Apple and Almond Cake

We invited some dear friends to supper last night for an impromptu birthday celebration. Although I’m not the world’s most prolific or skilled baker I decided to make a cake. My inspiration was a delicious apple and almond cake I tasted at the delightful Southern Cross cafe in Edinburgh – it made such an impression on me that I vowed to recreate it. It’s supposed to have some flaked almonds on top to make it look pretty but the cupboard was bare yesterday so that didn’t happen. The resulting cake is both light and dense, moist and crumbly – easy to make and well worth the effort.

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Warm Salads: the easy way to ten-a-day

You can’t have missed last week’s headlines announcing that the five a day target needs to double. The New York Times led with ‘You’re going to need a bigger bowl‘.

The study found that up to 600g per person per day of vegetables leads to a reduced cancer risk and that 8oog reduced all cause mortality. Apples and pears, citrus fruits, green leafy vegetables, cruciferous veg and salads were all found to be helpful, with a particular emphasis on green-yellow vegetables and crucifers for cancer risk.

I know many readers greeted the news with dismay. It can be hard to meet those targets.  Continue reading

Guilt-free, gluten-free, almost sugar-free chocolate brownies.

When I first tasted these brownies I had a moment of pure bliss. As Van Morrison would say, ‘I’ve been searching a long time, for some[thing] exactly like you’. For while these brownies are free from naughtiness they are most certainly not free from tastiness. There is a tiny amount of sugar in there furnished by the chocolate, but the higher the rating of the chocolate you buy, the less there will be. (About 2g per brownie if you use 85% chocolate Continue reading