sweet miscellany

seasonal plant-based recipes

Another Year Older…

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Another birthday has snuck up on me.  I don’t know that I was really ready for this one, as it means that my 20s are slowly on their way out.  But today, I chose not to sit and obsess over the years that have gone by.  Instead, I’m looking back on all that I have accomplished in the past, and all that I want to in the future.  This year will hold just as much change and growth as last year, if not more.  It will be challenging, rewarding, frustrating, fun, and probably somewhat awful at times.  But, I’ve got another year under my belt and I’m ready to take it head on.  Oh, and I have this cake to fuel me through any and every situation.

If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, or know me personally, you’ll probably see that I’ve combined a lot of my favorites into this one cake.  Yes, the appropriate “pumpkin season” may be over, but I  like pumpkin and by darn I was going to make a pumpkin birthday cake.  To go with my pumpkin cake, I decided to make a vanilla bean coconut cream filling, and a dirty chai chocolate ganache to drizzle over the top.  I’d say this is pretty much my dream cake.  Hopefully you’ll like it too 🙂

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Easy Little Bread

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Though we are only a few days into the new year, plans and goals are starting to take shape over here.  Lists are being scribbled and resolutions hammered out.  It’s a lovely sort of renewing feeling, the beginning of a year.  It also helped to start it off out in the country with no internet (or i-phone) access.  Here’s a few snapshots from new year’s day…

The icy chill in the air has me craving warm and comforting foods as of late.  While looking for a bit of soup inspiration, I stumbled upon a simple bread recipe over at Heidi’s blog.  The cute name along with the fact that it contained yeast made my decision for me.  I have steered clear of yeasted breads in the past, but one of my goals this year is to become comfortable with them and learn more about them.  This bread was a good place to start.  It’s the perfect accompaniment to soup, or a bit of thai veggie curry as it was in my case.  The slight modifications I made are listed below, along with a link to the recipe.  I encourage you to eat it warm from the oven as it will surely make your day a little brighter despite the wintry cold.        
Find the recipe for “easy little bread” here.

I used an equal amount of whole spelt flour & light spelt flour instead of the wheat flours (this makes it wheat free), added 2 tbsp of whole millet for crunch, and greased my loaf pan with coconut oil.  I suspect you could make it vegan by using pure maple syrup for the honey.