ORANGE & SAFFRON BUNDT CAKE

I could sing a month-long fado song about all that's been going on these days, and I would be even whinier and more catastrophic and melancholic than the Portuguese I swear; and it would probably be something about being all stitched up and plastered and not leaving the sofa and can I go back to massive book shops in former fabric factories and where do I develop my slide film and does it have to be so hot in this country and can I have my bread and my peaches now and am I in Japan yet; but instead of depressing the duck out of everyone I thought I could make good use of pretty Bundt cake tins from a country of sardines, swallows and sailors; and some fancy saffron and huge juicy oranges; for a cake that's free-from everything so even I can have it and spare you all the whining too.

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.

PANETTONE - ITALIAN CHRISTMAS BREAD

It’s only normal that after the oddest-ever-odd succession of Journeys to the edge of nobody’s empire, with a soundtrack of techno music and songs from your childhood, Feverishness and advice and the most sudden fear of owls, Madness, sponsored by emotional charity gone wrong under the ever so watchful eye of the Shard, and followed by Absolutely fucking nothing (topped with golden syrup, and stomach ache), Missions to the future and back, Jam on toast, toilet floors, fallen soldiers, Jamborees, the fairest sun, orphanages, Amazing adventures (or an anachronistic version of them), Sinking ships and planes to outer space, Obliteration, and Nervous breakdowns that cater for symphonies, breakfast, books, bites and warmth; it’s only normal that you find yourself in a state of sleepy, puzzled accomplishment, and you half-wonder whether all this that you managed to more or less gracefully survive was one of those Dreams that make you talk in your sleep; and whether or not you see what happens next, be it because you may be a dormant little witch with a temperance problem, or because you’ve just been given the gift of the self-proclaimed wisdom of the ages (that and snus, plus recipe books, and camera gear), you feel like you really deserve that slice of vegan panettone that is the very last, proper delicious bake of an oddest-ever-odd year; and you hope that the wisdom of the cake will work its magic just as well; for yourself, for all the cake eaters that have been sitting with you at tea time, J through to D, and, most of all, for those who still feel a little bit peckish and won’t mind sticking around for another year.

MINCE MUFFINS

If I were to decide to become a part-time psychic when I grow up, I know one day I would look into a snow globe and see this time of the season, and a very pretty house in a part of town that, I’m sure, was well pretty fifty years ago; and there would be a white fluffy carpet and wooden things and bottles as candle holders (there’s got to be candles), and the inhabitants wouldn’t worry too much about leaving the heating on for a while, nor about anything that happens in the outside world for that matter; and they would be sipping hot drinks from big mugs and eating muffins, or mince pies, or both (it’s Christmas).

I don’t know all that much about warm cosy living rooms in Victorian houses or carpets or nice décor, but if I were them, I really wouldn’t complain about such a great selection of Christmas treats; and until I take the leap and become Head of Extrasensory Perception or that season comes and so the snow, I’ll stick to mince muffins and I know I’ll be gold.

ORANGE LIQUEUR CHOCOLATE CAKE

For the highly praised column, CAKES FOR DAVES
and in the very special occasion of Dave (my fave)'s birthday which is today, not tomorrow. Today:

MOST HAPPIEST BIRTHDAY

I like you more than biscuit spread

& I hope you never ever drown

☀☀☀☀❤☀

ORANGE & CINNAMON ICE CREAM

Orange and cinnamon is a big thing in Morocco.

In the past three days I packed three years of my life, put them onto the biggest van, took them up two flights of stairs (someone helped me), and even found some spare time to make friends with foxes.

I am currently in the seemingly never ending process of unpacking said belongings and I would kind of need another holiday in Morocco after that, together with a whole plantation of oranges sprinkled with cinnamon to recover my energy.

But just in case that doesn’t happen and I find myself at Ikea instead or running around looking for Blu Tack or recycling bags or my sanity, or at The Park, here’s some Moroccan inspired vegan orange and cinnamon ice cream. I heard it’s best served by the swimming pool.

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.

PANPAPATO - ITALIAN CHRISTMAS CAKE

After a ski trip from which I will never recover and one Christmas party too many, I am very much looking forward to going home and stuffing my face with Christmas cakes of every origin and kind.

This one I’m sharing with you today (metaphorically sharing. Soz) is from Ferrara in the North of Italy. It’s called Panpapato (it’s the funniest name and it always takes me a good five minutes to spell it properly without adding extra pa’s in it. HA) and it’s full of nuts and yummy things and so rich and the most delicious. In fact, my dad posted a homemade one to me about a month ago because I couldn’t wait until Christmas. Miss impatient. Now I’m not saying this is better than my dad’s because my dad is the cake master but what you can do is make this one and then ask your dad to make another one and post it to you and you eat them both and happy days.

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.

ORANGE PUMPKIN CAKE

I don't usually get overexcited when it comes to cake (yeeeeh right hhaa), but everyone, I've made this orange pumpkin cake and it's aaaahhh so good with its syrupy orange glaaaaaze. Like, crazy good.
It might be because I get all emotional when autumn approaches, like it gets dark earlier and all that and I can use pumpkin and all these autumny flavours without feeling like I'm doing something illegal. And that I'm flying across the pond this week so I've been so excited to bake American cakey stuff.
Or none of the above and this is just the best cake on earth.
Who knows.
I love you cake.

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.

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.