Black Forest cake
After blogging for about a year, I can safely say that this is the most difficult part of it. Coming up with some light conversational preamble smoothly integrating into the recipe. In fact, it feels so challenging that it’s often been the main reason the updates have been so scarce. Somehow, finding the time to photograph and write up a recipe seems easier than having to briefly lead up to it in a paragraph or two. While I have possibly hundreds of recipes I would happily share, I dread needing to introduce them with some sort of non-committal banter. Frankly I am not sure it’s even a necessity to begin with. I personally tend to skip right to the actual recipe because if I wanted to read, I would normally get a book (apologies, fellow bloggers). This is also why I have been trying to keep introductions brief and to the point. So then, here is a Black Forest cake recipe.
Easy homemade granola
I could never understand granola. Having first tried it ages ago, it felt dry, boring and was obviously out of a bag. After such a failed experience, I had no interest in pursuing it for years. It’s definitely not something I would ever consider ordering for breakfast. And I certainly never slowed down next to granola shelves while grocery shopping. For the sake of full disclosure, I still do neither of those things. But after a pure chance of luck where some fancy homemade granola was part of a breakfast package at a place we used to frequent, my opinion of it changed. So I now make it quite regularly at home. Fortunately, the recipe is extremely straight-forward and very interchangeable in terms of ingredients.
One-pot pumpkin pasta
Given how much time I normally spend in the kitchen, there are, inevitably, multiple occasions when I simply need an ultra quick recipe. This one-pot pumpkin pasta has come to the rescue many times. It’s so fast put together and the end result is impressively silky. Honestly, it’s hard to believe that a meal cooked for barely longer than it takes to boil some pasta is even allowed to taste this good. If you ever happen to find yourself racing against time to have lunch or dinner ready, this ought to be your solution.
Orange cranberry scones
Let’s imagine for a second that we live in a world where “what if” scenarios are somewhat realistic. And if in that world someone posed a question “what if you can only bake one thing for the rest of your life?” then scones would be pretty high on the list of contestants. The flavour combinations are essentially endless. The individual and optional add-ons are adaptable according to everyone’s taste. And most importantly the entire process of putting them together from scratch rarely takes more than 30 minutes. This is of course largely because there is no need to get the ingredients to room temperature. Scones are one of the perfect answers to spontaneous baking. So orange cranberry scones this time, with hopefully many more variations to follow later.
Meringue roll
It seems that for a while now meringue rolls have been everywhere. They follow me around and turn up at every corner. I confess I have been meaning to make one for the longest time but, for some reason, suspected the whole affair would be messy, time consuming and generally difficult. Luckily, it is neither of those things. Making a meringue roll is surprisingly easy, quick and is ideal when you want to impress with minimal consumables. Unlike its relative – Pavlova – which usually requires upwards of an hour of slow baking alone, this meringue roll only needs 25 minutes in the oven. Strictly speaking, this roll comes together in less than an hour. And the hardest thing about it is finding an alternative that can be equally stunning and indulgent.