Easy

  • Food, Sweet Treats

    Easy Seasonal Spiced Apple & Pear cake recipe

    We live a very seasonal rhythm when it comes to our lives and everything within it; from our home education to the foods that nourish us, the literature we consume, and what we celebrate. After a wonderful spring and summer, one where we welcomed our baby boy into our family, autumn felt like the perfect moment to settle back into our normal rhythms.

    Autumn brings with it many wonderful adventures, including apple and pumpkin picking. My grandad always has a wonderful apple crop and this year was no different. H (our toddler), had so much fun with her great-grandad picking his apple crop, some of which we were able to bring home for ourselves. We decided to make something fun with our apples, and instead of cooked or stewed apple, we decided that a warm apple cake was perfect.

    From humble beginnings

    A friend had pointed us in the direction of a perfect, seasonal apple cake, the Vegan Apple cake from BBC Good Food. It was a wonderful way to use up the apples we had picked and started us on bit of a journey into creating the perfect cake for our little family.

    We aren’t a vegan family, so although a few times we made the vegan recipe, we were able to switch the ingredients around with ease, preferring organic grass-fed butter to highly processed spreads. We’re extremely conscious of the health benefits around food and keen proponents of nutrition and bioavalibility of our nutrients and the best places to get them from, including animal products which are, for all intents and purposes demonized with sensationalist headlines and a heavy agenda (but that’s a discussion for another day maybe…). What we’ve found is that actually, the ingredients in this recipe are very interchangeable, making this a really versatile base recipe. From there we’ve done so much with it:

    • Switched our processed spreads for organic grass fed butter.
    • Switch plant based milk for the dairy alternative.
    • Used vanilla flavouring instead of almond.
    • Used a mix of apples and pears.
    • Added additional flavourings of mixed spice and cinnamon.

    Apples & Pears into a cake

    The recipe itself is easy and very simple to make with ingredients most of us have in our cupboards. What I love too is that there is nothing in it like eggs (so great for allergy sufferers), so less worry about ending up with raw mixture after cooking. It is also great for little helping hands that like to lick the spoon. It’s so easy to make, regardless of your dietary choices.

    The recipe

    Apple & Pear Seasonal Cake

    Apple & Pear Seasonal Cake

    Prep Time: 20 minutes
    Cook Time: 1 hour
    Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes

    Ingredients

    • 300 ml Whole milk, any suitable milk will work
    • 150 g Organic grass-fed butter, any suitable spread will work
    • 1 tbsp Freshly squeezed lemon juice
    • 350 g Self raising flour
    • 100 g Golden Caster Sugar
    • 100 g Golden soft sugar
    • 1 tsp Baking powder
    • 1 tbsp Vanilla Essence
    • 200 g Pink lady apples, Any sweet apple will work
    • 200 g Sweet Pears
    • 2 tbsp Mixed Spice
    • 2 tbsp Cinnamon

    Instructions

    1. Pour the 300ml into a jug and add 1 tbsp of lemon juice to thicken for 5 minutes at room temperature.
    2. Add self raising flour, both sugars and baking powder into a bowl and mix together.
    3. Pour over the thickened milk and hand whisk until smooth.
    4. Add 1 tbsp of vanilla essence and add to the mixture.
    5. Take the butter and melt in microwave (or on hob). Add to mixture and mix until smooth.
    6. Take the apples and pears, and cut into cubes. Place them in a separate bowl and cover in 1 tbsp of cinnamon and 1 tbsp of mixed spice. Mix together until all apples and pears are coated.
    7. Add the further 1 tbsp of cinnamon and 1 tbsp of mixed spice to the mixture and whisk together.
    8. Add the coated apples and pears and fold gently through the mixture.
    9. Grease a tin with the leftovers of the melted butter and pour mixture into the tin.
    10. Cook in centre of oven for 45 mins - 1 hour on 200 degrees celcius.

    Read below to find our amazing spiced apple and pear cake, with all the additions and changes that I think you will love as much as we do.

    This recipe is so simple, seasonal and tastes incredible. I hope you love it as much as we do. If you try it, please let me know in the comments or tag me on Instagram.

  • Breakfast, Food

    Simple breakfast pancakes!

    Pancakes seem to be a huge pregnancy craving of mine and although I have posted a couple of times my variations of my foray into the world of keto pancakes and low carb inspired pancakes, I wanted to hop and tell you guys about a very normal, very English pancake recipe. What I love about this recipe is not just that the pancakes taste great (because they do) but also that I am pretty sure you’ll be able to whip up these ingredients at a moments notice and from things you are more than likely going to have in stock too! There is nothing unique or special about this recipe at all and you can probably find it a zillion other places on the internet too, but it is good, it is what I love and you won’t be sorry you tried it.

    pancakes

    Simple Pancakes Recipe

    Simple Crepe Pancakes

    Simple Crepe Pancakes

    Prep Time: 5 minutes
    Cook Time: 10 minutes
    Total Time: 15 minutes

    Ingredients

    • 100g of Plain Flour
    • 300ml of Milk
    • 2 eggs, beaten

    Instructions

    1. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and whisk until smooth (you might want to whisk your eggs, add them to the milk and whisk both together before adding the flour. This helps create a nice smooth mixture).
    2. Add a small amount of oil to a pan (again, I use coconut oil but it really is personal preference).
    3. Pour a little mix into the pan and cook evenly on both sides.

    Ingredients:

    • 100g of Plain Flour
    • 300ml of Milk (I used Unroasted Almond milk but you can use whatever you prefer)
    • 2 eggs, beaten

    Method:

    (Now this is the real easy part)

    1. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and whisk until smooth (you might want to whisk your eggs, add them to the milk and whisk both together before adding the flour. This helps create a nice smooth mixture).
    2. Add a small amount of oil to a pan (again, I use coconut oil but it really is personal preference).
    3. Pour a little mix into the pan and cook evenly on both sides.

    (See, told you it was easy)

    Yield: Six medium pancakes

    Next decide on your filling/topping. My usual go-to has to be the tradition lemon and sugar, but for this recipe I went all out and made a cherry & chocolate extravaganza; Using Sweet Freedom chocolate pot spread inside the pancakes, a drizzle of the Sweet Freedom Chocolate and Coconut shot across the top and some morello cherries. I was not disappointed at all!

    What is your favourite pancake topping?

  • Dinner, Food

    Homemade Burger Patties & Fresh Salad

    Let’s face it time isn’t always on our side when it comes to preparing delicious meals during the week most of us just don’t have the time we would love to be able to cook some scratch, so as well as some more elaborate dishes you will also find some quick, simple and budget friendly recipes on these pages too.

    burger
    I decided a long time ago that instead of buying burger patties from the supermarket it was far easier to make them myself, not only did it only take me less than 10 minutes to make a whole batch (and the extras you can put between parchment paper and freeze until you need them, I freeze them in batches of 2’s) but also I knew that there was nothing added in as extra that you might find in a shop bought or restaurant bought burger.

    You will need:

    • Ground/Minced Beef.
    • Burger cheese of your choice (I actually use violife vegan cheese – the irony given that I am putting it on meat).
    • Violife Vegan Mediterranean cheese block (Halloumi would work just as well).
    • Mixed salad: Romaine lettuce, Bell peppers, plum tomatoes, Cucumber.
    • Dressing: Extra Virgin Olive Oil

     

    What you need to do:

    Add your ground beef into a bowl and season. I love using steak seasoning along with pepper, but you can really tailor your burger patties to your own taste here.
    Mix together by hand.
    By hand, form burger patties and add them to a baking sheet.
    Cook until pipping hot, brown and cooked through on the inside.
    This burger patty recipe is quick, simple and easy, and although I am not the greatest fan of dipping my hand in raw meat, I have found you can make a huge batch all in one go and freeze them, meaning you have quick on the go meals for other times too.