This is what makes me happy.

Unpacking? What unpacking? It’s SUNNY. In IRELAND.

100%

98% there.

Celebratory ‘we found a house!’ breakfast. Let the great migration begin.

curiositycounts:

A delicious homage to Pantone and its (growing) heritage of color. 

Again: WHAT?

raveyrai:

barackobama:

idrownideas:

The best campaign counter-attack video I HAVE EVER SEEN. Obama 2012 

”So we’re going to call their BS when we see it and we need your help to call them on it too and set the record straight. So share this, tweet it, facebook it, I keep hearing about tumblr and whatever that is…please use that too. Thank you.”

-Stephanie Cutter / Deputy Campaign Manager at Obama for America. 

And a Tumblr shout-out. 

“So we’re going to call their BS when we see it…”

 

This. A million times this. 

There’s no better motivation to mess around with recipes than pure boredom, a sick partner, and a rainy day. Most of you know by now that I’m 100% off dairy in an effort to bulk up my immune system: my panel of nutritionists think I’ve got a casein intolerance that kept my immune system busy, leading me to get sick pretty much once every three to four weeks. This, in combination with the fact that I’m lending a hand with the baking at 3FE every Friday, has lead me on a search for awesome allergy-friendly recipes, whether they be gluten, dairy, and/or egg-free. 

So, back to this wet and windy morning: I was all set to try out a version of a lemon poppy-seed crazy cake recipe when I suddenly remembered that, while I might have lemons at Matt’s, I certainly don’t have poppy seeds. Despite the fact that my baking ingredients are slowly but surely moving back into Matt’s apartment (including but not limited to rosewater, orange extract, Wilbur Cocoa, raw cacao nibs, and the like), the poppy seeds are still languishing—neglected—in my kitchen back in the ‘batter alongside some star anise. What HAD migrated back over to the Docklands, however, were some Cox apples, pure vanilla, and spiced rum. 

I used a basic recipe (via Kelly Rudnicki) to make sure that the cake would rise; in the end, everything was so tweaked, it barely resembled the original recipe. 

Spiced Apple and Rum Cake (Vegan)

• 4 Cox Apples (peeled, cored, and chopped into inch cubes)
• 3 c finely ground whole wheat flour
• 3/4 c dark brown muscovado sugar 
• 3 Tbsp Cinnamon (really to your taste)
• 2 1/2 Tbsp Ground Ginger
• 1 1/2 Tbsp Set Wildflower Honey
• 1 Tbsp Vanilla 
• the juice of 1/2 a large lemon
• 1 Tbsp Baking Soda
• 3/4 c ground nut oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 drops orange extract or the peel of the lemon
• 3 Tbsp Spiced or Dark Rum

1. Start by adding the chopped apples to boiling water with 1 Tbsp of ground cinnamon and the orange extract (or lemon peel).  Boil apples until very soft, then drain and blend into apple sauce. Set aside to cool. 

2. Turn your oven to 365F (160C) and line your cake tin with baking paper. Combine flour, sugar, ginger, remaining cinnamon (2 Tbsp), salt, and baking soda in a large bowl. 

3.  Add lemon juice, rum, honey, and vanilla to the apple sauce mixture. Re-blend. 

4. Measure out ground nut oil and pour directly over the dry ingredients. Using a spatula, add the applesauce mixture to the bowl and mix together until smooth. It should be a fairly thick batter, so you’ll need to spoon or scoop it into your baking tray. 

5. Pop in the oven for about 30 minutes until a tooth pick comes out clean. 

This recipe is 100% Matt-approved, which is a bit of an achievement considering that it’s 100% made of whole wheat flour. It’s definitely more of an autumn cake, I think, but it’s warm and comforting, especially when you’re sick and it’s nothing but wet, mushy, grey-ness outside.