Of Cakes and Comfort

After many, many leaving dos, and many tears, F has departed for Australian shores. As I have said in previous blogs, I like to make cakes to show I care. I made F a huge cake. The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook has long been furnishing me with recipes that are both delicious and always work (some of the cupcakes are rather fiddly). Anyway, I picked the Hummingbird Cake to make as a leaving cake for her, as with its three layers, it looked suitably flash. Essentially it’s a carrot cake, but the dried fruit and carrots are replaced by mashed bananas and pineapple.  The result is a cake much lighter than a carrot cake, but just as moist. Also, it keeps amazingly well in the fridge wrapped in foil; I know this because I had to be sneaky and make it ahead of time, on the Monday of last week when F wasn’t looking, I then iced it on Wednesday with just under a kilo of cream cheese frosting (it was a special cake!). I’d definitely recommend this one, the work was light in terms of the result, and made with sunflower oil (not butter) and low fat cream cheese in the frosting, it felt positively saintly!

Last week marked the end of the annual dry month that take place in our flat. Sam and I spent most of the week undoing our good work. By Sunday, we were worse for wear with our excesses and sad after F’s plane had departed. What we needed was calming, comforting Sunday soup. I selected Jamie Oliver’s Ribollita from Jamie’s Italy. I had wanted to cook this for a while, but was scared of soup with bread as an ingredient (yes, I am that uncultured!). I needn’t have been afraid, it was very good - - although I am yet to find cavolo nero in Leeds, and had to substitute it with spinach. It was spicy, and thick and starchy enough so that Sam didn’t feel as though he’d been cheated out of his dinner by just having soup. The trick to getting the adding of the bread right is to go slowly, as F advised from the airport. And long may she continue to dole out remote cooking advice.