Basic pumpkin bread

I feel like by calling this basic I am insulting it but what I mean is, this is a delicious no frills pumpkin bread that is easily adaptable should you wish to add any kind of browned butter, chocolate chip, cranberry frills. I’ve made this a few times and each time I felt like I was adding too many frills, at one point you wouldn’t have known there was pumpkin in it (largely due to too much treacle) so I stripped it back and there it was, a super simple but delicious loaf perfect for afternoon coffee.

This was what I had been thinking about just before I made this bread. Stop overcomplicating life/recipes. The reason my last few recipes had failed was because I had made them too complicated. I like a strong ginger flavour so I put 1.5 teaspoons in but you can adjust the spices to your taste. I’ll be sneaking a slice of this into work for my 3pm sugar craving. Continue reading

Apple, parsnip & rosemary syrup cake

I go mad for vegetables or herbs in cakes. It’s like, it shouldn’t work but it does…and it tastes better than any cake ever made before. This is why carrot cake reigns supreme. Rosemary is just my absolute hands down favourite herb in the history of herbs forever amen. I sprinkle it on as much as I can get away with and now I want to bake with it for eternity. I’m getting carried away? Ok. I took this cake into work, left it in the communal kitchen and it was gone within ten minutes.

I’ve had a few posts recently with chocolate in so I decided to try something different, otherwise I’d have been all over the salted caramel chocolate cake.

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Matcha custard doughnuts

When I was 17 I developed my first real obsession – music…possibly to the detriment of my grades to be honest. I have a bit of an addictive personality so it tends to be all or nothing with some things. This was really before I was able to download very much – certainly legally anyway – so I bought CDs every week. I remember when The Strokes 12:51 single came out and I was so so desperate to hear it that I made my Dad call into HMV, pick up the CD and drop it off to me at school so I could listen to it on my Walkman. Continue reading

In Season: September & October

They’re the brightest food market indictor of autumn, as well as being a versatile and storable staple ingredient: oh my gourd, squash season is upon us.

We love a butternut squash soup (and its variants) as much as any cosy-seeker, but when it comes to branching out to the myriad other varieties, it can be a minefield. Will the skin of an acorn squash destroy a peeler? Can you cook anything beyond pie with a pumpkin? It’s time to find out. Continue reading