Interestingly enough, 90% of cake and pudding recipes use ground almonds, which make them either gluten-free or easily gluten-free-able (!). And even though most of them call for shocking amounts of eggs, the recipe I’ve chosen is not only gluten-free, but also surprisingly (and definitely accidentally) vegan. The original uses a cherry liqueur called Maraschino, but I’m not sure that’s very popular outside Italy. So, I swapped that for the cherry syrup from a tin of cherries (you could also use cherry juice instead). And for extra prettiness, I coated the almond balls in cocoa powder and more ground almonds, in addition to the grated chocolate from the original recipe. Everything else is 100% vintage and so delicious!

PEACH & GINGER SPELT MUFFINS

I spent the day reading Italian recipe books from the late nineteenth century and baking. Can you think of a better way of celebrating Muffin Sunday? I’m sure you can’t. Happy Muffin Sunday everyone. After banana and strawberry and lime and coconut, here’s a version with summery fruit, spelt goodness and a hint of spice. You can munch on these whilst I try to veganise a 1909 cake recipe that calls for 8 eggs and half a kilo of lard.