Tag: easter

Speckled dairy free cake with vegan buttercream
01Apr

pistachio and orange cake

The air is filled with hope. This week, after a long lockdown restrictions have start to loosen and we can now meet friends and families outdoors. Our calendars have started to fill up with picnics in the sun, and most exciting is being able to celebrate Easter with out families over the long weekend. If you are in the UK you’ll know how excited people get when Cadbury’s Mini Eggs start appearing. Those little yellow bags full of addictive crunchy, chocolate-y balls. For me they are akin to a class A drug. And this orange and pistachio cake is my second favourite thing right now. I have made this recipe many, many times and tweaked to be now one of my go-to traybakes, delicious with buttercream or just runny icing. This cake mirrors the speckled shell of the mini eggs, and apart from them this cake is totally dairy free. I made the icing using Flora 100% plant base butter and I will go as far as saying that it tasted better than actual buttery buttercream. . Pistachio and orange cake (Serves 8-10 people) 6 oranges 6 medium eggs 375 caster sugar 1 tsp olive oil 250g plain flour 200g
4 mins read
2099 Views
22Mar

Coconut and pineapple easter cakes in egg shells

I always make an effort to make something special when big holidays are coming. Something to make the table shine and people smile. We just bought a new house so we’re going through a happy but stressful moment. My husband is working crazy hours, going straight to the new house to do renovations after a full days work in the office. This left me feeling like a single mum (I respect those women so much), meaning that I have had to deal with a lot on my own: work, son, shopping, housework, the dog…here’s hoping this lonesome juggling won’t last much longer. This means our quality time together over the Easter holiday will be brief, so I want to make an extra effort to make the house and the food feel special. I thought that cakes that are hatching out of eggs fit the bill, right?! And thank goodness the weather has officially transitioned to spring, the warmer days inspired me to go for a pineapple and coconut flavour mixture. We are big egg consumers around here so it was easy to collect the shells, but if 20 sounds like too much, halving the recipe works well too. Coconut and
3 mins read
675 Views
18Mar

Honey Chai Easter cookies

The first time I listened to Nirvana was in my cousin’s bedroom. My cousins were quite a few years older and the coolest kids I knew. I got hooked listening to Nevermid and listened to Come As You Are on a loop. I wanted to tell everyone about it. I was a little late to the party though, this was in 98, so my enthusiasm received a lot of eye rolling because Nevermid was so last year, or so the cool kids told me. Eighteen years later I receive somewhat the same reaction when a mere few months ago I expressed my love for Chai lattes. Chai tea, according to snobs around me, was old news. Chai was out, turmeric was in. Although as a teenager I liked to imitate my cousins, these days I no longer feel embarrassed for not having tried all the latest trends. So better late than ever, I have started to experiment with chai spices.  I am no expert, but I played with the spices combination in this recipe at least 10 times now, and it is truly addictive. I am not moving on to turmeric any time soon, I am truly in love with
3 mins read
1013 Views
30Mar

Spiced chocolate Easter bread

Easter is a pretty big deal in my family, it’s like second Christmas both for religious reasons but also because most of us get quite a good amount of annual leave from work so we land at my parents’ for a few days. People take Easter food seriously over here with their legs of lamb, cream eggs, simnel cake or anything with marzipan. I am not exactly a fan of either lamb or marzipan though. What I look forward to are the hot cross buns, warmed up sweet cinnamon buns spread with butter.  It is just simple enriched bread with spices and raisins with a flour cross on top, but for the British these little buns have a huge meaning and date back to the 12th century Britain, they are traditionally eaten on Easter weekend and they were traditionally hung on kitchens on Good Friday and people believed they would never go mouldy. Queen Elizabeth I decreed that hot cross buns could no longer be sold on any day except for Good Friday, Christmas or for burials. They were simply too special to be eaten any other day, so people started to bake them in secret in their kitchens. I love
5 mins read
900 Views
16Apr

Carrot cupcakes with lime cream cheese frosting

I love having an excuse to cook and bake and the holidays are always a great one. After Christmas Easter is the first time many families have the opportunity to meet up again especially if you live far away from your family, like me. I enjoy making something at home to take to these family gatherings, I find it is like a gift that you take, it makes others happy. And what I make is often of the sweet kind. This Easter my sweet gift is carrot cupcakes with a lime cream cheese frosting. You can’t have Easter without carrots! I have come across many carrot cake recipes that take a lot of spices such as cinnamon and cloves, but to me these spices remind me of the autumn season, so I decided to make a spring version of this recipe and I must say I was proud of the result. Carrot cupcakes with lime cream cheese frosting (makes 12) For the cupcakes: 125g butter, at room temperature 80g muscovado sugar 1 tsp vanilla essence 2 eggs 100g plain flour 1 tbsp baking powder 100g almonds or hazelnuts, ground 150g carrots, grated 100g white chocolate, finely chopped or chips For
3 mins read
655 Views