Super easy, one bowl, vegan chocolate cake

As I've mentioned before, chocolate cake isn't really my favourite kind of cake. I did love it as a child, but these days I like my chocolate straight up and my cakes filled with fruit and/or spices (or in raw cheesecake form!). Sometimes, though, chocolate cake is what I want. As Mr Bite always welcomes chocolate baked goods, I don't need much excuse to turn to chocolate baking when the whim does strike. Last week was such an occasion.

Made in 30 minutes with minimal effort.

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Sun dried tomato and mushroom zucchini noodles

I think this is the last recipe hanging on from my Australian kitchen. I say think because sometimes I forget about posts until I find a set of photos and/or scribbled recipe notes, in blog draft format or somewhere less sensible. Probably, though, this is it.

This is the fourth zucchini noodle recipe that I've shared, and it is one of my favourites to date. It was directly based on The Raw Kitchen's "live zucchini pasta", which I raved about back in May. The restaurant version featured raw tomato sauce, mushrooms, kalamata olives, avocado, basil, nutritional yeast and black pepper. My adaptation used sherry vinegar and soy sauce instead of the tomato sauce, and dropped the olives and avocado in place of sundried tomatoes. 

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(Vegan) plum and yogurt drop scones

Two weeks ago, I predicted that it wouldn't be long until I shared a drop scone recipe. Today, I am following through on that prediction! These plum and yogurt drop scones were my first foray into drop scone territory, aided by a recent recipe for strawberry drop scones in the cooking section of the weekend Guardian. My adaptation confirmed that British drop scones and Australian pikelets are indeed close relations. It also confirmed that drop scones and I will get on together very well indeed.

Plum and yogurt drop scones

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365 project: June photos

It is quite odd looking back at my photography for June. There is a clear transition, mid-month, from Australian scenes to British ones. It is hard to believe that 4 weeks ago I was still walking my Australian suburb. It seems a long time ago, and a long way away.

The start of June has two more street art photos, continuing a theme prompted by Johanna and seen in my May photography. I have yet to see much street art in London, which suggests I'm either not paying attention or I haven't explored very widely (I am quite certain it is out there!).

There is a little bit of overlap between the photos in this collection and those in my recent London posts. I apologise for the double up, and hope you can find some new images to draw you in...

1st: Local robot / 2nd: Busy mind / 3rd: University architecture / 4th: Glow man / 5th: Birthday 

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Vegan spelt banana bread with coconut sugar

I don't think you can really know an oven, or trust it, until you have used it to bake a cake. I have gone through a trial and error process with our new oven, as it has rather worn labels that aren't very easy to read. One on occasion, I thought I was grilling but had actually set the oven to 'defrost'. I didn't even know ovens could have a defrost setting. Basically, it just blows air around with no heat. I don't anticipate using the feature again!

Spelt banana bread with coconut sugar

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In my kitchen - July 2014

I am linking this post in to Celia's monthly In My Kitchen event at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial.

It seems a long time since my June In My Kitchen post. My Australian kitchen has been replaced by a new space, new foods and new utensils.

I have re-started my tea collection. So far I'm up to Chai, 
Early Grey, lemon and ginger, and liquorice.

As some of you may have spotted on Facebook, one star feature in my kitchen this month is a new NutriBullet. My Australian blender was not a very powerful machine, to the extent that I basically never used it and made smoothies in my food processor instead (not really ideal).

With my food processor coming by sea, I knew the move would provide the perfect opportunity for a new blender. It didn't take a lot of consideration to settle on the NutriBullet. It does everything I'd hoped for and more, and I suspect smoothies will feature regularly for the next few months.

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