Oh so gorgeous lemon and blueberry cake

Over the weekend, I was wondering who decides if it's a special day or week. For instance, last week was National Curry Week, celebrating what has become one of the nation's favourite genre of dishes (and rightly so!). Apparently it was also Humphrey's Pyjama Week. Plus there were special days including World Arthritis Day, World Sight Day and World Food Day, as well as a few others. It was a very busy week!
Of course, these special days and weeks are awareness or fundraising campaigns, often for causes that slip out of the limelight when there is so much going on in the world. On occasion, they're more of a marketing campaign for the companies who sponsor them (cynical head fully on). They also give bloggers something to talk about!

So with all that in mind. let's raise a floury hand and a cup of tea to this week's special week - National Baking Week! Something we can all enjoy with gusto! The popularity of The Great British Bake Off really does show how much we as a nation value cake. There are some truly mouthwatering offerings constructed before our eyes, with sweat, tears and tension folded in for our viewing delight. All we need is smell-o-vision to make it perfect. There's even a GBBO drinking game been devised, with extra shots quaffed for a sunken disaster or soggy bottom (or so my student daughter tells me!).
Cake has always been important to The Sensitive Foodie, and I'm not alone, as my most frequently read posts are baked goodies. Eating whole food and plant based doesn't mean that cake is banished, just adapted - and it still tastes as yummy, if not better.
This lemon and blueberry cake is definitely a winner. It's easy to make and is reliably successful. Plus, with the addition of blueberries, you could claim it's a super food! It works just as well with gluten free flour as normal wholemeal flour, and the coconut sugar adds a certain deep richness you can't achieve with super refined caster sugar.
One thing to watch out for - don't panic if you think the batter is too runny. I think this every time I make it, but it always firms up beautifully with a light, fluffy texture. Just keep the faith and don't panic!
The lemon drizzle on the top is optional, as are additional fruit decoration. It just depends on how fancy you want to be! So have a go, and start National Baking Week off with a corker - make sure you get a slice though before hungry hands get on it!
Lemon and blueberry cake

250g self-raising flour - wholemeal or gluten free blend
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
100g coconut sugar
2 tablespoons maple syrup
220ml dairy-free milk (I use rice milk)
85ml olive oil
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 unwaxed lemon, zest and juice
100g fresh blueberries
To top (optional)
Juice of a lemon and 2 tablespoons coconut sugar (for drizzle)
extra blueberries and/or raspberries
Grease and line a 2lb loaf tin. Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC. Pop the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl and mix together well. In another bowl, add the sugar, maple syrup, olive oil, dairy free milk, lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla essence and stir well to combine.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix together well, but lightly so you don't lose all the air bubbles created from the lemon juice hitting the raising agents. Quickly stir in the blueberries, pour into the prepared tin (remember it will be pretty wet), tap on the worktop then place in the oven for 35 -40 minutes until the top is nicely browned and a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool slightly in the tin.
If you're adding lemon drizzle (really worth it) mix the lemon juice and coconut sugar together in a small bowl. Prick lots of holes in the top of the cake, with a toothpick or fine skewer, then pour spoonfuls of the lemon mixture over the top, letting it soak into the holes. Leave to cool in the tin for 20 minutes then tip out onto a cooling wrack, peel off the baking paper and leave to cool completely. Scatter fresh berries over the top, and cut into slices to serve.

Aquafaba asparagus and pea savoury mousse

Sometimes I feel really sorry for my friends who come to dinner, as they end up being guinea pigs for new recipe ideas or dishes, although I try to be careful not to scare anyone too much! Having invited a couple over recently, I found my mind wandering off on a creative menu tangent as I know they are quite up for trying different things. So much so that when I apologised for experimenting on them, they replied they would be disappointed if I didn't. Now that's good friends!

One of the things that I had been thinking about was how to make a dairy free plant based savoury mousse for a starter that was light and fluffy but still satisfying and, of course, packed full of flavour. My process for devising dishes is to first check how it's made traditionally. This means getting out my trusted copy of the Good Housekeeping Cookery Book. An 18th birthday present from my parents, it's well used and loved, as this is how I learnt to cook. I pretty much failed cookery at school as I tended not to follow rules or recipes and made a mess - not much changed on that side of things! This trusted tome contains a few savoury mousse recipes. All contain gelatine, milk, cream and egg whites. Not much whole food and plant based there. 

Next research tool is of course the internet. There are so many amazing ideas and recipes out there, but despite some time spent on google, I couldn't find one that hit the spot. I have used aquafaba before (the brine from a tin of chickpeas in case you haven't heard of this amazing fluid) and knew this should work as an egg white substitute, but all the mousse recipes were chocolate or fruit. So it was back to the traditional recipe, with plant based dairy free substitutes.

I figured the three main items that needed substituting were cream, egg whites and gelatine. We had the aquafaba for the egg white. For the cream I made cashew cream, although I guess any dairy free cream would work (there's a few different ones you can buy like Alpro soya cream or Oatly oat cream). And for the gelatine there's agar agar which works really well but always makes me stressed as I never think it will.

As you can see from the ingredients list, there's not much more apart from that - it's all in the method. I was relieved when the mousse set perfectly and plopped onto the plate holding it's shape. And even if I say so myself, it tastes delicious as the asparagus and peas are the key flavours, not anything else.

So did my friends mind being experimented on? Well, the echoes of 'mmm's' and empty plates said it all. So if you're up for it, give this a go. It takes a little time as there's a few different elements to pull together, especially if you're making your own cashew cream, but it's really worth it.

Asparagus and pea savoury mousse (serves 6)

60ml aquafaba

250g asparagus

100g frozen peas 

handful fresh mint, chopped

salt and white pepper

300ml cashew or other non-dairy cream **

1 heaped teaspoon agar agar powder

First wash the asparagus and trim any woody ends off. Separate the tips from the stems and roughly chop both. Heat a little olive oil or water in the bottom of a pan and sauté the asparagus stems for a few minutes. Add in the frozen peas and a little water and cook for a couple of minutes, then add the asparagus tips and cook until soft. Leave to cool then pop in a blender with the dairy free cream, chopped mint and some salt and pepper, then blend until smooth. Check the flavour and add more seasoning or mint if you want.

Pour this luscious green mix into a clean saucepan, sprinkle the agar agar over the top and heat gently. Do not stir until the mix starts to slowly bubble, even though you really want to! Once simmering, whisk the mix gently for 5 minutes or so on a low heat until it starts to thicken and stick to the side of the pan. The heat needs to be low otherwise the cashew cream may catch on the bottom of the saucepan and burn. When the mixture coats the back of a spoon, turn off the heat and pour into a large bowl to cool, stirring from time to time.

If you haven't already, drain the brine from a tin of chickpeas into a bowl Measure out 60ml and place into a medium sized mixing bowl. Whisk with an electric hand blender until strong white peaks are formed (the first time you do this, it blows your mind!) - this can take between 5 and 10 minutes. Grab your bowl of asparagus mix. Hopefully it should be cooler - it doesn't need to be cold, just not steaming. Spoon in a couple of heaped tablespoons of fluffy aquafaba and stir in very carefully and lightly as you want to keep the air in it. Your mix will get a little more fluid. Add more aquafaba as you think is needed - I left a tablespoon out as my mix felt quite loose. 

Place six moulds onto a baking tray. Spoon the mousse mix into the moulds, give them a tap then place in the fridge for at least 5 hours to set.

To serve, gently run a knife around the edge of the mousse in the mould and tip onto your serving plate of choice. 

** cashew cream post coming up shortly