they always are | carrot - ginger loaf

So it was my birthday yesterday as you may well know; I turned 19. It's been an interesting year - big in some ways. But then they always are, aren't they? We never really do much for our birthdays anymore so my mum and I just took Prune out to village nearby. To walk by the river and watch the yachts; sailboats skirting the reeds and the wind teasing the willows. The sky was a sort of pale, washed out blue; the sun mellow and subtle, so warm I sat outside all afternoon, with a slice of cake and a book. Nothing much, but I felt lucky anyway. The last of the Indian summer seemed like enough. That's how I wanted it to be, reflective and promising. 

"I want to remember us this way - late September sun streaming through the window, bread loaves and golden bunches of grapes on the table" Peter Pereira

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I felt a bit weird about making an epic layer cake for my own birthday so I made a loaf cake instead; carrot cake is probably my favourite kind. This recipe is adapted from the brilliant Everything I Want to Eat by Jessica Koslow of the LA cafe Sqirl - when I get the chance to visit LA, Sqirl is so on my list. Anyway. I made a few adaptations: using spelt flour, so you could use AP if you wanted; and also halving the sugar. It's still sweet, kind of soft and dense, infinitely snackable, with a little kick from ginger which is so so good. And this loaf is naturally vegan somehow. One of my new favourites - I still have some organic carrots in the fridge and I see another loaf in my future. My first cake as a 19 year old, huh?

Love you xx

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carrot - ginger loaf

Adapted from Everything I Want to Eat by Jessica Koslow  // makes 1 8x4 inch loaf // vegan

2 cups (220g) spelt flour (or unbleached AP: 240g)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2tspn salt
1 tspn ground cinnamon
1/3c (80ml) coconut oil, melted
1/3c (80ml) almond (or whatever) milk
1/2c (120ml) unsweetened, all natural applesauce
3/4c (150g) coconut sugar (or muscavado) (you could go up to 1 1/2 cups if you like it sweet)
1 tspn pure vanilla extract
2 inch (5cm) piece of fresh ginger, finely grated
2 large carrots (200g - try to find organic if you can), coarsely grated

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Preheat the oven to 175'C, 350'F and line an 8x4inch loaf pan.
In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients, except sugar.

In another large bowl or liquid measuring jug, combine the milk, oil, applesauce and sugar; beat in the vanilla and ginger until smooth. 

Pour the wet mix into the dry and gently fold to combine - don't stir too much since once the carrots are in the mix you'll need to seriously stir. Add your carrots and continue to fold gently until they're incorporated. 

Scrape the batter into your prepared pan and bake until the middle of the loaf has puffed (maybe cracked) and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean; 60-70 minutes.

The loaf will keep tightly wrapped for around 3 days but also freezes and defrosts well. It's better warm/room temperature than cold, personally :)

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all kinds of cakes

mocha-chip loaf

almond-vanilla bean layer cake

cardamom +pistachio layer cake

a bit of both | banana + flax pancakes

We celebrate both our dogs' birthdays and anniversaries - that is, the day they came home. For Prune the two days fell over the summer just weeks apart. We had a trip to the beach and a walk by the river, as markers. They felt that way. Momentous. Poignant. She turned eight. We've had her six years. There were a few dark days last October I didn't think we'd celebrate in August ever again. Those were cold thoughts, in the heat of August, watching sailboats on the Broads as our girl grinned and sniffed everywhere she shouldn't. Weird to say, but Pruney and I are very similar. Independent, sort of prickly. Sullen when we want to be. Introverted. I don't think I was even 12 when prune first came to us - she was two, but from the start I think she established that I was the kid and I needed to be looked after, for whatever reason. She took it on herself to do so and has the most uncanny way of knowing when something is wrong. Better than anyone in the family, because she knows but she doesn't ask. She'll just sit there - on the cushion in the hallway outside my room, under the couch, right over my feet. Just sit with her ears slightly pricked, as if to say, I'm here if you want to talk, kid. I don't and I think she prefers it that way. Ah Prune, you're just my type.

We brought Prune back home after her surgery last year pretty late evening. A bitter October Friday - the sky had been doleful, dour, a matte gray and the radios spluttered about how the nights were among the coldest in the year. It was bleak. We felt it, inside and out. Suzi stopped eating cheese without her sister to steal it. We picked Prune up from the vet and her whole stomach had been shaved; pink skin and a 30 centimetre gash of stitches that had put her back together again. She was in pieces - off the operating table with just a shell. She cried. Pain, confusion, abandonment, the whole lot. It was haunting. She was my darling. We couldn't leave her alone with the risk she'd lick the stitches so my mum and I each stayed up half the night to be with her, 2 am, the thermometer on my phone telling me it was below freezing out. I had a kitchen chair shoved next to the radiator where I could face the dogs on their cushions and keep my back warm. Too much time to think. To will her to pull through. Watch her ribcage heave up and down as she slept, fitfully. She was alive. She couldn't go into the garden without a lead so I wore sweatpants and took her out, Suzi a few steps ahead, sniffing the frosty grass, our footsteps louder than they should've been; the moon brighter than suited the occasion. Or maybe it worked, because it put the three of us in a white light. Something uplifting about the clear mornings and watery sunshine when Prune and I took our first slow stroll around the block. She sniffed the air, watched the clouds from her breath in the cold, and I could almost see her smile. 

Her fur grew back, slowly, the scar healed, physically, for all of us. She was older. I was older. When she was a pup in the summer we would paint her toenails and make daisy necklaces that we'd tuck into her collar, a bit of festival flair. We'd play baseball, she fielded ok. She'd jump in and out of our SUV with reckless abandon and it's now noticeably more of a cautious leap.  She still hops up and down when we come home, she still licks her paws to the point of obsession, she still purrs when you scratch her chin, still has those irresistible puppy eyes. But this year I sat out in the sun reading and she lay in the shed, behind me, where the floor was cool. Took her for drives in my car, music playing, fields and rivers flashing past. I sang, she rolled her eyes, more or less. She lay under the couch where I was sitting with her face resting on her paws, alert and thinking. About the future or the past I'm not sure. Probably a bit of both. About the cold days of autumn that brought her back to life, and the summer heat; the days for living. 

"What she realised was that love is that moment when your heart is about to burst" Stieg Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

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This is the second time that I'm making Prune pancakes but she loved these to say the least. Easy, pretty quick and you probably have all the ingredients at home right now. I love recipes that have such a short ingredient list, nice and minimalist. The first of the so-called 'autumn storms' hit our nook of the UK last week so I was graced with some beautifully moody September light for the photos. Prune is with me as I write this, using my leg as a sort of prop for her head and thumping her tail when I stop scratching her neck.
Love from the two of us xx

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banana + flax pancakes

gluten free // makes 4-6 pancakes

2 medium bananas, ripe
4 free range eggs
1/4 tspn pure vanilla extract
6 tablespoons flax meal, oat flour or mix of both
sprinkle ground cinnamon
1/4 tspn baking powder

coconut oil, for cooking
pure maple syrup, nut butter, etc for serving

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In a medium bowl, mash bananas with a fork until fairly smooth. Crack in eggs and beat together; beat in vanilla. Add the flax meal, cinnamon and baking powder, stir until batter is smooth.

Allow batter to rest 10ish minutes so the flax absorbs some of the liquid. Cuddle your puppy, check your emails, scroll instagram as the batter thickens to something that's pourable but not watery. Get a non stick pan going over medium heat.

Scoop a sort of conservative quarter cup of batter (maybe 3T)  - keep the pancakes on the smaller side, they're easier to handle that way. Pour into the pan, cook for 2-3 minutes on one side until bubbles form, then (very gently) flip to continue cooking on the other side for around 2 minutes (I cook on an electric stove so this will be different if you have a gas stove) until both sides are golden brown, or done to your liking. Repeat with the rest of the batter.

If you're planning on freezing your pancakes, I recommend letting them cool on a wire rack and then freezing them straight away because they tend to go off really fast (I speak from past experience). Otherwise, keep warm in a low oven and serve with maple, nut butter, whatever you like. The pancakes in the photo were originally frozen (they look fresh right??  except maybe folded funny from the freezer bag?), I just put them in a dry pan over the stove but in hindsight why didn't I just use the toaster?

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currently welcoming tips on how to resist those eyes

breakfast recipes

lemon cloud pancakes

dark chocolate + cardamom rye scones

spiced apple pancakes

roasted plum popsicles with cardamom

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Time for pops :) I know it's getting colder - I was wearing a sweater, a sweatshirt  and socks the other morning but the sun's still sharp up north where we are. So make popsicles while the sun shines, with a bit of fall warmth from the cardamom and maple. Plums and blackberries are like those crossover fruits so they were sort of of the obvious choice. Have fun with the layering, I'm not exactly super careful/fiddly but the marbled effect was still gorgeous - the fruit will make the pops pretty, whatever you do.

Love you xx

PS. Shoutout to my amazing grandma who celebrated her birthday earlier this week. Grandma, I picked these berries from the garden, just like you would. xo 

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roasted plum popsicles with cardamom

makes 8-10

2 cups (500ml) full fat yogurt of choice (I used goat yogurt but regular or coconut would be good)
1/4c (60ml) pure maple syrup
Seeds of half a vanilla bean
Fat pinch cardamom (to taste. I like it stronger than I think most people would)

// For the fruit
1 cup (150g) fresh blackberries
Around 4-5 small plums
1 tablespoon coconut sugar 

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Start with the roasted fruit - you can even do this in advance. Preheat the oven to 180'C, 350'F and line a rimmed baking tray with parchment paper.

Gently rinse and dry the berries, chop the plums into chunks and spread out on the baking sheet. Sprinkle over the sugar and toss to coat.

Roast for 20 minutes or so, until the fruit is collapsing and smells pretty amazing. Leave to cool, then refrigerate, or continue with recipe.

Into a blender combine the the remaining popsicle ingredients. Blend on high until combined, transfer the popsicle mix into a container from which it's easy to pour (a glass mixing jug or similar)

Rinse out the blender and add your fruit. Blend until pulpy and a little liquidy, it doesn't have to be perfectly smooth.

Into your popsicle moulds pour in some of the yogurt mix - I did about 1/3 but it really doesn't matter, whatever you think looks pretty. Dollop some of the fruit mix (heaped tablespoon or so) over the yogurt, then pour in more yogurt so the mold is more or less full. 

Freeze for 3-6 hours, until solid. If you wrap each individual popsicle they'll keep in the freezer as long as you like. You can run the whole moulds under hot water if the pops are giving you a hard time; they'll release super easily. 

If you have any leftover blended fruit, you can swirl it into yogurt, oatmeal etc a bit like jam.

*This is the popsicle mould I use, I ordered it from the States and it's really good.