Birthday cake and recipe testing

Computer problems have stopped me from blogging for a while, but hopefully the technical issues are solved and my computer will cooperate from now on!

I've been looking for an excuse to make this cake for ages, and my partner's birthday was the perfect occasion.

I present the 'Beesting' cake, along with Sylvia's delicately placed candles:

It has an almond toffee on the top, a custard filling and the cake has almond meal in it. It looks pretty and is quite light, but still feels indulgent.

This is one of Leigh Drew's recipes from her book Vegan Indulgence. I've also volunteered to do some recipe testing for Leigh for her upcoming 'around the world' vegan cookbook.

It is so much fun trying these recipes, which have so far been mostly Indian and Pakistani inspired. They are quite different to the food I normally cook. I don't generally use chilli in our food because of Sylvia and I guess I haven't come across such exciting recipes for vegan versions of food from this region of the world. Eating these dishes is like having a night out in a great restaurant, not something that really happens with a two year old!

Here are the dishes I've cooked so far:

Baigan Bharta (Eggplant curry)



"Butter" Tofu

Aloo Gobi

Mamoul (shortbread stuffed with pistashios and walnuts)

Lastly, thank you to Theresa from the Tropical Vegan for passing along the Food Stories Blog award. I've been following Theresa's blog for years and I always love reading it, so it's a lovely surprise! I will be sharing some random facts about myself in the next post...