Summer fruits chocolate frosted cake

I might sound strange making your own birthday cake. Maybe a little sad even!

But I just had so many ideas that didn’t bother me in the slightest. My friends and family had said they’d have given me a cake but were too nervous to know what to get! Oops sorry- I don’t tend to make things easy for them ;-)

I had so many ideas of my own, that just like last year, I made a birthday cake for myself...I even blew out my own candles (well I had to light them for the photo shoot!)  This year the cake came a day late. If you read this post you’ll understand why!  But hey, it was still part of my birthday weekend so it still counts!

It was the perfect cake to make for a day when I was off to eat lots of Thai food with friends.  I knew
I’d be stuffed full of lunch so this little treat was just right for a super light morning snack, and then also served again as dinner! Yep this beauty is super light and healthy. 

It’s not just a birthday cake....it would be perfect for any summer gathering or BBQ. Vary the fruits as you wish or according to the season.  My super speedy healthy frosting  also made for the perfect companion, and I added some cocoa to it for a chocolatey hit.

Remember to throw on some sprinkles. The world is always a better place with sprinkles!!

This time I've even given you a few step-by-step process shots! Hope it helps....

Summer fruit frosted cake

Makes 1 cake (size depends on size of melon)

Ingredients:

1 medium water melon (mine was approx 20cm round)

½ cup strawberries (or other fruits)

½ cup banana (or other fruits)

Approx 1 cup chocolate frosting*

Approx ½ cup vanilla frosting*

Handful of chocolate sprinkles*

Method:

Prepare the melon by slicing of the top and bottom (I sliced a larger chunk off the top so that I could have a small top layer), slice the skin off the sides to form a fairly neat round ‘cake’

Prepare the frosting. (see linked post and notes below) I prepared both together and then divided them and added cocoa to the larger portion.

Place the watermelon on it's final serving plate, and begin spreading the frosting over the surface with a palette knife or spoon. Dollop some of the vanilla round the edge of the top surface (or all over the top if you are not having a smaller top piece) place the strawberries and banana or other fruit around the edge and then position the top piece. Cover the top piece with the remaining vanilla frosting and decorate with the top with the remaining fruit.

Add sprinkles, such as these, or any types of sprinkles, seeds, nuts, cocoa.... as desired over the surface.

Serve immediately.  It will keep for a couple of days but always nicest eaten on the same day...so make sure you have a crowd (or like a lot watermelon!)

Frosting:
For frosting refer to this post (for more details) adding 2-3 tbs cocoa powder to one cup’s worth of mix. To make a thick frosting for spreading mix 4:1 yoghurt to coconut flour ratio plus vanilla extract and a few drops of stevia and drizzle of maple syrup (or other sweetener), you may need to increase the yoghurt quantity slightly for the chocolate version.

Sprinkles:
For sprinkles, I used a cocoa version of these sprinkles, also referred to here for the choclatey version.  Feel free to use whatever you like to add a touch of sweetness.

chocolate sprinkles!!

For further guidance on making gluten free choices please see this post.

For tips and info on recipe measurement conversions, ingredients, substitutions and the methods behind how I do things.... check out my 'baking tips' tab at the top of the page.

Silent Sunday no. 71

What is my Silent Sunday ?

Apple and blueberry 'birthday' baked oatmeal (or Mother's Day breakfast!)

I hadn't been planning to post today... My big birthday was going to be a nice chilled out morning followed by a trip out this afternoon. Relaxing...what's that!?!

It ended up being a brief trip to the gym, followed by this amazing breakfast (a last minute idea), a few presents to open, a this blog post write up.... and then my trip out, all because I couldn't contain the excitement of this breakfast and quite a few of you on Facebook saw the picture, got curious and wanted the recipe (I don't blame you!!)  This would make the most amazing Mother' Day brunch for those of you in parts of the world that have Mother's Day this weekend- hence why I wanted to post it for you!!

Saying that I did have an hour or so spent 'pottering' about the house, and my pottering took the form of looking through old photo albums and smiling over childhood photos.  Gosh has 30 years reqally gone by...!

This one in particular tickles me.... already behind the camera!  I also seem to have spent a of of time in my underwear?!  I made a little montage for you. I think actually come across as a lovely 'quiet and calm' child....ha ha that's not quite the story my mum would tell you :-)

The recipe is right below. I'm not going to go on and on describing how to make it, how to tastes, ways to vary it etc etc. Quite simple because it tastes amazing (think breakfast brunch or dessert!), it's ridiculously simple and also because....I wanna go out!  Byeeeeeee

P.s I will have more birthday related foodie things to come...just ran out of time this week with my business launch!!

Recipe: Apple and blueberry 'birthday' baked oatmeal

Serves 2 (or 3)

Ingredients

2/3 cup oats

tiny pinch salt

1 1/4 cup apple juice

1 apple- grated

1 tbs chia/flax seed

1/2 tsp mixed spice or cinnamon

large handful frozen blueberries (I haven't tried with fresh so I am not sure of cooking times)

small handful of pumpkin seeds (or other seeds/nuts as preferred)

Method

Mix everything together reserving most of the blueberries and pumpkin seeds to add on the top last. Spoon into a medium oven dish and add the blueberries pumkin seeds. Sprinkle with exra sugar if you like, but this was seriously sweet enough for me (I would even serve it as desert) just from the fruit and fruit juice.

Bake at 180C for approx. 25 mins until the topping is golden. Serve immediately.  

For further guidance on making gluten free choices please see this post.

For tips and info on recipe measurement conversions, ingredients, substitutions and the methods behind how I do things.... check out my 'baking tips' tab at the top of the page.

Happy Birthday…to Including Cake!

My blog is now one year old…whoop!

Actually I tell a lie, today is actually 1 year+1 week as it was this time last week that I actually reached the milestone but I was away camping without any form of internet (and barely a phone signal!) and so could not do anything to celebrate at the time.

So, to celebrate, albeit a little belatedly (belated birthdays are good right, cos they are always unexpected!) A cake….. of the cheesecake variety to follow the theme of my deliciously successful turtle cheesecake.

A few other fruity friends wanted to help out…but alas they couldn’t all fit on the top of the cake.

well it made the big kid in me smile!

So a whole year…wow… I could never have imagined making it this far or where is would lead, all the potential it has thrown my way and all the beliefs it has stirred in my soul.

Well I’m not stopping now and I just hope that over the next year (and beyond) this can become more than just a blog. I want to take my passions of food and photography more directly into people’s lives. I want to learn and understand more. Most of all I hope I can come to reach more people to help them think outside the box when it comes to food and to continue to prove that healthy food can taste so good and reap such rewards both mentally and physically.

Food really is the medicine of the future. This I truly believe.

One book I mentioned very early on in my blog’s history, is The China Study.  Of all the research I have come across, this has to be one of the most compelling publications from a scientific (and not simply moral) perspective of the benefits of a plant based diet. Upon reading this I was hooked.

Last but not least, I truly appreciate you all for joining me on my journey and the input you offer, whether you are a long time reader or someone who may come across me once in a while. I hope I can continue to inspire you. If you have any thoughts as to how I could continue to improve please chime in... for example: more sweet/savoury recipes, photos of the processes, fitness/health related non recipe posts, more/less about 'me' in the posts or anything else that comeas to your mind. Oh, and if you have ideas for recipes you want to be 'healthanized' please shout...i'm up for the challenge!

P.S If you want to have a little chuckle, this was my very first post!

P.P.S Strawberry cheesecake recipe to follow shortly…promise!

 

Inspired in May

It’s been a busy month…what with the sun coming out and the veggies growing and my birthday, it’s been a good month too!

I’ve been progressing lots of little things, some things pole fitness related and some things blog/cake related…too early to tell but it’s all looking positive. Slowly, slowly, small steps. This coming weekend is also the Queen’s diamond jubilee…so everyone is getting into party mood with a long double bank holiday weekend.  Well then I’d better get into baking mode…red white and blue here we come!

Main photo: the recipe that inspired you most this month was without a doubt these carrot burgers, they had at least 4 times the amount of hits than any other post. The perfect summer recipe!

How to live well

This song has so much power- I choreographed a pole fitness routine to it

I found that this website and this PDF chart were both really useful in my 30 Day Green Smoothie Challenge.

Light science and magic…currently on my reading list. It gives a really good foundation to understanding photographic light. I like the know the reasons why I should do things and not just how to do things.

I love random creativity…so I found this work pretty unique and inspirational.

Ha ha...!

These minitures are just so cute…and wont make you fat!

Great idea for wrapping…now I just need to get lots of cloth scraps!

Useful tips for going vegan abroad

 

This banana pecan pancake pie isn’t vegan…but I’m working on it!

Birthday time!

Hello, I’m all excitable…today is my birthday!

I’m still allowed to get excited on my birthday…even if I am 29, that’s not grown up right?

Who wants to be grown up anyway? ‘Grown up’ often seems to imply being sensible, owning lots of credit cards, not being spontaneous, not giggling uncontrollably and not licking the plate clean when no-one’s watching…that kinda thing.

So I’m certainly not grown up. Well certainly not for a lot of the time.

So back to my birthday! It’s been a random kind of day. A fairly normal start (my Friday Pilates class), with a spot of helping a friend move house in the middle and lots of birthday relating baking goings on in between. So all is good! Tomorrow is where it’s at as I’ll be having a get together with family and going out for a meal to a tapas bar. Last weekend I also went out for a meal with friends to a thai restaurant…so it’s all about food really!  

This is how today shaped up on the food front:

Raspberry and almond breakfast cookie (with green smoothie just peeking in the corner) before my Pilates class, followed by a ridiculously indulgent- it ended up being quite a bit larger than I’d anticipated- chocolate cream cake for a brunchy snack (I was very full after that ooops!), followed by pesto cabbage and chickpea soup for a late lunch before meeting my friend, and then for dinner a carrot craving resulted in these carrot burgers with lemon tahini sauce….

Recipes to come…patience, patience.  But to start, I’ll share my chocolate cream cake as that’s the most birthdayish recipe after all and I like my little candle. Is it a bit silly to make your own birthday cake? Well I wanted a candle to blow out…you can’t be ‘grown up’ if you still blow out candles right?

This chocolate raspberry cream cake is super rich and  indulgent. The sponge itself isn’t so much as I cut the oil since I was going for a cashew cream in the middle and so was more than happy to go for an oil-less textured sponge (I couldn’t tell the difference from my usual chocolate mug cake recipe anyway). The jam I used was sugar free (fruit sugar only) and the cream is simply a thick plain cashew cream…but put all that together and you have a pretty crazy cake! Perfect for a special occasion.

Recipe: Chocolate raspberry cream cake

Serves 1 (or two!)

Ingredients- sponge

3 tbs wholewheat spelt flour (or GF combo)

1 tbs agave and a few grains of stevia (or increase agave slightly)

Tiny pinch salt

1 tbs cocoa powder (or cacao or carob)

½ tsp baking powder

2tbs soy yoghurt or apple puree

Approx. 3 tbs soy milk

Ingredients- filling

Cashew cream (approx. 2 tbs)

Sugar-free fruit conserve

A few fresh berries- optional

Method

To make the sponge, mix the dry ingredients together and then add the wet and mix to form a smooth thick batter. Spoon two equal sized dollops on a large greased/lined microwavable plate and microwave for 1 minute. Alternatively bake the sponge in the oven on a baking sheet for approx. 10 minutes (note I have not tested this method.)

Meanwhile make up the cashew cream (or use an alternative cream/yoghurt) and also get the fruit conserve/berries ready to go.

Once cooked, the sponge should form two small flat cakes. Place one, flat side up, on your serving plate and layer up with cream, jam, fruit before placing the top sponge layer on top. Add extra cream/fruit to the top as desired…add a candle if you like!

It all just splodged out the sides as soon as I sank my spoon into it! Yummy.

For tips and info on recipe measurement conversions, ingredients, substitutions and the methods behind how I do things.... check out my 'baking tips' tab at the top of the page.