Checking in, recent meals out and a vegan vanilla caramel butterfly cake

Well, hello. It is odd to log onto Blogger after nearly 2 months away. I confess that I haven't missed the act of blogging but I have missed the outlet for sharing food-related news and for connecting with regular readers. I hope you are all well.

I have been less active than I expected in reading blogs too. I opened Inoreader this week with a little apprehension - how much would have built up? - but found it freeing to look at 2 months of others' activity and know I could pick and choose what to read and what to comment on. It was a lovely surprise to see Johanna's reflection on blogging as part of my catch up. Her post captures many of my views and it summarises how blogging has changed and time can feel stretched for all of us.

Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London

I think and hope I may be in a position to return to posting a little more often, but will make no promises in this post. I am pleased, however, to announce one update: Bite-sized thoughts is now on Instagram (@bitesizedthoughtsuk). I resisted Instagram for a long time because I thought it would be another thing to monitor and manage, but I like that I can share snapshots of products and meals when I wouldn't manage a full post. If you're on Instagram, let me know and I will look you up.

For now, I am pleased to share some highlights from the last 2 months.

Mini Bite in action

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Whole dried fruit cake

While I dislike Christmas-style fruit cakes, I very much enjoy cakes and breads that are studded with dried fruit. There are many traditional baking recipes of this type, from the Welsh bara brith to the Irish barmbrack and plenty in between. This cake doesn't follow any of the traditional recipes exactly, but does employ the tried and true method approach of soaking dried fruit in tea ahead of time. It includes some sugar, so is more cake than bread, but doesn't add any fat. There is plenty of flavour and plenty of dried fruit.

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Vegan pear upside down cake

This is a cake that I need to make again. In part this is because the cake was delicious and I would like to eat it again. In part, though, it is because my current photos do not do the cake justice. Poor winter lighting, hastily snapped images, and a camera battery that died at the wrong moment all contributed to sub-par photos. I apologise. However, I am sharing this anyway because the cake really was delicious and poor photos shouldn't get in the way of recipe sharing.

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Vegan pumpkin spice cake

Last week was my birthday, and birthdays are always a good excuse for cake. For home consumption I made the hummingbird cake I've posted twice before, which was just as good on this occasion as on occasions past. I also made a pumpkin spice cake to take to work, using the rest of the tin of pumpkin I recently bought.

Mr Bite doesn't like pumpkin, which is a shame, because I'd love to enter this cake into regular rotation. It was truly delicious. Three colleagues asked for the recipe, and whilst pumpkin preparation is annoying if you don't have the tinned variety to hand, I can attest it would be worth it here.

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Hummingbird cake revisited

I posted a recipe for hummingbird cake nearly 2 years ago, and remember thinking that I would be making the cake again before too long. It was well received by Mr Bite and I loved it myself. Indeed, hummingbird cake (featuring banana and pineapple with a cream cheese-style icing) is one of my favourite cakes.

As is wont to happen, time passed and I did not make the cake again until now. In the 21 intervening months, much has changed and this time I made the cake to take to a mother/baby group I've been attending with Mini Bite since she was roughly 2 months old. The group has been a regular feature on our Wednesdays and I have valued the opportunity to sit with other mothers, be brought a cup of tea, and have Mini Bite play with novel toys for an hour or so.

Today was our last group, because next Wednesday will be my first day back at work after maternity leave. Mini Bite is no longer a 2 month old infant and today she spent most of the morning crawling around, or cruising on furniture with the holding-on-walk that will no doubt become a real walk all too soon (she is currently 10-1/2 months).

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Blueberry and sweet potato mug cake {vegan + fat free}

Mug cakes are excellent for when time is short and/or you want cake in a hurry. They are also handy for making single serve treats and, in this case, using up small amounts of leftover ingredients. I don't really need help with using sweet potato or blueberries - both are foods I'll happily snack on plain - but they are given a boost in this easy recipe.

In truth, this should probably be called a mug pudding as the texture is softer than a traditional cake. With a third of a cup of sweet potato in the mix that is perhaps not surprising. Happily, as you will eat this from the mug with a spoon, a pudding-like texture presents no problems.

This is not overly sweet, which allows the natural sweetness of the sweet potato and blueberries to shine through. However, it would be easy to increase the added sugar if you so desire. As I made it, this could almost be served for breakfast, which I think is a winning outcome.

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Black forest mug cake

I hit publish on this post with a certain amount of pride, as it is the first recipe I've made and posted post-baby. However, there is a poignancy in said recipe featuring 1-1/2 minutes of microwave cooking time and no washing up to speak of! Whilst I have done some more labour intensive cooking in the 3 weeks since Mini Bite was born, microwave mug cakes are definitely appropriate to this stage of life.

This is the third mug cake I've shared on Bite-Sized Thoughts and it is nicely different to the last two (which were sticky date pudding in a mug and banana peanut butter cake in a mug). I'm tempted to say this black forest version is my favourite, but really they are all good in their own ways. Certainly this version is very good, and delightfully chocolatey, with just the right mix of chocolate to cherries to cake.

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The best vegan chocolate courgette (zucchini) cake

To claim something as the best is a big claim. It is especially grandiose when you do so without any official contest, judging or rankings! However, this cake is so good that I have allowed myself the title. I have previously shared chocolate courgette muffins, and a whole host of apple courgette baked goods, but this cake is in a category all of its own. It is moist, fudgy and rich but also light in texture. Mr Bite loved it as much as me, even after hearing it had a vegetable in it (you really can't tell).

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Carrot and apple cake with a lemon drizzle icing

I am rather in love with this cake. Apple pieces are showcased to perfection against a backdrop of carrot cake, and the zestiness of the lemon drizzle allows a sweet but fresh finish. As you would expect with carrot and apple in the mix, the cake is moist (but not too moist) and it is sturdy enough to be sliced and taken on a walk (I know this because I did so).

I adapted this from a supermarket (Tesco) recipe and my changes included dropping the eggs (I didn't substitute anything else in, figuring the grated carrot would be sufficient, which it was), halving the butter / non-dairy spread component, and reducing the sugar by 25%. You won't miss what I took out because the carrot and apple give moisture and sweetness themselves.

 

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Vegan chocolate cranberry layer cake with a cranberry ganache icing

Last weekend was my birthday and therefore a good opportunity for cake experimentation. It is helpful when the only person you'll let down with a baking failure is yourself; it frees one up to try something new and not worry too much about what may go wrong. In my case, the 'new' was this chocolate cranberry layer cake with a cranberry ganache icing.

I surprised myself by choosing a chocolate cake, as I think of my cake tastes as more aligned with fruit and vanilla. Not this year! In saying that, there was a definite fruit component to this cake and (I think) the cranberries made it more exciting than your typical chocolate cake.

I adapted the cake from a chocolate cranberry cake on Brave Tart, which wasn't vegan but did provide gluten-free options. My cake contained gluten but omitted the eggs and used dairy substitutes. It was dense and decadent whilst also being fluffy, and chocolatey without being overpowering. The cranberries within the cake were subtle and those in the icing allowed for a tart edge that balanced the usual sweetness of ganache.

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Vegan hummingbird cake

Hummingbird cake is one of my favourite cakes, so I am surprised not to have baked it (or at least not posted about it) in the 4.5 years of this blog. I clearly have some catching up to do!

Apparently hummingbird cake is particularly popular in the Southern United States. My memories of it are Australian and come from my mother, who made a delicious banana-pineapple cake when we were growing up. For those of you who aren't familiar with the hummingbird concept, it is a moist banana-pineapple cake that can also include cinnamon and pecans. It is often served with a cream cheese frosting and perhaps for that reason, I think of it as a cousin to carrot cake. (Alternatively, I may link hummingbird and carrot cake because they are probably my two favourite cake varieties.)

 

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Tiered orange sponge cake with chocolate ganache icing {vegan and diabetes friendly}

When I offered to make my grandfather's birthday cake, I did so a little bit blithely. I hadn't fully thought through the logistics of making a cake for over 25 people, transporting it on public transport, and ensuring it was tasty enough for all but low enough in sugar to be suitable for my grandfather (he has well managed, non-insulin dependent type II diabetes). For my own benefit, I also wanted it to be vegan. Easy, right!?

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90th birthday celebrations in Rye, Sussex

My parents aren't just in the UK to visit us (although I'd like to think we rate highly as a bonus English attraction!). Tomorrow is my grandfather's 90th birthday and my parents and other assorted family members have gathered to celebrate the event. We joined them for the weekend, in the small town of Rye where my grandparents live.

Rye town

We've had numerous family gatherings in Rye, and it's also the town where my mother was married and my sister christened. My maternal grandparents are very nomadic (I touched on some family history in this post) but since retiring they have been based fairly steadily in Rye. It's certainly a scenic place to be.

My mother is one of five children and whilst she is based in Australia, she has a sister in Canada and a brother in Hawaii. Her other siblings remain in the UK and all but the Hawaiian family made it for the weekend's celebrations.

Birthday cake

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Strawberry and apple cake (with coconut sugar)

After a few disappointing forays into berries and stone fruit over winter, I am delighted to be enjoying fresh, sweet strawberries and apricots this week. They are both delicious plain but with rather a lot of strawberries at my disposal (I was a little excited at the point of purchase) I decided to turn some into a cake.

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Mr Bite's birthday, and a veganised chocolate mud cake

Last week was distinguished by Mr Bite's birthday. To celebrate, we had his usual dense chocolate mud cake. This year, though, his usual cake underwent a few adaptations to make it vegan. This wasn't Mr Bite's request (although he kindly let me experiment), but stemmed from the lack of family members to help us eat birthday cake and my recent discovery of vegan soy cream. I thought the cream would work in the ganache icing, and the other non-vegan ingredients were easily tackled using standard ingredient swaps. 

I relied on Mr Bite's comments to compare this version to the non-vegan ones of recent years. He said that it tasted the same, but also that this one was fudgier - denser and less fluffy. This may stem from my use of egg replacer instead of eggs, or my UK oven being different to my Australian one. It may also have something to do with me halving the ingredients to make a smaller cake. Regardless, it was still pronounced good, and having enjoyed some slices myself, I can say it is definitely fudgy and mud cake-like.

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5 minute banana peanut butter cake in a mug {London marathon fundraising}

When I compiled a list of popular posts from the last year, my healthier sticky date pudding in a mug recipe was second on the list. That reminded me of the concept of cakes-in-mugs and made me think I needed another one on this site! This banana peanut butter version is it. It probably doesn't even take 5 minutes to make, and it is delicious enough for dessert but healthy (and quick) enough for breakfast. Win, win, win.

I'm pleased to say that this has been a better week, health wise, than the last one. I downscaled last weekend's run from 22 miles to 12, but am feeling 99% fit again now and ready to tackle 20 miles on Saturday (in Dublin no less!). I have also revamped my plan to get the 22 miles in over the Easter long weekend. That will be the longest distance I run, and it's probably better doing it a little bit closer to marathon day anyway. I'm glad my training plan is stretched out enough to allow for reshuffling of schedules, and to include several attempts at 20 mile plus distances.

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Apricot-almond cake

One of the unexpected points of difference, living in London compared to Australia, is that summer fruit is available all year round. It is quite bizarre, especially as often it is still quite cheap. I could buy two mangoes for £1, a punnet of apricots for £2, and a punnet of strawberries for about the same. We often had American cherries available around the core cherry season in Perth, but exorbitant prices meant it wasn't hard to resist them.

Most of the time I am still resisting the out-of-season summer fruit here. I like the anticipation and excitement of having summer produce come back into season, and eating it all year round wouldn't be the same. Plus, I'm not keen on supporting an industry that flies my fruit up from South Africa, or Turkey, or somewhere else decidedly not near Britain - and if the prices are that low, most likely someone is struggling to make a living.

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Raspberry and yoghurt loaf, for a birthday

Those of you involved in research may empathise when I say that I spent all of today (or at least a good 8 hours of it) working on a grant application. The good news is that it is now largely done, or at least done as a complete draft. The other good news is that my life has had plenty of distractions from out-of-hours work. It was my birthday last week, and birthdays do make for nice distractions.

Mr Bite excelled at making this one particularly nice. I got sparkly flowers, above, a voucher to unleash myself at Whole Foods or Planet Organic (dangerous!), a dinner promise for 222 Veggie Vegan (exciting!), a new memory card (essential, with the number of photos I take), an amazingly enormous guide to touring Britain, and ticket to the ballet, The Nutcracker. 

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Liquorice cake

I am quite excited to share this recipe, and for that matter, to start this final, dessert-focused week of Vegan MoFo.

There is some symmetry in starting this week with liquorice cake. After all, it was liquorice cake that kick started my 2012 Vegan MoFo posts. Back then, the liquorice cake was provided by York's Goji Cafe. Today, I am sharing a homemade version.

Vegan liquorice cake

There is another twist to this post. It is, truth be told, two years late. After starting my 2012 MoFo posts with a review of liquorice cake, I wanted to finish the series with a homemade version that you could all enjoy. I researched possible recipes, bought Dutch liquorice to give a full-bodied liquorice flavour, and attempted what I thought could be a great cake.

What went wrong? In a nutshell, salted liquorice. Yes. Truly. By mistake, I bought Dutch salted liquorice and put it in my 2012 cake without realising my error. Unusually, I also made that cake without tasting the uncooked batter. It was only when the mix was in the oven and I tried a leftover (salted) liquorice piece that I realised the problem. Suffice to say, the cake was not good. In fact, it was quite bad.

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Nectarine and apple spelt bread-cake

You may be wondering about my title for this post. The truth is, I set out to make a cake but as a consequence of too little sugar, ended up with something more bread-like than cake-like. It still has a decent dose of cake in the mix though, and as I baked it in a round cake tin, it looks like a cake. Basically, it is a hybrid baked good! The texture, taste and ingredients intersect in a way that justifies eating this for breakfast, even as it is enjoyable with ice cream for dessert.

If you wanted this to pass as a standard cake, you could obviously rectify my sugar issue by adding more. I used a mix of coconut sugar and maple syrup, and probably could have doubled the quantity of each. I'm still a bit unsure of coconut sugar and seem to expect it to be sweeter than the regular type - goodness knows why!

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