CANDIED FRUIT BISCUITS

My perception of reality must have got packed by accident into a Wilson box last week, bubble-wrapped like my Vancouver mug, and my cake tins, and all the sugar sprinkles, as I woke up one morning to find myself in a tiny, sunny town by the foothills, with no going back. Until I get that delivered to me (after it's been taken to a very spontaneous trip to Venice; or Belarus, for what we know), I really won't have a clue on what to get used to first, whether it's the 30+ degrees or not being invisible or the nice food or cheap coffee; nor an alternative to being reverse-culture-shocked (why is the icing sugar sold in 100g envelopes only. Where's the imported Asian flour. Ooh look at the colourful candied peel), or making recipes up with random, yet pretty, and pretty delicious, baking ingredients. If I get my discernment back, I will let you know; either way, I have done great with the baking. The Italians approve.

RAW LEMON SWISS ROLL

Cake roll happens because of promises made to sunny people on sunny days; and because the shape of things to come is looking very swirly to say the least; but also because if swirly things (or stomach ache, or car crashes, and car-crash shaped cake) ever come your way, you've got to be ready and turn them around as best as you can; and it may take some serious multi-tasking, and you may have to improvise or momentarily hide piles and piles of stuff in your wardrobe or interrupt your Preacher episode half way through and your NutriBullet will perhaps struggle; but if you try and you're lucky enough, you may end up staring in excitement at delicious citrusy creamy things, and these delicious citrusy creamy things may well make you sunny inside a little.

LEMON OLIVE OIL CAKE

Funnily enough all this started exactly one lemon cake ago; and one delicious bite after another, your tummy got fuller and fuller, and the next thing you'll be looking up on Google is 'can you eat so much that your stomach bursts'; and why would you even want to find out.
Yet, there's one big bottle of fancy Italian organic olive oil in your cupboard, and wouldn't it be silly not to whip up a cake with it; and it's so fluffy and citrusy and you really can't make your mind up on which version you like best.
Needless to say, decisions of such great importance require a fair amount of pondering; but the proof of the cake is in the eating, or so I've heard; and I'm thinking, some real tasty lemon cake is what you'll get, either way.

FRUIT SUSHI

I feasted on Veda bread and potato farls and brown lemonade and vegan yellowman and several other Ulster delicacies to my heart’s content; and we’re good already for cherries, biscuits & marshmallows, and inferior potato cakes too (I greatly appreciate the effort, Tesco); and I found myself alone and smiley at Japanese punk gigs and film nights; so even though I’m back now and Peckham’d and sound, here’s dessert sushi, a sweet and sticky ode to Japan.

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.

LEMON & CHAMOMILE CAKE

So this is the new year and in new years people have resolutions; and if people with resolutions had a baking blog they would write about them there, in something that I believe would be titled - '2016 - An Introduction', and it would be something very pragmatic and possibly involving detox diets or buying a house or life rebuilding, or something.
I will blame my lack of vitamin B(1)2 that, Wikipedia informs me, caters for paleness and neurological issues, and having watched one Rob Zombie film too many over the holidays, and chocolate overdoses, and being not invisible for once, or twice, and hamster cheeks; but I'm afraid I have no resolution. What I do have, is a recipe for a lemon & chamomile cake that is as oh so pretty & oh so nice as a hairdresser named Manuel from a posh town in Northern Italy; bless his heart; as well as this worrying feeling at the back of my head that this year is going to be an absolute duckin' mess just like its younger brother, and in fact all its siblings; but did I mention I have a recipe for cake; and that means that I may or may not be willing to spend a stupid amount of euros on a toothbrush or mindlessly start humming a song that goes, if a body catch a body comin' through the Rye If a body kiss a body, need a body cry on my way back to the Orphanage and book flights to actual Iceland this time and even glimpse several different futures ahead, in the distance, or find myself looking up and hoping for the best; because did I mention, lemon chamomile cake. I think I did, therefore, hi 2016, and Happy New Year everyone; everything will be fine.

LEMON LOLLIES

I try really hard to be a blank slate, and to not let this mystical thing that may go under the name of creativity take the first bus out of here, which leads me to look into purchasing packs of special Oreos off the internet for the price of a month's rent (why, America, why did you have to be too cool for us) and seven hundred and fifty grams of cashew nuts at the supermarket, and to actually buy comic books that only Little Match Girls would read, and last but not least to entertain myself in the fine art of producing confectionery. At least one can put their sugar thermometers to good use and suck lollies like one sucks carrots (exactly), to forget for a moment that there's way too much love to go around these days.

HOT CROSS BUNS

In just under a week’s time I’ll be in sunny Italy shovelling into my face monster portions of gnocchi and pizza and proper Easter eggs (sorry British Easter eggs) and chocolate of all sorts, and the 60 pence brick-sized flapjack from the corner shop by the Shard and the packs of Fruit Shortcake bought out of desperation from quality-checking too many videos in Khmer will only be a distant memory. However, lately during my semi-sleepless nights that I euphemistically like to call ‘recipe development sessions’ I’ve found myself pondering over British Easter cakes and treats. It may or may not be that I’ve spent the last four days in bed with a broken stomach, and survived on boiled rice and corn cakes only. Or that in this timeframe I’ve watched all of Mary Berry’s programs five million times, alternating them with Masterchef for sanity (?). 

But it did take me back to Easter time in good olde Shropshire, where Easter lunch is like, cucumber on toast but then you have four different cakes for pudding. And then you have tea with four more half an hour later. Well Simnel cake deserves an honorable mention because it looks so pretty and there’s like a half a kilo of delicious marzipan in it. But we all know marzipan is terribly misunderstood, so when I decided to pick one Easter treat to veganise, I went for my mates fluffy sticky hot cross buns. They’re really easy to make (even with a hot water bottle carefully positioned onto your stomach) and they’re filled with all nice sorts of things ranging from cinnamon and spices to dried fruit and peel and covered in apricot glaze. Best enjoyed between a bite of cucumber on toast and two of Simnel cake. Or you can use them as the bun for a chocolate egg sandwich. Who am I to judge. Hah.

LEMON POPPY SEED ROLL

To moving to Shimokitazawa to learn Japanese, going to pastry school in New York and running away to Scotland and starting a pop band I can now add selling vegan poppy seed rolls in Hungary or another Eastern European country of choice to my list of career options for when I grow up (errr).

PEACH & LEMON BUNDT CAKE

Bundt cakes are like the best thing ever (fine. Second to hair straighteners), because they’re so pretty without really doing anything, and they’re massive so you can have lots of pretty cake and be beautiful on the inside and out. Make this one whilst it’s still kind of summer, it’s so delicious and light and moist and did I mention how pretty it looks and how delicious it is.

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.

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.