This vegan chocolate peanut butter cake is a bit decadent, and I’d love to say we made it for a special occasion, but actually it was just a dull day outside and we wanted to do a bit of baking, there was some peanut butter and some chocolate on the shelves at the shop, and the rest is history! A showstopper for special occasions, but also brilliant just because a day with chocolate peanut butter cake in it is always going to be a good day, no matter what else happens in it!
As well as the ingredients, you’ll ideally need three round baking tins to make this cake.
Ingredients
For the icing
400g dark chocolate plus 50g chocolate to grate
600ml soya cream (we used Alpro)
2tbsp golden caster sugar
For the cake
200g vegan butter
600ml plant milk
4tbsp apple cider vinegar
100g peanut butter, smooth or chunky – we used chunky
500g self raising flour
100g cocoa powder
3 tsp baking powder
500g caster sugar
Method
Grease the cake tins with a little butter.
Combine the wet ingredients – the cider vinegar, butter, plant milk and peanut butter.
In a bowl combine the flour, cocoa powder, sugar and baking powder. Add the wet ingredients and combine until the batter is smooth.
Divide the mixture and add to the three cake tins.
Bake in the oven at 180C/350F/Gas4 until a skewer inserted in the cake comes out clean, usually around 30 minutes.
Let the cakes cool.
Make the icing by melting the chocolate and caster sugar in a heatproof bowl over a pan of boiling water on the stove. Add the cream and stir together to make a ganache, then use to sandwich the cooled cakes together and to ice the top cake.
Grate the 50g chocolate on top of the cake and serve!
Cornwall has been on our bucket list for years. The name conjures up visions of surfers, beaches, blue skies, and pretty villages. It was also somewhere that felt too far for us to travel to from Scotland, and as soon as we moved down south last year we knew it was only a matter of time before we visited.
Our first weekend in Cornwall was spent over the Jubilee weekend at the beginning of June, staying at the wonderful Mousehole FC campsite in west Cornwall. This clean, peaceful campsite uses the local football club’s facilities, and is open to campervans and tents, and pets (there was even a cat staying while we were there!) and is run by the delightful Sue and Paul, who are incredibly helpful and welcoming. There are toilets, showers and washing up facilities in the clubhouse, thought it is a couple of minutes walk from the site, so if you’d prefer not to do that in the middle of the night you might want to take your own toilet tent. The village of Mousehole itself is a ten/fifteen minute walk though be warned – the way back to the campsite from the village includes a very steep hill!
A view from our pitch.
On our first day, we walked from Mousehole to Penzance, via Newlyn. Mousehole itself is a delight, a picture-postcard harbour village filled with chocolate box perfect houses, gorgeous little independent shops selling arts, crafts, souvenirs and, of course ice-cream (including vegan flavours), and a harbour and golden beach where we saw people swimming, paddle-boarding and surfing.
Mousehole Harbour
It’s an hour’s walk along the coastal path from Mousehole to the larger town of Penzance, via Newlyn, a pretty fishing port whose biggest claim to fame is that it was the last stop of the Mayflower before it set sail for America.
Penzance itself perhaps doesn’t have the charm of Mousehole, as a larger working town, but we still enjoyed a delightful swim from its sandy beach before spending an hour with Eureka Escapes in their Penzance escape rooms (they also have them in Truro and Falmouth). I’d booked this as a way of spending what had been predicted to be a rainy afternoon, even though the sun ended up shining! Sadly, we didn’t solve the mystery in the allotted hour – we’d have got it with another minute or two – but it was all great fun and I’d highly recommend if you’re looking for a family activity while in Cornwall. Our only criticism of Penzance was that we struggled to find any vegan lunch options – though there are a large Tesco and Sainsbury’s on the edge of town so do go prepared if you’re vegan and visiting.
We rounded off the day with dinner at the Ship Inn in Mousehole, after catching the (frequent) bus back from Penzance. We all had the vegan banana blossom fish and chips, which were absolutely delicious with a flaky fish texture and delectable crispy batter – highly recommended! They also do B&B if you’re looking for somewhere to stay.
Banana blossom fish and chips at the Ship Inn in Mousehole
We started our second day visiting Land’s End. Having visited John O’Groats on the way to Orkney a few years ago, Land’s End was very much on our to do list. It’s a short drive from Mousehole, and a real contrast to John O’Groats, which was pretty much visitor-free when we went there. Land’s End was absolutely packed full of visitors in contrast. It has far more of a theme-park feel as you arrive, and after paying the mandatory parking fee you can make your way round well-stocked shops, restaurants, diners, and visitor experiences where you can buy everything from Cornish pasties to old fashioned sweets. We were a bit taken aback at first to see that you had to pay a photographer to take your picture at the famous Land’s End sign, but with the hordes of visitors it completely made sense and meant there was an orderly queue where everybody took a turn to pose for their photo – and the resulting photo was fantastic.
The view from Land’s End
The views from Land’s End are stunning, and you can see all the way out to the Scilly Isles. There are some beautiful nature walks nearby too, though we didn’t do any on this occasion as I’d hurt my foot (it’s amazing how big a blister a pair of new sandals can produce!).
Then it was on to St Ives, which was every bit as beautiful as the guide books promised. And every bit as busy as we’d been warned! We ditched the car in a car park on the outskirts of the town and took a bus into the centre, where we spent an afternoon walking around and taking in the delights of this absolute jewel in Cornwall’s crown – the golden, sandy beach with its hustle and bustle, the colourful harbour, the lovely shops and galleries, the many and varied cafes and restaurants (we had vegan fish and chips and vegan ice cream from the Coned stall on the beach front) and the wonderful Tate St Ives where we whiled away an hour admiring the paintings and installations. St Ives’ reputation as one of the prettiest UK beach resorts is well deserved . I guess it could be said that it was a little bit TOO busy on a hot June afternoon, so if crowds aren’t your thing, it’s maybe somewhere to visit out of season.
Vegan ice cream in St Ives – does life get any better than this?
Portcuthno Beach was our last stop on our Cornwall weekend. This award-winning beach is one of Cornwall’s most famous, and it’s not hard to see why. The sandy beach sits within a dramatic cove, with the famous Minack Theatre carved from the rocks on one side. It’s a perfect swimming and surfing beach, with clear, cool sea that is actually turquoise! Again, though, if you prefer to avoid the crowds, another beach may be more up your street – we visited early evening and it was still packed. It’s also not the easiest beach to get to, with a narrow road that took us quite a while to navigate as it’s filled with bottlenecks and traffic jams – apparently this is quite normal. If you can, consider parking further up the road and walking down …
Porthcurno Beach and some of the bluest sea I’ve ever seen.
As always when camping, at the campsite we ate our body weight in vegan bacon rolls, toasted marshmallows, and a few slightly more healthy things – including our vegan brown butter gnocchi and vegan jambalaya, two camping favourites.
We’ll leave you with a few Cornwall tips that we picked up along the way!
It takes a long time to get to Cornwall, even from the south east. The roads aren’t great, and the traffic is heavy. We left Mousehole at midday, and didn’t get back to Cambridge until early evening. Which leads us on to;
Give yourself plenty of time to get to any beaches you want to visit once you’re in Cornwall. The traffic can really be something at peak times.
Book ahead. We missed out on St Michael’s Mount and the Minack Theatre because we didn’t plan ahead and try to book until the day before, when they were sold out – we’ll save them for next time, but if something’s on your must-do list for your trip, book well in advance.
It can be difficult to get around without a car, but it’s doable – just make sure you plan ahead and consult timetables so you don’t end up stranded!
Chicken noodle soup. Is there anything more comforting on a sad day, or a rainy day, or a sit -on-the-sofa-under-a-blanket-watching-Netflix day? Luckily, vegans don’t have to miss out on this nourishing soul food, with our vegan chicken noodle soup recipe!
Makes two large bowls of soup.
Ingredients
1 can of banana blossom, drained and chopped into chunks
Heat the olive oil in a large pan and fry the onion till it begins to brown.
Add the banana blossom ‘chicken’, the spices, garlic and butter beans.
Pour in the chicken stock and bring to a boil, then leave to simmer gently for up to an hour. Five minutes before turning off the heat, add the noodle cake and let the noodles cook.
It’s winter, it’s cold, it’s wet, and it’s dark almost all the time … so obviously it’s time for DOUBLE CARBS! (We’ll worry about those extra calories next year.)
We think potatoes dauphinoise are the food of the gods, and wrapped up in fluffy golden puff pastry, this creamy and flavoursome vegan potatoes dauphinoise pie is a hearty slice of Christmas cheer.
Ingredients
Serves 2 in a round baking dish – double the ingredients to serve more and prepare in a larger rectangular dish.
4 large potatoes, thinly sliced, best done on a mandolin slicer
4 tbsp frozen peas
Handful parsley to garnish
Salt
Pepper
Method
Heat a tablespoon of olive oil over a medium heat and fry the onions for a few minutes until golden, then add the garlic. Set aside.
Add the milk, cream and peas to a pan and heat over a medium to high heat until boiling.
While the milk, cream and peas are boiling, roll out the pastry and use half to line the baking tray. Add the thinly sliced potatoes.
When the milk, cream and peas mixture is bubbling, remove from the heat and add the onions and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Pour the mixture over the potatoes.
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Cut the rest of the pastry into thin strips and arrange as a lattice over the top of the pie.
Bake for 25 minutes or until the pastry is golden.
Our 2020 Christmas gift guide was one of our most popular posts last year – here’s our guide for 2021. We both love Christmas (especially Caroline who always promises not to watch any Christmas movies or put up any decorations until December 1 … and always fails!) yet despair at the waste and the over-consumption this time of year brings. Here is our 2021 Christmas gift guide to inspire you, whatever your budget!
Take the Plunge!
For the swimmer in your life, or actually for anyone who loves the water whether they’re in it or not, The Art of Wild Swimming books, by our friends Anna Deacon and Vicky Allan will tempt anyone to go running for their nearest loch, lake, river or beach. These handy guides are full of beautiful photos and expert advice on local swimming spots, written by the local people who know them best – including Colin, who contributed to the sea swimming chapter and the section on his childhood haunt, the River Teith! The Art of Wild Swimming Scotland and The Art of Wild Swimming England and Wales is out now, published by Black & White.
Search Engine Optimised!
A foraging course with a local expert is an unusual and thoughtful gift for nature lovers and cooks who want to know a bit more about eating from the land, but who aren’t sure where to start and what to forage for. Wild Food UK run courses nationwide – check out their website for times and locations.
Sea buckthorn – a favourite with foragers, pictured here growing by Gullane beach in East Lothian
Christmas in focus
Hit your local charity shop to find photo frames – mine usually has a selection for 50p – £2 each, then download LaLaLab and choose your favourite photos from your phone to print – the turnaround is usually around 7 days. Fill up some frames with some wonderful memories from 2021 for a loved one. Or find a big frame, take out the picture, and make your own photo display with mini pegs and string.
Vegan wax wraps for baking gifts – Beeswax Wrap Co
Be calm
Calm is one of our favourite apps – full of brilliant exercises and meditations as well as gentle physical exercises to help bring peace to your inner self. Gift a subscription for 2022 to someone you think would love it too.
Travel is still something that feels pretty restricted, so how about an online AirBnb experience for someone who’s missing the chance to explore new cultures? You can choose anything from yoga delivered by an Indian yogi to meditation with a Buddhist monk, to a vegan cookery lesson from a New York chef. Or for the cook in your life, gift an online cooking lesson with a difference from Migrateful – the lessons are all given by UK migrants who are facing barriers to integration and finding a job due to legal and language challenges. There are lessons for a wide range of cuisines and dietary requirements – I’m looking forward to trying the veggie Syrian class.
Book a cookery lesson from a migrant chef at Migrateful and learn a completely new cuisine.
Seek and ye shall find
The best gifts are often the ones that don’t cost money but that the giver has spent time and love preparing. What about designing a nature walk for your loved one and giving them a voucher on the day? Research and plan your route first, choosing somewhere you know relatively well where you think you’ll find plenty of interesting wildlife. Download the Seek app so you can identify what to see along the way – then turn nature guide for the day and take your gift recipient on a walk to discover the flowers, plants, birds, trees and animals on their doorstep.
A well-planned nature walk costs nothing and could be the perfect gift this Christmas.
We were lucky enough to spend the weekend in the Cairngorms, in celebration of Colin’s auntie Sheila’s 70th birthday. As tourism season in the Highlands was coming to an end, auntie had booked the entire Cairngorm Lodge Youth Hostel for the festivities, which saw hordes of family from all corners of the UK and beyond descending on Glenmore one wet Friday in October.
Although time was short and we only had two nights and a full day, we made sure that we packed plenty in, including swimming in Loch Morlich, climbing a mountain, eating enough chilli and pizza to sink a ship and even bumping into some friends at a quiet lochan high up in the mountains!
Ryvoan Bothy on Meall a Buichaille
Where we stayed We stayed at the Cairngorm Lodge Youth Hostel – seven miles from Aviemore and just a two minute walk from the shores of Loch Morlich. It offers a range of rooms, from singles, twins and doubles to dormitories, with clean, modern showers and a large kitchen. There’s also a refectory, a conservatory with spectacular views of the mountains to enjoy over breakfast, and a large living room with a pool table.
What we did As well as ceilidhing the night away, eating our body weight in pizza, catching up over coffee and French toast made by Colin, and enjoying a few games of pool, we wanted to make the most of the stunning surroundings of the hostel.
Loch Morlich is one of our favourite Scottish lochs, where we’ve spent summers kayaking and swimming and winters walking round the beautiful Rothiemurchus forest that fringes the loch …. and swimming! It’s just across the road from the hostel, and with its wide golden sandy beach, views of the majestic Cairngorms and still, clear waters, it would have been rude not to (although I did just watch from the shore!) The temperature was a brisk 6.5 degrees, so no one stayed in for long. There were also paddle boarders and kayaks on the loch, undeterred by the chilly temperatures and rain.
Meall a’ Bhuachaille is a four hour circuit from the foot of the hostel, through pretty woodland and then on to the slopes of the 543m high mountain, leading to incredible views across to Loch Morlich and the Cairngorms. The last ten minutes of the ascent are steep, with steps instead of a path for much of it, so you’ll definitely feel you’ve earned a rest at the top. We sat in the sheltered cairn and replenished our energy with some sugared almonds from House of Bruar, where we’d stopped on the way up the road to Aviemore.
The way down leads you past an Lochan Uaine, where to our delight we encountered the Wardie Bay wild swimmers of Edinburgh, who’d taken a trip up to the Cairngorms for the weekend and had just enjoyed a dip in the green lochan. We also passed the Ryvoan bothy, which was kitted out for walkers with a fireplace, candles, table and cooking equipment – the hiker we met there looked very cosy enjoying some biscuits while his socks dried outside!
An Lochan Uaine
What we ate We all sat down to dinner on the Friday night in the large refectory, where Colin’s cousin Jenny was a total superstar and made three types of chilli, including this vegan chilli. She kindly shared the recipe, which serves 4.
Ingredients
1 stick celery, chopped
1 large white onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced or chopped
2 tbsp tomato puree
Splash of balsamic vinegar
1 tsp veg stock
2 tins chopped tomatoes
2 tins kidney beans
2 tins black beans
1-2 tsp chilli flakes depending on how spicy you like your chilli!
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp cumin
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
Lime to season
Method
Heat a tbsp oil in a large wok and fry the onions over a medium heat for five minutes.
Add the garlic and spices and fry for another minute, then add the tomatoes, vinegar, beans, celery, stock and nutritional yeast.
Bring the mixture to the boil then leave to simmer on a low heat for 40 minutes.
It took me a while after turning vegan to figure out omelettes, and I had a few disasters on the way. The secret is using gram flour and a little kala namak salt to give that omelette-y texture and taste. This courgette and chive vegan omelette is made with courgettes in the batter, and also topped with grated courgette, lemon and chilli, adapted from one of my favourite summer pastas.
Makes one large omelette.
Ingredients
65g gram flour
1 tsp kala namak
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tbsp chives
1 grated courgette
1 lemon
1 tsp chilli flakes
3 fl oz plant milk
Plant-based yoghurt to serve
50g rocket to serve
Method
Combine the gram flour, kala namak, nutritional yeast, chives and half the grated courgette with the plant milk. Add more plant milk if the batter needs it so it’s runny enough – you want a pourable batter.
Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan and fry the other half of the grated courgette in a pan with the chilli flakes for 3 minutes till slightly golden. Squeeze the lemon over the top. Set aside.
In the same pan, heat another tbsp oil and pour in the omelette batter. Fry on both sides until golden.
Top the omelette with the fried courgette, yoghurt and the rocket.
This is a great hearty meal that feels as meaty and substantial as any non-vegan cassoulet. It’s a good camping dinner as it can be premade and heated up over a camp fire, or thrown together quickly. It tastes – and smells! – as amazing as anything made with red wine and thyme should – try not to eat it all at once. Perfect served with some warm bread from the oven.
Ingredients
2 large leeks
400ml red wine
500 ml veg stock
50g fresh thyme
1 can plum or chopped tomatoes
4 tsp nutritional yeast
1 tsp garlic puree
8 plant based sausages (I used Richmond’s)
400g thinly sliced potatoes
1 tin butter beans
Handful parsley to garnish
1 tbsp olive oil
Method
Grill or cook the sausages according to directions.
Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a pan. Slice the leeks and add them to the pan, cooking over a medium heat for 5-7 minutes until golden.
Add the wine, half the stock, the thyme, nutritional yeast, garlic puree and tomatoes to another pan. Add the sliced potatoes and let them cook over a medium heat for 10-15 minutes, adding the rest of the stock throughout the cooking process.
Add the leeks and the butter beans to the mixture and cook for another 2-3 minutes to warm them through and let them absorb the flavour.
I had a chat with recently with a friend after watching a couple of documentaries about the climate change threatening our way of life and what people can do to help reduce their footprint on the world. We got on to talking about how, although everyone wants to play their part in confronting the problem, how overwhelming it can feel and how difficult it can be to know where to start.
Here are some ideas that begin at home, by supporting your local community. No, doing one of these things won’t halt climate change in its tracks – but it will make a difference. And if you influence just one other person to do the same, you might just trigger a domino effect in your community that spreads far and wide.
Take part in your local beach clean or community clean up. The more people that volunteer for these vital initiatives, the more plastic can be picked up and recycled properly rather than making its way to the ocean, where it destroys marine life. Every single piece of plastic that you collect is one less piece to pollute the ocean. Go to the Marine Conservation Society’s website to find your nearest one, or Facebook to see if there’s a community clean up near you.
Image – Surfers Against Sewage
Help to eliminate food waste. Download an app like ToGoodToGo where you can pick up food that’s about to pass its sell by date for next to nothing – I got two bags worth of fruit and veg recently for £3.50 from a fruit and vegetable shop in town! And for your own food, rather than throwing it away, share it on Olio – great for when you’ve overbought or you’re going away somewhere and have too much food. Finally, if your food is too past its sell by date to eat or share – compost it!
I got all this for £3.50 through ToGoodToGo!
Support local vegan businesses – shops, cafes and caterers. Cutting out meat and dairy is the single biggest thing that you can do to reduce your carbon footprint – but it can be daunting to know where to start. Take a look around at the small vegan businesses in your area and you could find a whole new world of deliciousness that you didn’t know existed! Start off by committing to one vegan day a week, maybe picking up a salad for lunch from your local vegan cafe or treating yourself to some doughnuts from the vegan bakery around the corner.
Find out what your local representative is doing to tackle the problem in your community. If it’s not enough, or it’s not working, write to them with suggestions and ask them to commit to some or all of them. Encourage friends in your local community to do the same.
Leave the car at home. And take a look at how it’ll take you to walk or cycle to your destination instead. You might find it’s less time that you think – and along the way you’ll discover a whole new part of your village, town or city that you never knew existed, while you’re saving the planet from the unhealthy emissions from your car. And if it’s not possible to get somewhere on foot, by bike or by public transport, look into whether there is a car share scheme in your area.
Rewild your garden or an outdoor space. If you have a garden, take a break from mowing your lawn. This encourages the growth of plants like clover, that bees love – and we all know how important bees are to our ecosystem. Stopping weeding can also encourage the growth of bee-friendly plants that may encourage other wildlife to visit, too. You can even take it a step further and scatter some wildflower seeds – if there’s a communal green space near you try some guerrilla gardening with your seeds!
Recyle used items. This can be anything from clothes to that lightbox languishing in your attic from when you were into photography, cook books you no longer use or a piece of furniture. Stick them on gumtree or your local community noticeboard. The more we recycle, the less we consume, slowing down the incessant demand on retailers to constantly produce more for us to buy.
Fix things, don’t throw them away. It’s so tempting when you have a household item that breaks – like a kettle or toaster – just to bin it and head to Tesco to buy a new one. Instead, why not watch a YouTube video on how to repair it – or find out if your community has a RepairCafe where someone else can help?
Smoked salmon and sour cream blinis were one of my favourite things before I went vegan, and something I didn’t think it would be possible to recreate. But as I’ve said before, EVERYTHING can be veganised – so here for your enjoyment is the recipe for these vegan smoked salmon blinis with sour cream!
I recommend making the smoked salmon a couple of days ahead to give it plenty of time to marinade.
For the smoked salmon
Ingredients
2 large cooked carrots, dunked in icy water after cooking then peeled into strips using a vegetable peeler
2 tbsp dried seaweed flakes – I used kelp
1 tbsp dill
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp liquid smoke
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp olive oil
Method
Marinade the carrot strips in the seaweed, dill, lemon, liquid smoke, olive oil and soy sauce in a sealed container such as a tupperware box in the fridge, making sure that they’re all coated in the mixture.
For the sour cream (blender required)
Ingredients
200g raw cashews, soaked overnight
160 ml water
Juice of 1 lemon
Teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
Teaspoon salt
Method
Very simple – just put all the ingredients together and blend!
For the blinis
Ingredients
1 flax egg – 1 tbsp flaxseed and 3 tbsp warm water, mixed and refrigerated for 10-15 minutes.
250g mashed potato
150 ml plant milk
100g plain flour
Pinch salt
Lemon and dill to garnish
1 tbsp olive oil
Method
Heat up the olive oil in a pan. Drop a tbsp of the mixture in the hot oil to form a blini. Fry on both sides until golden then serve with the sour cream, smoked salmon and garnished with lemon and dill.
