ORANGE & CARDAMOM BISCUITS

I am trying really hard to stay away from pumpkin as this blog was quickly becoming a pumpkin baking blog, plus I'm drinking so much pumpkin spice latte that I foresee turning into a pumpkin myself before autumn is over, with a big orange belly and everything.
So yes, this biscuit recipe is 100% pumpkin-free, however no, I haven't given up pumpkin yet. It just means that whilst I develop a brownie recipe packed full of pumpkin goodness I have the best crunchy tasty sweet-but-tangy vegan biscuits to munch on. Oooh yiiiss.

RICE KRISPY SQUARES

These days I sometimes like to pretend I’m still in America (how very sane of me) and I sit on my own sipping Egg Nog and reading Preacher and sprinkling pumpkin spice on anything I encounter, and I thought I’d make something America-related again. 

So this one day in Williamsburg I found a small little shop selling organic groceries and I got this vegan marshmallow rice krispy bar and I went a bit nuts. I'd never had marshmallow rice krispy treats before (how very European of me) and regular marshmallows have gelatine anyway, so a whole new world opened up for me. I know, I know it's only rice cereal and sticky chewy things but they're the best aren't they. So I've recreated them and as they only take a split second to make they will be my accompaniment of choice for my Egg Nog and my pumpkin-spice-everything and I'll be eating them when I read Preacher and you all should too.

BAKEWELL SANDWICH CAKE

I didn't mention last Sunday that I was having a bit of a hard time (read: sheer panic. Utter despair. Tears. Hopelessness. Ha) with my oven last week. My beloved old oven broke in a mysterious way and I got it replaced but this shiny new one is such a twat :D. Shall I mention carob brownie charcoal soup and six (SIX) batches of soggy muffins that found their home in the bin. Maybe not.

But you don't mess with birthday cakes. So magically, when the moment came to bake my colleague Matt's birthday cake, the monster behaved. And a Sunday-baking-session later, baby Bakewell cake was born, properly cooked and everything. Thank you, monster oven, for dismantling my self esteem no more.
And here it is. It's a Bakewell cake because it's kind of like a Bakewell tart except it's not a tart, it's a cake. Ehe. It's sweet and moist and nice and fluffy and you should totally make it for a very English birthday. Or a Japanese or a Peruvian one, the cake doesn't mind.
Aaaaand many moooreeee. 

GLUTEN-FREE CHOCOLATE CHIP MUFFINS

This one is my first gluten-free Muffin Sunday. Not only have I completely ignored the occasion for a billion Sundays in a row, but also, when I finally felt inspired to produce some muffin goodness, American airport security tried really hard to wreck the party. The story goes like this. I go on my daily mad shopping spree to Whole Foods Market in New York. I run to the flour section (<3). I lay my eyes on this pack of coconut flour. Pack of coconut flour goes in my suitcase when I fly back to London. Pack of coconut flour looks dangerously similar to pack of cocaine. Airport security get dangerously suspicious. Airport security open my suitcase. I collect an unlocked suitcase and fear for the safety of pack of coconut flour. Pack of coconut flour is actually fine and I can bake coconut flour muffins for Muffin Sunday.

So this overwhelmingly exciting story is to say that we should all be very grateful for this Muffin Sunday. And that you should just get coconut flour off the internet if you want to coconut-flour-muffin your life away. But all is well that ends well and I will now enjoy my muffins that almost never happened and they’re the best and you should too.

PUMPKIN CINNAMON ROLLS

I came back from New York with 10 extra kilos of body fat, a spotty face, 10 litres of maple syrup and an obsession with all things pumpkin. In this recipe, you’ll find two of the above – that is, the maple syrup and pumpkin, if there’s any need for clarifying.

Weeeell, these moistest-ever-moist pumpkin cinnamon rolls with a super sticky maple glaze are such a mouth-watering twist on the traditional cinnamon rolls. It makes me a little bit emotional because my life is not the same now that I don’t have my pumpkin spice soya latte twice a day anymore and don’t see lines of pretty, pretty (massive) pumpkins in front of every house on every street.

Let’s just devour them celebrating my newfound friend America and by the way also that Adam got me this internet domain and my blog is all serious now (he is, oh, the best). And that today I chopped all my hair off (don’t ask). And lastly, that my friend Kris gave me the vegan bible as a present for my birthday. I’m making everything that’s in there. Omnom – tears of gratitude/melancholy – omnomnom – repeat.