Blackberry & Coconut Scones with Blackberry Compote

It’s blackberry season! I will admit these blackberries are from last year. I haven’t actually picked any yet this year, not that we really need any more we have a freezer in our garage that’s full of apples, blackberries and rhubarb although I’m sure we won’t be able to resist...it’s tradition! I foresee a lot of crumbles in our future. Am I the only person who likes to eat yogurt with their scone instead of cream? Aside from the fact that I can’t really eat cream I just think its way more refreshing. If we don’t have cream my mum would rather have butter bleugh! I can’t really get behind anything with butter on unless it involves garlic. I do need to make one thing clear; I’m a jam first then cream kind of person, or yogurt as the case may be.

Vegan Quinoa Salad with Apple, Sultanas and Sunflower Seeds

When I make salads they always seem to turn out better spare of the moment, when I plan to make one and don’t already have an idea of what I want I just expect greatness and it always falls short. This salad I have our lack of things I was craving entirely to thank. I wanted pomegranate, feta, dried cranberries, apricots, maybe not all together it was more “oh I really want this...hmm we don’t have that, oh what about this....nope don’t have that either”. I was originally going to put goats cheese in the salad as well but just stuck with seeds as I wasn’t really all that hungry and spending all day feeling a little under the weather with not much appetite I figured I should just whip up something healthy. I know this is going to become one of those salads I want to make for everyone because it's so simple and tastes so good.

Chocolate and Raspberry Triple Layer Cake with White Chocolate Flavoured Cream and Freeze Dried Raspberries

I am pretty terrible when it comes to giving people gifts on time, I mean I have a good excuse, I like to make the presents I give people and I am the biggest procrastinator known to man. This year I’m trying to step my game up, be a little more organised, the idea of it is great but the execution not so much. My friend Sophie, also known as the majority of the hands on this blog is usually great at giving me presents, and they’re always on time and I am the crumby one so this year instead of feeling bad I actually tried to get it all done on time. I will say everything was still a little last minute, I came up with the idea of what to give her a couple of months ago and still a couple of days before I was seeing her I was making a cushion. I made the cake and some truffles the day before I saw her and I made the card and wrapped the presents a couple of hours before she arrived but it was still done before she arrived, all laid out by the TV like it was Christmas morning. What I’m trying to say is; it still counts. If only I had pictures to show you the packaging, I was giddy wrapping it, I bought brown paper bags and grey twine specifically, I even went as far as to make a box that perfectly fitted the mug to fit in another bigger box with the truffles sitting neatly in bags next to it. Okay so this blog post is not about the presents, it’s actually about the cake. This was a bit of an experiment, like I said, I went all out, three layers, something I’d never tried before a mysterious pink layer. Obviously you know from the title it’s actually raspberry flavoured not a mysterious pink layer. I did have a couple of mishaps, I tried to make dairy free white chocolate mousse without really putting much thought into it and it deflated so I had to run to tesco and buy some cream and made white chocolate cream instead. I also ran out of cream for the top and had to make a second batch and because I could only find the star nozzle, not the round one I ended up scraping the cream off and re-piping it because it looked like something from the 60s but shhh.

Fluffy Oatmeal/Porridge with Sautéed Cinnamon Apples

If you don't like porridge you will like it like this!
Breakfast is definitely a meal I love, muesli, crunchy cereal, pancakes, coffee, pastries; can you tell I’m not a savoury breakfast lover? The breakfast options are endless I just don’t always like to eat breakfast for breakfast. Porridge was one of those gloopy foods I was never really interested in until a couple of years ago when I tried everything to make porridge enjoyable, apart from this. I got this idea from cookie + kate a while ago who I think got it from someone’s cook book. Anyway this porridge is amazing, this is nothing like the gooey sloppy porridge you remember, it’s not gloopy or starchy it’s fluffy and full of toasty flavour.

Pulp Muffins (Pear, kiwi, spinach & lime with dark chocolate, Carrot, orange & apple with cinnamon & pecans and Beetroot, apple & carrot with a spiced crumb)

I am here to solve all your juicing problems, okay, I can’t solve the fact that you have to clean the juicer up (yes, I’m talking about that again) but I can give you something to do with the leftovers. I’m sure these are already a thing, but I have my mum to thank for this genius of an idea. I’ve been calling these pulp muffins which obviously sound extremely appetising...I’m not really sure what else you could call them though, and “pulp muffins” is pretty fitting. Maybe I should actually explain what these are for those of you who aren’t really sure what I’m going on about. That pulp you have left over from making a juice, don’t chuck it away! There are quite a few recipes out there of what to do with your leftover pulp and some of them...aren’t so tasty, but muffins solve everything. These are so much fun to make, they’re always an experiment and you don’t always entirely know what you’re getting, but that’s the fun of it. You can add more flavours, experiment with toppings and fillings, basically you get a fancy muffin to match your juice and some added nutrients and fiber, don’t you just feel better about eating muffins now. The pear, kiwi, spinach and lime with chocolate chips are definitely my favourite, but then maybe that’s just because there’s chocolate in them and green muffins? Yes, I’m the type of person that wants to eat green muffins.