The year that just passed feels long gone already, we’re settling back into routine and I feel a little bereft, not for the year past but for the little break we had in between.
I can’t bring myself to feel optimistic about the New Year, which isn’t to say that I won’t get there; but is it weird that I suddenly want to stay home and bake all the time now?

I know it’s not strawberry season; we’re supposed to be in the dead of winter, yet we’ve had a couple of strange warm days, and I see strawberries (imported from Mexico) at the supermarket all the time.
I don’t have my usual stash of frozen berries because I didn’t go berry picking last summer, I caved and bought a pound of strawberries to make strawberry lemon loaf.
This loaf is a little like strawberry lemonade, which reminds me of summer, which cheers me up a bit.

I don’t remember where I got the recipe from, but I’ve been making this quick bread for a while now; it’s light, tart, moist and sweet, the strawberries and lemon compliment each other well.

It’s superb as a snack, or for dessert, dress it up with ice cream and and topped with strawberries.

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Most people who know me (and I’m not talking about my 600 friends on facebook!) know that I’m a bit of a wallflower.
Well, maybe a lot.
It took me a little while to accept this, but it turns out I don’t mind being a loner.
I wouldn’t know what I’d do with myself if suddenly I were ‘the life of the party’
Unlike this mango-glazed cake, I mean look at it…. It’s so bright and so yellow!
It really stands out, definitely not a wallflower.
I finished glazing this cake and thought to myself “this cake is like the antithesis of who I am, but I love it!”

This cake isn’t just glazed with mango, it has bits of mango in it – I used dried mango pieces.
It’s a lovely light cake; I doubled the amount of glaze the recipe called for because I couldn’t get enough of the tart sweetness.
The recipe is from My Diverse Kitchen, I followed the recipe exactly except swap out one or two ingredients; ground flax seed for eggs, and coconut milk with apple cider vinegar for buttermilk.

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So long as there are sad looking browning bananas on the kitchen counter, I’ll find a recipe to throw them into.
Fluffy banana cake; this is my go-to use for bananas when I get tired of the old classic banana bread.
It’s an airy and light cake, with a hint of cardamom, vanilla and nutmeg.
A warm and comforting treat for the chilly days ahead.
Wonderful with slow cooked strawberries, this cake is vegan, simple and very easy to make.
The secret to it’s lightness is sifting the dry ingredients twice and getting the batter very smooth.

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A couple of months ago I got a jar of morello cherries (in light syrup) from Trader Joe’s.
It was a bit of an impulse buy, but I’d always wanted to try them.
The lone jar sat in the cupboard for a few months, them one day I just started eating them straight out of the jar.
These cherries are wonderful; I wish I could find them fresh when in season.
I love to pile them atop pancakes too.

I thought about tossing some into a batch of banana bread I was making a while back.
I thought about it for a second and just dumped them in!
It turned out beautifully tart – perfect breakfast fare.
It was delicious the next day with a bit of almond butter sauce
And the syrup from the cherries is spectacular in smoothies

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I buy most of the fruit my household consumes, and although we profess to love fruit and I buy our fruit based on this assumption; the truth is we don’t eat as much fruit as we should.
This tweet made me laugh, because my lifetime ratio of bananas purchased to bananas consumed is about 10 to 1.
We’re pretty good with seasonal and exotic fruits; it’s the year-round ‘boring’ fruits like apples and bananas we tend to slack on.

Finding ways to use up the fruits before their prime has become my challenge, admittedly it’s not a loathsome challenge. I’m always pleased to find recipes that use tons of apples, like this apple cake does.
I wasn’t too keen on this cake when I first saw the recipe, but I’m open minded enough to try a recipe once – as long as it isn’t time consuming or calls for ingredients I don’t like/eat.
I’ll tell you this. I’m glad I gave this cake a try; it’s a superb cake, moist and dense with subtle flavours.
I loved it so much I had it for dessert and then for breakfast the next morning.

Apple Cake
INGREDIENTS

• 4 ½ to 5 cups diced apples
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• ½ cup salad oil
• 2 tablespoon ground flaxseed meal + 6 tablespoons water (or 2 eggs)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ extra apple, cored-quartered thinly sliced (optional)
• whole or slivered almonds to decorate (optional)

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350° F, grease a medium baking pan and set aside.
2. In a large bowl sift together the flour, and the rest of the dry ingredients.
3. Mix in chopped apples and set aside.
4. In a separate bowl, combine wet ingredients and mix until well incorporated.
5. Fold the flour mixture into the wet ingredients, gently mixing the ingredients just until combined.
6. Pour the batter into the baking pan, making sure it is evenly distributed.
7. Arrange the thin apple slices on top of the cake and decorate with almonds.
8. Bake in an oven for 40 minutes or until cooked all the way through.
9. Allow to cool completely before serving

Enjoy!