Vegetarian Foods Archive

Its been a while since I've made a sweet cakey bake with lots of butter and chocolate, white chocolate to be more specific.   At one point, I couldn't remember whether I had made a  White Chocolate Blondie before, but I had  ad found it ridiculously sweet then.  I have to be in the mood for really really sweet things and this was bordering.   I took some Blondies into work and offered them to colleagues.  Some were bewildered at the existence of a white chocolate equivalent of the Dark Chocolate Brownie.  Of course they were amused.   Sadly, a few of them were not keen on the content of the dried fruit and declined my generous offer, but if you want to dive into some of these sweet bites, you can find the recipe below.  I am sharing this with Alphabakes  hosted by Caroline Makes and The More Than Occasional Baker.  The letter this month is W for White Chocolate; and We Should Cocoa devised by Tin and Thyme and hosted this ...

I make Banana Loaf all the time, so when I found myself with some very ripe bananas it was a toss between muffins or bread, for some reason Banana Bread won.  Whilst making this Banana Bread, I was reminded of a time when I took some into work for colleagues to try and someone at work called me over, I thought she was going to ask me for the recipe, instead she asked  What are those dark bits in the cake? Banana I responded without hesitation, yet a little bemused.     As I was fumbling in my kitchen cupboards looking for some vanilla essence, I remembered still having some Vanilla paste left over from making a vegan Vanilla Coconut Creme Brulee , its so much more powerful in flavour and scent. You get a good waft of it when you bring  to your mouth for tasting, and the pecan nuts added a fabulous buttery crunch.   Other banana recipes you will find on my blog Vegan Tiger Cake s Banana Blondies Banana and Coconut Flapjack s Banofee Toffee Curd...

The past month, I have been making, baking and eating some variation of Plum Cake, but this is one  of the most delicious cakes I have made in a while.  As much as D likes chocolate, he is not really a fan of chocolate flavoured things but he also adored this too. The sponge was almost fondant like, perhaps my whipping and whisking made a difference this time. I am sharing this follow the recipe here , but reduce the flour by 50grams and replace it with 50grams cocoa powder. 

It is the Blood Orange Season. I had picked up some Sicilian Blood Oranges from a supermarket and wasn't completely sure what to do with them other than just peel and eat them, of course. It was only when I started reading  an on line article by Claudia Roden for sharing the recipe with the Western world. Sicilian Blood Orange Almond Cake   9 inch round baking tin Ingredients 4 blood organic oranges, rinsed 6 free range eggs 250grams ground almonds 250grams caster sugar 1 teaspoon baking powder Method 9 inch spring form round tin, with a removable base, buttered and floured Place 3 or the oranges, unpeeled, into a saucepan and cover with water and allow to boil for 1 ½-2 hours, until the oranges have completely softened. Drain water and allow the oranges cool, then cut them open and remove the pips.  Make the oranges into a pulp by putting them in a food processor. Whisk the eggs in a large bowl, and then add these along with the ground almonds,...

This Upside Down Sicilian Blood Orange Chocolate Cake  is my second  Sicilian Blood Orange  recipe.  This cake, like the gluten free Blood Orange Almond Cake was also very  delicious and I say that with a bit of surprise.   Why?  Well for those of you who know me now, will know that I don't really do sweet cakes, and I don't go gaga  or doolally tap for chocolate either.  I am drawn more towards savoury eats and treats, but my man, my husband has a very sweet tooth - be it for cakes or chocolate.  He likes them both but not always together. This cake was wonderfully moist on the first day.  A couple of days later the chocolate sponge had got a bit cold and stiff, but it was still very good.  I think it is best served at room temperature too.   I especially loved the Blood Orange topping and the orange caramelised and became both sticky and chewy.  We enjoyed the cake without cream, but it could benefit with ...

Over the weekend, I was going  through my larder, well its not really a larder I pretend it is.  Its just space under the stairs where I store excess things mostly from the kitchen as space in the kitchen comes at a premium, so things like my Kitchenaid Food Processor and Kitchen Aid Artisan Mixer (both Birthday presents from D many years back) live under the stairs.  As I was fumbling about I came across the box that contained loads of homemade jars of preserves, jams and chutneys that I made last year including a Marrow Curd.   I decided to approach the jar of Marrow Curd in the way I would approach Lemon Curd, so this cake is really a Lemon Pistachio cake with the lemon curd substituted with homemade marrow curd. I guess you  can make this Marrow Curd Pistachio Cake with other fancy pants curds like blackberry curd,  strawberry curd ,   clementine curd ,   banana curd   and many others  - experiment, but then make sure you m...

This handsome dark Rutabaga Cinnamon Nutmeg Cake has been a long time coming.  I bookmarked it way back in 2010.  For those of us living in the UK, Rutabaga is known as Swede and it is quite an underrated vegetable and also one that causes much debate Miso Caramel Sauce  which transformed it from a cake to a pudding mimicking the British Sticky Toffee Pudding found on the menu of most traditional pubs. The idea to serve it with miso caramel sauce came from one of my favourite experimental chefs in the UK Stevie Parle who made a  Is it a Swede or a Turnip...   I baked this Swede aka Rutabaga Cake on Good Friday.  The Miso Caramel Sauce  which transformed it from a cake to a pudding mimicking the British Sticky Toffee Pudding found on the menu of most traditional pubs. The idea to serve it with miso caramel sauce came from one of my favourite experimental chefs in the UK Stevie Parle who made a Miso Sticky Tofee Pudding a couple of years back for C...

This prettily dressed up Hazelnut Swede Lemon Drenched Cake  has come and gone in our home and while it lasted, it made every one who had a slice or a taste, first crinkle their noses and then purse their lips and nod their heads in approval. It was intriguing.  For my overseas readers, you may know Swede as Rutabaga.  It is a vegetable that I avoid eating in savoury meals, I find it sweet like parsnips and don't often enjoy it, but hide it in a cake then it takes on a different flavour all together.  I know it won't convince everybody, but all I can say is try it before you pass judgement. I  have made a few dishes with both swede and turnips  of late.  Previous to this blog post you may have seen my   Turnip, Kale and White Bean Stew , Swede Mash on top of a Veggie 'Meatball' dish and of course that   dark   Rutabaga Cinnamon Nutmeg Cake  with Miso Caramel Sauce  reminisce of Sticky Toffee Pudding.    I hav...

I have made sweet tarts and cakes with fresh herbs like thyme, rosemary and bay leaves many times; and cakes with ripe bananas many, many times, but not the two combined together.  So my curiosity was peaked when I found a recipe for Banana Thyme Cake in Ruby Tandoh's new cookbook Flavour.  I have borrowed the cookbook from the library.  I spotted her Crumb: The Baking Book there too, but decided that I would pick that up some other time.  We always have overripe bananas in the house.   I have to say the bananas coming into the UK recently have been rather disappointingly bordering on still green and unripe.  We tend to have bananas for our working desktop breakfast or lunch, but recently the bananas brought home have been overlooked until of course they are too ripe and only good for making a sweet bake. This Banana Thyme Cake was lovely by the way, but the zingy Lemon and Thyme Glaze was the best part and I am not an cake icing person. ...

One of my nephews has been calling me my little courgette because of my moss green rain coat, its term of endearment and affection, but its also a cheeky little request to make him  a Courgette Cake , I promised to when courgettes were in season and indeed they are now.  Courgette brownies are not new and nor are courgette cakes, they have been around a while - in fact throwing vegetables in sweet recipes including cakes, biscuits and rice pudding is not a new idea at all, even if some people think and convince themselves and those around them that they were the first to introduce the social media generation to this idea. Sadly I think its the same people who fall for fake news, which also is not new.  The world is indeed shrinking and everything according to them can be answered by google.  One of my lecturers at Glasgow University, now a Professor Greg Philo  teachings impacted and completely changed the way I viewed the mass media a.  I still have ...

D moved my bread  loaf tins somewhere and could not remember where he moved them.  I have looked in all the obvious places. I told him many times, if he is unsure where to put kitchenalia to let me know and I will put them away.  He has done this to me a few times and it makes me frown when I go to look for whatever it is, even some of the ingredients for shopping are put away in wrong places.  Grrr He looked everywhere he would put them and he could not find them either. so over the weekend, we went shopping in Cardiff and I picked up a decent loaf tin as I wanted to make Zucchini Bread.   Ah if this is all the grief he gives me, then I am in a happy relationship.  I know I am blessed and very very lucky. The Zucchini Bread was very nice by the way.  D of course had his with a bit of butter, I don't think it needs it, but it definitely does need a  cuppa  of some sort with it to wash it down. Apricots are optional, but they are in s...