hearty food affairs

Well, the chocolate cake sunk again! So it's down to my baking ineptitude- not oven trouble as I'd hoped! Not sure why... think cakes can cave in if you open the oven door too quickly... but I only opened it after the full recommended cooking time. Still, the chocolate frosting went a long way, it filled the cavity so it was hardly noticeable! But I want to crack this cake because it tastes so good and is perfect for special occasions.
It was rich chocolate cake, covered with a chocolate frosting, decorated with Montezuma's dark chocolate buttons with Alpro soya cream poured over. I used almond milk (which the author lists in another chocolate cake recipe) which is gorgeous. Its a little pricey so just an occasional buy but the boys like drinking it on its own so it doesn't go wasted. One of the wet ingredients is canola oil, which haven't always found that easily but Waitrose sell rapeseed oil, which I think is the same thing?

Anyway, the above was our Valentine's meal pudding at home. The other courses were:

Pasta with garlic, sundried tomatoes, asparagus and coriander from a Viva booklet called 'Get healthy with Heather', and pea, spinach and mint pithiviers with salad (the pithiviers were a Rose Elliot recipe within an old copy of 'Lifescape' magazine. The filling is a lovely mixture of fresh mint, peas, spinach and vegan cream cheese). The boys ate the pithiviers renamed as 'space ships'- saved me trying to pronounce their actual name!

Our Valentine's day meal was actually the day after; I was too tired to cook much on the day, it was punctuated with tasks to do with putting things back in the kitchen, and such excitement as changing the fridge door around......but we did enjoy our little feast on Sunday.

Rohan, Luca and I did some baking for when one of their friends came to visit this afternoon:

These are fluffy white cupcakes from Jennifer McCann's wonderful 'Vegan Lunchbox'. I've just unearthed the book from unpacking, hadn't unpacked it in this house yet. I also found 'Vegan cupcakes take over the world' which made me very happy as I really missed this book on the twins birthday.

Enjoyed the visit of a very old friend who came via Wing Yip. I really need to make a trip to this big chinese supermarket. She brought amazing fruit and veg, like a whole bag of red chillis for £1 and lovely things such as white radishes and pak choi. Mit made a lovely stir-fry with black bean sauce and soya beans added:


So after all this feasting I have an antidote: after a rare eve out with a friend (cinema- 'Benjamin Button'- loved it! ) I had a glass of red wine which served as a confidence boost to register for a half marathon. Eeek! I only ever run in an ambling fashion and for about 3 miles at a time. So, I've got work to do before April!