Third Birthday Cake

Little S turned three on Tuesday. He is crazy about cars / vehicles at the moment, so this year he clearly had to have a car for his birthday cake. I thought about a fire engine, but it seemed like you'd have to have the colour, shape, writing etc bang on for it to look recognizable, and I wanted to allow myself a bit more leeway.

So I went for a dumper truck. Still a favourite, still easily recognizable, still a truck - but could be any colour I want, no writing needed, and somehow felt like it would still look ok even if the shape went a bit wrong.

The cake was this one, baked in a loaf tin. I cut it into three pieces: about a third from one end to make the front part (standing on the cut side), all the rest except a couple of inches to make the back part, and then the last piece to cut into six wheel shapes. Then I shaped the front, cut out the hopper, shaped the wheel beds and evened out the wheels.

The icing was this one. Instead of cinnamon, I added a few different powders to colour it: the icing on the back part of the truck is with freeze-dried raspberry powder, the icing on the front part is with acai powder, and the icing on the wheels is with cocoa. I considered a few other powder (spirulina or matcha for green; turmeric for yellow), but then realized it took quite a lot of powder for a get much colour and I more wanted it to taste nice...

The decorations are: mango-coconut balls for the load and lights, dried kiwi slices for the wheels, and raspberry-apple fruit 'spaghetti' for the writing, window shapes and stripes on the back part. It would have been best presented straight after decorating, but it looked ok the next morning.

It tasted good but yet again I made a sage birthday cake that failed to rise properly (it rose beautifully, and then dropped a lot). This time I had even decided to follow a proper cake recipe to the word to prevent this... Oh well, the icing works!

And, most importantly, S liked it and recognized it as a dumper truck. He got a yellow dumper truck from the 1950s from my dad so it all fit together perfectly.

Playdough

Lockdown means spending a lot of time at home, and also means spending more time with little S. The weather has been amazing, so we haven't been hanging out inside a whole lot, but I was thinking he might be into some playdough, so I put some food colouring on our biweekly shopping list... I used this recipe, and made one batch of pink-red and one of blue. Both needed a little extra flour to get a good consistency.

It was fun! It's been out twice now, and is still in the fridge for another go. We made some elephants, and buses, the first time. And the second time he played with it on one kitchen surface while I did some cooking on another.

8 tbsp plain flour
2 tbsp salt
60 ml warm water
food colouring
1 tbsp vegetable oil

Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl mix together the water, a few drops of food colouring and the oil.

Pour the coloured water into the flour mix and bring together with a spoon.

Dust a work surface with a little flour and turn out the dough. Knead together for a few minutes to form a smooth, pliable dough. If you want a more intense colour you can work in a few extra drops of food colouring. Add more flour if needed.

Store in a plastic bag or wrapped in clingfilm in the fridge.

Overnight seedy bread rolls

My friend A-L makes delicious no-nonsense overnight bread rolls (morgenboller). I have a theory that every Danish person does this...

One of my lockdown goals, I decided, was to figure out my own overnight bread recipe. I asked A-L for her recipe, and she gave it to me, but it turned out she didn’t really have a recipe, it was more like the bake off technical challenges (‘add flour to make a dough’)...

I didn’t believe in my skills enough to start from her recipe, so I googled a bit and decided to try this one. I’ve made them a few times now and we love them!

(makes 12 medium-small buns)

250 ml water (1 cup)
250 ml milk (1 cup)
15 g fresh yeast (1/2 oz) - approx. 1/3 of a 50 g pack
2 tsp sugar
100 ml wholemeal flour (2/5 cup)
100 ml oats (2/5 cup)
100 ml mixed seeds / grains (e.g. sunflower seeds, linseeds, pumpkin seeds, hulled hemp seeds, poppyseeds, sesame seeds) (2/5 cup)
500 g plain flour (1,1 lb)
1/2 tbsp salt

In a large bowl, dissolve the fresh yeast and sugar in the cold water and milk. Add the rest of the ingredients and knead everything into a smooth and nice dough. Cover the bowl loosely and place it in the fridge for 8-12 hours (i.e. overnight).

Dip two tablespoons in cold water and use them to set buns on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Try to make them a little pointy - when they raise, they will flatten out a little.

Let the bread raise for an extra hour at room temperature. Heat the oven to 200C.

After the final raising, brush the bread with some beaten egg and decorate them with different seeds or grains.

Bake for 20-25 min, until golden brown. Move to a cooling rack to cool.

Carrot and sunflower seed bread rolls

Little S talks about bøller a lot. Essentially, it is his word for all food - although it really means bread-rolls. My friend A-L makes awesome, no-nonsense overnight bread rolls with carrot in them. I found this recipe after I asked her for hers, and thought I'd give it a go in the meantime.

50 g fresh yeast (2 oz)
550 ml lukewarm water
80 g sunflower seeds
2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp vegetable oil
250 g carrots, peeled and grated
1000 g plain flour
2 tsp salt
extra sunflower seeds for decoration

In a large bowl, dissolve the fresh yeast. If you are using dry yeast then add this in the step together with the flour. Add the rest of the ingredients and knead everything into a nice and smooth dough.

Cover the bowl with a clean dish towel and set it aside to rise. Let it rise for one hour.

Divide the dough into 24 pieces and make them into nice buns. Place the buns on a parchment paper covered baking tray. Let the buns rise for another 30 min. Heat the oven to 210C. Gently brush the buns will a beaten egg and sprinkle them with some extra sunflower seeds. Bake for about 20 min.


These were quite nice, but I liked the overnight-risen rolls better - both flavour and method!

Chocolate almond butter balls

These were delicious - very decadent.

100g coconut oil, melted
100ml maple syrup
125g cocoa powder, plus 2 tbsp for rolling
170g almond butter
Pinch of sea salt

Mix the melted coconut oil, maple syrup, cocoa powder, nut butter and sea salt in a bowl. Pour into a wide, shallow dish (the wider the dish, the faster it will cool), then put in the freezer for 20 minutes, or until set.

Use a tablespoon (and dry hands) to roll the mix into large, marble-sized balls. Put two tablespoons of cocoa powder on a plate and roll each ball until covered on all sides. Store in the fridge until needed.

Birthday cake 2020: poppyseed, lemon, yoghurt, apple cheese

I was thinking about S's birthday cake for a while, as usual. We had a good crop of walnuts this year so Plan A was to do a classic coffee and walnut cake. But then I stumbled on this cake (during my Anna Jones trawl), and it seemed to tick a load of boxes: we had a load of homemade apple cheese in the fridge; and the whole poppyseed-almond-lemon-yoghurt situation sounded divine. So this became the new Plan A. And I am glad it did - it was everything I hoped for (despite not being the prettiest cake ever - rustic charm though right?). I'd love to try it with other fruit cheeses - membrillo, that guava paste you get from Latin American shops, damson cheese... mmmm... Or the marzipan option!

70 ml rapeseed oil or melted butter plus a little extra (used sunflower oil)
250 g white spelt flour, plus a little extra for the tin (used plain flour)
1 tbsp baking powder
70 g golden caster sugar (used a mixture of caster and brown)
½ tsp fine sea salt
60 g poppy seeds
Zest of 2 unwaxed lemons
2 medium eggs
350 ml yogurt or buttermilk (used yogurt - actually it was a mix of skyr and oat yoghurt)
250 g membrillo (quince paste), cut into tiny cubes (used apple cheese)
2 tbsp demerara sugar
20 g almonds, skin on, lightly toasted and chopped

Heat the oven to 220C/gas mark 7. Grease a springform baking tin, line the base and flour the sides.

Combine the flour, baking powder, caster sugar, salt, poppy seeds and lemon zest in a large bowl. In a separate smaller bowl, whisk together the eggs and the yogurt, then whisk in the oil. Add to the flour mixture and stir briefly, until just combined. Gently fold in two-thirds of the membrillo cubes until they are evenly distributed. Transfer the cake mixture to the prepared tin.

Arrange the remaining membrillo across the top in a pleasing pattern. Sprinkle with the demerara sugar, then the almonds. Bake for 20-25 min or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Serve warm or at room temperature.


Decorated with a little water icing made with icing sugar and lemon juice, and a sprinkling of poppyseeds.

One note: I don't think it's worth toasting the almonds before putting on top - they'd get nicely toasted enough just sitting on top of the cake while it's baking.

Previous S cakes: 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011
Previous s cakes: 2019, 2018

Rice and peas

I cooked some black eyed beans the other day to make a curry with butternut squash and coconut milk. Mysteriously, it tasted like peanuts, but that's another story.

As usual, I cooked a load and then froze most of them for future use. I got to thinking about rice and peas. We ate masses of it in Belize, and my friend Liz used to make it sometimes. I guess traditionally it's with kidney beans, but somehow I thought it might be good with black-eyed beans.

Actually, I liked the black-eyed beans a lot. They cooked up really nicely from dried. I guess they are in that sweet spot, size-wise, along with chickpeas - I find bigger beans often cook unevenly. They were hard to find though - didn't seem to be stocked in any of the supermarkets.

I adapted this recipe to make a version that uses pre-cooked beans. I guess cooking the beans in the coconut milk would maintain more flavour and the whole dish would taste more beany... but I just know I will never make it if I have to soak an exact amount of beans the night before.

1 tbsp veg oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 spring onions, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/2 tsp finely chopped ginger
5 thyme sprigs (used c. 5 tsp dried instead)
5 allspice berries (did not have - used 2 tsp ground allspice instead)
1 scotch bonnet pepper (used 1 dried chilli instead)
3 cups cooked beans (black-eyed, black or kidney)
1 400 ml can coconut milk
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
2 cups long-grain rice
550 ml hot water (or bean cooking water if you kept it)


Heat the oil in a large lidded saucepan. Add the onion and fry a bit. Add the spring onions, garlic and ginger and fry a little more. Add the thyme, allspice, chilli, beans, coconut milk, salt and pepper, and bring to the boil. Stir in the rice and add the water. Cover and simmer until all the liquid has been absorbed - approx. 30 min. Remove from the heat, cover and let steam for 10 min before serving. Discard thyme stems, allspice berries and chilli before serving.


This made loads! A half quantity would be fine for us... But luckily it was a big hit with both S and s, so disappeared within a couple of days!

Pulled jackfruit without BBQ sauce

S made pulled jackfruit before, but it seemed like BBQ sauce was an important ingredient - and we don't often have BBQ sauce in the house. So this is a version using stuff we do usually have in the house. It's really quick and easy, and tasty, and made me feel a bit silly for leaving the tins of jackfruit he bought ages ago unused for so long.

2 x 400 g cans jackfruit in brine
1 tbsp veg oil
1 clove garlic, peeled and chopped
1 tsp chopped ginger
3 tbsp tomato puree
1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp cayenne
1 tbsp paprika
pinch cinnamon
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp maple syrup
salt+pepper

Drain the jackfruit and pull into bitesize pieces, discarding the seeds. Heat the oil in a medium frying pan and fry the garlic and ginger lightly. Add the jackfruit and saute gently for a few minutes. Mix the remaining ingredients together in a bowl and then add to the pan. Saute for 10 min or so, until the sauce is mostly absorbed by the jackfruit.


This is nice... but I do still need to come up with other ways of using jackfruit!

Seedy crackers

We've bought seedy crackers a few times, was too lazy to make them. Then realized maybe it was easy. As I trawled Anna Jones recipes, I saw these ones, and decided to add them to the s-and-me morning baking session list.

50 g sunflower seeds
50 g pumpkin seeds
50 g sesame seeds
25 g poppy seeds
25 g chia seeds
100 g rolled oats
1 tsp psyllium seed husk
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tbsp maple syrup
1 1/2 tbsp melted coconut oil
175 ml water

Optional:
1/2 heaped tsp fennel seeds and a little pinch of dried chilli or
1/2 tbsp raisins, roughly chopped, and a little pinch of cinnamon

Heat oven to 190 C/175 C fan/gas 5. Get all your ingredients together, and line a baking sheet with baking paper (and have a second sheet the same size on hand).

Combine all the dry ingredients, including one of the optional flavourings if you are using them, and stir well.

Mix the maple syrup, coconut oil and water together in a measuring cup. Add to the dry ingredients and mix very well, until everything is completely soaked and the mixture becomes very thick.

Scrape out onto the lined tray and even out a bit, then put another piece of baking paper on top. Use a rolling pin to roll out the mixture until it is about 1⁄2cm thick. Take the top layer of paper off and use the tip of a sharp knife to score the mixture into rectangles.

Bake the crackers for 20 min. Remove from the oven and flip the sheet over, then peel off the paper to expose the underside of the crackers. Put back into the oven for another 20 min (check after 15). They are ready when they are firm and golden round the edges. Allow to cool, then break along the lines where they have been scored.


I did a half quantity of the original recipe - one baking sheet's worth - this is a good amount for us. I also threw in some psyllium husk to help with sticking together. 

I just made them for a second time, this time with raisins. They are good! You have to keep a careful eye on them though - I almost burnt this batch, while the last ones were a bit underdone. Perhaps the exact thickness makes a big difference? s didn't love them sooo much the first time but he seemed more into the raisin variant (despite them being a little bit over).

Walnut miso magic sauce

I stumbled across this recipe, which just seemed to tick a lot of boxes for me, including many things I love (miso, tahini, olives, lemon), and having a good lot of walnuts in it (we have endless quantities from our tree, it feels like sometimes)... So thought I'd better try it. Pretty tasty.

10 oil-cured black olives, pitted and chopped (we only had the dry salty kind so I rinsed them a bit before using)
3 garlic cloves, peeled
1/2 cup olive oil
1 1/4 cup toasted walnuts
1 1/2 tsp miso
1 tbsp tahini
1/4 tsp oregano (used dried)
juice of 1/2 a lemon

Toast the walnuts, let cool, and then pound them gently in a pestle and mortar until they have a roughly-chopped consistency. Tip into a bowl, then use the pestle and mortar to smash the olives and garlic together.

Put the olive oil in a small saucepan, add the olive mixture, and stir over low heat, until the garlic is aromatic, a minute or so. Remove from heat, and then add the walnuts, miso, tahini, oregano, and lemon juice. Use immediately, or cover and store refrigerated for a few days.

Corn tortillas

We bought some masa harina for making tamales a while ago, and it's been sitting neglected in the drawer ever since. I was thinking about making some chilli, avocado, rice, beans, lime type of a dinner, and it struck me that the most obvious use of masa harina is simply corn tortillas, and maybe I should at least look up how to make them... Which I did, and it turns out it's easy, way easier than I expected - the lack of gluten means the dough is really easy to work with, and you're not even supposed to roll them but press between sheets of clingfilm instead so very little mess (no flouring a board or dirtying a surface or rolling pin). So somehow they ended up being made as part of our Friday evening feast...

2 cups masa harina
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups warm water

Mix masa harina and salt in a medium bowl with a fork. Add 1 cup warm water and stir until absorbed and crumble-like. Add the rest of the water, a couple of tbsp at a time, stirring regularly, until you have a kneadable dough.

Make golfball sized balls, then flatten one at a time between 2 sheets of clingfilm using something heavy and flat (I used our big round Le Creuset enamel pan and it worked a treat). Heat a large frying pan and then put the disc of dough in it. Cook on the first side for 10 sec then flip. Cook 1-2 min on the second side. Flip back to the first side and cook 1-2 min again. Transfer to a clean tea towel and wrap up to steam until needed. Then flatten another ball, and repeat the cooking process, adding to your stack in the tea towel.


This made a good amount for dinner with a bunch of other stuff - tacos! I kept the last few in a paper bag thinking they'd dry out and then I could try making tortilla chips but they didn't dry out, they went a bit mouldy and I had to throw them out. So might have to either dry them out in the oven or keep them in the freezer until needed if wanted to try again to make tortilla chips.

Berry pancakes

Another small S and me Sunday morning cooking adventure - thought it was about time he tried pancakes again (he dissed them pretty hard the last time, but aren't all kids supposed to like pancakes? Thought berries should sweeten the deal; these ones seemed to have a good lot of berries in them.

200 g self-raising flour (c. 190g / 7.5 oz plain flour + 2.5 tsp baking powder)
1 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1 egg
300 ml milk (used oat)
knob butter
75 g / 2.5 oz berries (used frozen mixture) (plus extra for eating)

sunflower oil or a little butter for cooking
golden or maple syrup for eating

Mix together flour, baking powder and a pinch of salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, beat the egg with the milk, then make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and whisk in the milk mixture gradually to make a thick smooth batter. Beat in a knob of melted butter, and gently stir in the berries.

Heat a teaspoon of sunflower oil or small knob of butter in a large non-stick frying pan. Drop a large tablespoonful of the batter per pancake into the pan to make pancakes about 7.5cm across. Make three or four pancakes at a time. Cook for about 3 minutes over a medium heat until small bubbles appear on the surface of each pancake, then turn and cook another 2-3 minutes until golden. Cover with kitchen paper to keep warm while you use up the rest of the batter.

Serve with golden or maple syrup and more berries.


Just realized I used 2X as much berries in the pancakes as the recipe - that'll be why they were so berry-y... Which was delicious, although perhaps a little excessive. Should try again with the right amount of berries... coincidentally it's pancake day tomorrow...

White chocolate, cranberry and macadamia cookies

I was given some of those nice hot chocolate sticks, the ones with a big lump of chocolate on the end of a little wooden skewer. But I am a bit of a chocolate purist, and only really fancied drinking mugs of the darkest stuff. So ended up with 2 lumps of white chocolate on sticks, that I was never going to use for making hot chocolate. I was reflecting on how I do like white chocolate but only in certain situations, e.g. cookies, and then realized there was nothing stopping me from chopping the chocolate off the sticks and using it to make cookies! Other situations that I like white chocolate in are with cranberries and with macadamias, and weirdly I'd just also been given a packet of dried cranberries, and had spontaneously purchased a little packet of salted macadamias. This recipe sounded totally perfect, so I followed it - although I only made a quarter of the amount, because I needed to scale it to the amount of white chocolate I had. It made about 20 cookies, one whole baking tray, which seemed like about right for us tbh. The full amount would have been way too much - they're pretty full-on (although delicious).

(quantities for 20 cookies)

3/4 cups plain flour
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/4 cup (56.7 g / 2 oz) butter, room temperature
1/4 cup packed golden-brown sugar
3/16 cup white sugar
1/2 a large egg (used 1/2 tbsp ground flax seed mixed with 1 tbsp boiling water)
1/4 tbsp vanilla essence
1 1/2 oz dried cranberries
2 oz white chocolate, roughly chopped
1/4 cup (1 oz) coarsely chopped roasted salted macadamia nuts

Heat oven to 177C / 350F. Line a baking sheet with baking paper. Mix flour and bicarb in a medium bowl with a fork. Beat butter in a large bowl until fluffy. Add both sugars and beat until blended. Beat in egg, then vanilla. Add dry ingredients and mix just until blended, stirring in cranberries, white chocolate chips, and nuts in the final strokes.

Space approx. tbsp sized flattened balls on baking sheets, about 1 1/2 inches apart.

Bake until just golden, about 15 min. Cool on sheets.

Kid-friendly coconutty ‘flapjacks’

I stumbled upon this 'flapjack' recipe and it sounded really like something small S and I would both like - not too sweet, lots of tasty stuff. It took me a while to get around to making it but when I did I discovered that I was so right: we both love it! I've been making a half quantity in a loaf tin (I don't have a bigger square or rectangular baking tin) and that lasts us about a week. We have been developing a little tradition of baking snacks together on Sunday mornings that small S can eat after vuggestue through the rest of the week. We've made these a couple of time now. Also, I have discovered that I love pretty much every Anna Jones baking recipe I have tried so far - she uses all my favourite things!

4 tbsp chia seeds
200g rolled oats
150g dried fruit (used a mixture of dried apricots and raisins)
1 medium carrot
1 apple
100g desiccated coconut
100g pumpkin seeds
6 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp vanilla extract
½ tsp ground cinnamon
1 pinch ground ginger
70g coconut oil, melted

Heat the oven to 200C and line a 20cm × 30cm baking tin (or large loaf tin for a half quantity) with greaseproof paper. In a small bowl, soak the chia seeds in four tablespoons of water, then set aside (did 2 tbsp chia in 3 tbsp water for half recipe - the chia mixture felt too thick the first time).

Put the oats in blender and blend until you have a scruffy flour, then tip into a large bowl. Put half the dried fruit into blender and blend until broken down and a little mushy. Scrape into the bowl with the oats.

Grate the carrot and apple (no need to peel them... also ok with double apple no carrot or double carrot no apple, depending on availability) into the bowl, and add the remaining dried fruit, coconut, chia mixture, pumpkin seeds, maple syrup, vanilla, spices and melted coconut oil. Mix well.

Spoon into the tin, smooth the top with the back of a spoon, and bake for 40–45 minutes (c 30 min for half quantity), until golden brown. Leave to cool a little in the tray, then turn out on to a wire rack and leave to cool completely. Slice into pieces.