Tag: seasonal
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Courgette and Cardamom Loaf Cake
IT IS THAT TIME. The courgette tide has arrived and will not abate. The marrows crash through the allotment, like huge, watery uninvited guests at a dinner party. (I end up making spiced courgette chutney every year; here’s the best recipe I’ve found). I’ve made courgette cake before but wanted to throw in something extra.…
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Simple Cider Apple Cake
It’s been a bumper year for apples, thanks to early rain and lots of sun. So here’s a SUPER EASY, dump-it-all-in-together-in-a-bowl rustic apple cake, to use up a few. It also involves cider – why wouldn’t it? – but you can easily replace that with liqueur, apple juice or even just milk. For the cake:…
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Four Blackberry Recipes for August
Blackberries are one of my favourite things about the long, late summer days of August. This year, thanks to the rain and blazing sun, they’ve been particularly bountiful. On my allotment, the bramble bushes (some deliberate and some, ah, not) have been weighed down by berries, most of them plump and bursting with purple, gritty…
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Breakfast Martini Cake
It’s orange season! And I love it. My local greengrocer is selling HUGE navel oranges 4 for £1, blood oranges (my favourite) are back, and jars of marmalade are appearing in my vicinity with startling regularity. Sadly, I’m not a marmalade fan. Something about the combination of sugar and bitterness just doesn’t work for me,…
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Blackberry Madeleines
Autumn is now officially here; the tomatoes have turned orange on brittle stems, the courgettes are finally ending their reign, and now is the time for golden quinces, autumn apples, and a few last, late blackberries clinging to brambles. It was when we were on our way home, the sun sinking low and golden, that…
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Dandelion Syrup Cake
This is a cake I first made earlier in the year, when spring dandelions smothered my allotment in bursts of bright yellow. They looked so beautiful and healthy (I’m very good at growing weeds) that it seemed a shame to dig them up and chuck them on the compost heap. So, I picked an entire…
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Plum and Hazelnut Frangipane Cake
On my allotment, there’s a huge plum tree that overhangs the fence. Every year it sags almost to the ground under the weight of all the fruit and since I can’t bear to see them rotting on the branches, I, err, tend to liberate a fair few. (It’s not scrumping if no one else cares,…
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Cake Time: Persimmon and Cardamom Cake
Up at my local greengrocer the other day, I noticed a tray of strange, orange-red fruits. They were about the size of a small aubergine, and looked so ripe, that they were almost glowing. Now, since I’m an absolute fruit fiend, I get unduly excited when confronted with a fruit I don’t know anything about.…
Laura Madeleine 