HAWAIIAN WEDDING CAKE

In my head there’s a station where my thoughts depart to far-away places; and they go find a sun that shines fair and bright and a light breeze, and the clearest water, and if your dusty hands washed one another you would know what it feels like to be new; and I don’t know if it’s a quiet port town, or a land of pine forests and deserts, or a thousand mountains, or familiar foothills, or yet another Hawaiian dream with eyes open wide; but they may discover a place where they belong more than here; and if it’s a sweet fruity cake that takes them there then I hope it takes me too.

FRUITY PEBBLE BUNDT CAKE

The past too-many weeks have felt like drowning in a bowl of milk and cereal a little bit; and even though it was definitely a bowl of the most breathtakingly colourful cereal and sugary banana flavoured milk coming from a box with the coolest packaging, it has still felt like drowning after all; and the odd milkshake powder shopping and half a ray of sunlight and radioactive beigel feasts didn’t really do the trick as life rings entirely; but I’m finally off on adventure now; and before that: the most breathtakingly colorful sugary cereal cake.

FIFTEENS - NORTHERN IRISH FRIDGE CAKE

Like in my head the winter wind carries me along riversides and across bridges and lifts me up, in-between the tall shiny buildings of the City and I can almost touch them, and what’s left of good-Bye’s summons elusive ghosts on the icy streets, and bills and books and papers turn into trees and tombstones and a hill looking down on a Dear Green Place; in this same way, symphonies from the North fill rooms with warmth and tea-time treats for travel companions; and blue maps of far-away islands on a scaredy child’s bedroom wall make space for grown-up plans, and fluffy cakes; and quiet nights in this country, and another, let the sunrise in and salute it with hearty crêpes and cream and fruit for breakfast.

If I wake up one day and will have desisted living by dreams and day-dreams and songs and stories, I’ll give myself a slap on the wrist, and I would be crazy not to; and as for this town of smoke and trouble – I’m already there; and the most delicious marshmallowy treats is what I’ll give, this time, in return for so much.

NANAIMO BARS

To try and lift up the London fog.

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.

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.

GLUTEN-FREE COCONUT LOAF CAKE

So I suddenly got quite interested in vegan, gluten-free baking because challenges are cool (raw stuff doesn't count because you use crazy ingredients anyway. Uhuh) and this is my very first vegan, gluten-free, non-raw (that is, baked. That's the normal word people use. I'm foreign) cake. I wanted to make sure you couldn't tell it was vegan and gluten-free and as I'm very thorough I just ate half of it with my hands over the sink. No, you can't tell it's vegan and gluten-free.

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.

TROPICAL FRUIT COOKIES

The -nth cookie recipe sharing really does prove that I could sit all day munching and chewing and scrunching cookies. And sipping tea. This actually should be a paid occupation. Or an Olympic sport. Imagine.

So another weekend, another cookie for all you cookie monsters out there. Packed full with fruit this time, so you can have your five-a-day and feel slightly less guilty about scoffing down this whole delicious lot.

COCONUT & LIME COURGETTE MUFFINS

I made these muffins for Muffin Sunday. Ok, I just made that up - there's no such thing as Muffin Sunday, but there should be. Especially because I was trying to bake some doughnuts for Doughnut Sunday (fine, that's not a thing either), but failed miserably due to a doughnut pan disfunction. So I switched to muffins to cheer myself up. This gives me the right to celebrate muffins, and therefore, the right to create Muffin Sunday. I hope you agree! Also, if you were slightly freaked out by the word "courgette" sitting right next to "coconut" and "lime", and even more worryingly, "muffin", don't panic. That is actually a thing. Courgettes here do the same job as bananas or carrots and make the muffins all nice and moist and delicious. Give it a try!