Tag: dessert

13Jan

Recycling Christmas: Spelt and marmalade apple crumble

Merry back to normal. And I am actually glad Christmas is all over. It did not feel like Christmas to me as I was working and then as soon as I got my first day off of the season my immune system gave up. I have never been that ill, can’t-get-out-of-bed ill, the kind that you want to kick yourself for not appreciating all the days you were healthy. Even after what seemed like recovery I did not feel like myself. I decided to get back on track this week and it was hard, had to peel myself off bed to put my running gear on, and quite frankly felt sick and had to stop halfway through. Another thing that I had to tackle was the massive amount of leftovers in my fridge. I had my in-laws over and they brought a very, very generous amount of food. So trying to figure out what to do with it all has been a creative challenge, which I decided to call recycling Christmas! This is for sure the ultimate crumble recipe, and I say this as someone who has made many, many crumbles before and never got the crumble ratios of flour
3 mins read
1155 Views
05Dec

Whisky and caramel cake bites

I will very rarely admit defeat when it comes to recipes. In the last few months I have developed a couple of cake recipes, baked them and failed them. Eventually I got the ingredients and methods rights but that meant a few flat, mushy attempts had to be foiled up and sent to the cake morgue, a.k.a. my bottom freezer drawer. The morgue was getting really packed and this was causing marital tensions. My husband is a minimalist when it comes to storage of any kind. So what’s a girl to do with all this cake? Cake pops, naturally.  Bad idea. I watched dozens of videos, researched what was the best brand of candy melts and was the biggest visitor to Bakerella’s site last month. And yet they were a complete failure. I wanted to make something special for my nephews birthday and it went catastrophically bad, to the point I was covered in yellow candy melt, ferociously throwing away all of the jelly tots cut out in the shape of pooh’s ears. And the question remained…what to do with all this cake? Cake pops’s closest (and low maintenance) relative, cake bites. And a grown up one at that.Maybe good
2 mins read
832 Views
17Oct

Apple and caramelised salted nuts ice cream

The freezer situation in our house has caused a few arguments. We have a small apartment and therefore a small fridge-freezer. I am completely in control of all food related things in our household: the planning, shopping and making. Not because the husband is not interested, but because I take so much enjoyment out of it, and he obviously does not mind. Testing recipes for the blog means a lot of non-photographic worthy creations, but still edible. I hate to throw anything away, my husband knows this and to be honest he is often in a bit of awe about it. But having to create new dishes with leftovers is something that gets my creative juices flowing. This week, sick of seeing so many apples sitting in the fruit bowl, I started to panic that they would go off soon as the two of us would not be able to eat it all. I don’t eat apples, but am drawn to them when they are in a dessert. I first tried appleasauce as a substitute for butter on this banana loaf cake, and feel in love with the power of applesauce. I decided to have add this magic ingredient to ice cream, and
2 mins read
809 Views
27Sep

Chocolate yoghurt cake

It has been more than a month since my last post. It was not planned – I said I was going to do a whole month of Brazilian food to celebrate the Olympics – but it did not turned out that way.  After a break in Cornwall and then a string of family members coming over to stay, it felt like I left life up in the air, and when I arrived back home it all came crashing down. You know, piles of unopened letters, cleaning to do, I couldn’t even start to think about recipes for the blog. In fact this has been the first week in a whole month that I have opened my computer. Then I don’t know why but amidst the chaos I decided to make one of my least favourite baking recipes: cake. I am cake’s biggest fan, just have a look at my Pinterest page and you will see beautiful cakes, frosted like a sculpture, with the perfect rise and colour. I dream of emulating that, however this is rare as I am by nature a chaotic cook. But baking cakes is almost like a science, you need to do things by the book.
3 mins read
695 Views
31Mar

Banana and dark chocolate chia pudding

I  laid in bed yesterday thinking since when did I become such an angry, inpatient person? I have been snapping at everyone recently and even beeped my horn at a slow driver yesterday – a big no-no in England. The feeling of guilt ate me up afterwards. How must I have made that driver feel? What if it was an old lady or a teenager learning how to drive? I am a strong believer in “owning up”, in the sense that I don’t like using external reasons to blame for my own actions. But this week I am going to have to make an exception and blame my period. The changes are palpable, not only in terms of emotions but also in regards to my stomach. My diet has changed considerably in the last few months, I have been trying to cut down on refined sugar and starchy foods and as a result I have been craving chocolate less and less, or in fact any sweet stuff. Result! But do you ever feel like sometimes food rules your emotions? My period then came and like clockwork, chocolate is all I thought about. Food is an emotional thing, and my body
3 mins read
745 Views
26Jun

Crème fraîche raspberry ice cream with praline cones

Although I have been longing to use the kitchen I really haven’t had much time. I know I always go on about how busy I am, but until the wedding comes and goes it’s only going to get busier. I have palpitations just thinking about it.  But there’s no time like the present, my studies are winding down before exams start up so I can spend more time in the kitchen now, guilt-free. Plus I am home alone, with my husband-to-be working in the high seas, so all the whirlwind of food projects in my head make me have something to look forward to when I get home. To get in the zone I downloaded some cheesy soap operas (guilty pleasure) and set my laptop up in the kitchen to finally get to work with my favourite new ingredient: crème fraîche. This is my heaven: trashy tv in the kitchen.  I always saw crème fraîche standing next to the double and single creams in the chilled area but due to a fear of the unkown I never picked it up. Then I had a dollop of it served to me on a berry cake, well now I am I am making for
3 mins read
532 Views