CAROB CHEESECAKE

Leaving the country seems to be very much in fashion this season; and if the individuals doing so had a pack of carob powder lying abandoned at the back of their kitchen cupboard, they too would be making this wonderful thing called, carob cheesecake.

СМЕТАННИК - RUSSIAN SOUR CREAM CAKE

Season 8, Episode 11 of “Vegan cakes and things” takes us all the way to Russia via a stream of black, deep sleep, mustard shoes, bus travellers, gifts of corner shops, no-need-to-fight’s, Soviet nursery rhymes that come to you in your dreams and blenders melting down upon attempting to combine utter madness and the cure for the illness of living. One may argue there must have obviously been some miscommunication between my head and reality; but this sweet and light and fluffy multi-layer sour cream cake is real enough to me.

FRITTELLE - ITALIAN FRIED DOUGH BALLS

I firmly believe that one of the frequently asked questions at interviews for skilled and highly valued jobs like say, sommeliers should be: if you were a cake-like thing, what would you be. It is probably for the best however that that’s not the case, as I myself would stare at the interviewer in sheer panic and spend the following about five days going through a mental list of all cakes and sweets and treats known to man, then opt for eternal unemployment and spend my days making videos of cats and die shortly after from asthma, or scratched to death. But if I really had to answer the question in utmost seriousness, my immediate reaction would have been to identify myself with some seriously sugary out-of-the-strong-came-forth-sweetness-style sticky Bundt cake, or a spotty-face-inducing chocolatey fridge treat preferably to be consumed over the sink, or some inexplicably underrated pumpkin cake all drenched in sweet syrup, or again something containing worrying amounts of sugar and apparently chocolatey but not, because I can be peculiar like that. But then it so happened that introspective times at the hairdresser’s via the strip catered for thoughts of Venetian masquerade balls that never came into being, and brought back memories of Italian Carnival and warm kitchens and mid-week late afternoons and greasy paper bags filled with fresh frittelle and sugar all over your mouth and your nose and your hair and your Latin homework; and this may or may not be me saying that’s my final answer, but if you think it’s a coincidence that each of these little bites of deep-fried sugar-coated deliciousness rhymes with my name, and don’t give in to sweetness too, and as per my very own Carnival tradition, glory in one frittella too many: you’re crazy.

RASPBERRY & PISTACHIO TART

My gluten-free adventures continue, how exciting.
So as not to murder my coeliac colleague, this time I made quite a yummy gluten-free vegan raspberry & pistachio tart. Not all of it made it to work (vegan gluten-free tart pregnancy), but hey, murder-free deliciousness, what more can you ask for.

CHOCOLATE & HAZELNUT TARTLETS

Comfort food anyone?

STRAWBERRY MOUSSE

Weekend away in Bridgnorth implies that I don't bake for three entire days and that I therefore need (need) (NEED) to make something quick and easy and yummy and using the extra pretty cutlery and plates and cups that I bought for 50p at local car boot sale. Slice - blend - fridge - DONE. This is called (delicious) efficiency. Or (delicious) vegan + gluten-free strawberry mousse.