What more could you want to do on a cold autumnal day than potter around the kitchen making warming, seasonal delights? Sounds like a perfect start to the day for me, then I’d go out for a brisk walk with my Irish Setter before coming home to sample the goods, now nothing can beat that, can it?
Well I started with a pumpkin pie loaf cake, adapted from slightly from a recipe I found over on the great blog Elana’s Pantry. I changed the almond flour for half ground almonds and half rice flour, changed the agave syrup for half agave and half maple syrup and baked the mixture in a loaf tin instead, the cake still took around 45 minutes to bake though at the temperature stated.
The resulting loaf was so heavy to pick up I thought it would be incredibly dense and heavy to eat but surprisingly it wasn’t. It was however incredibly moist, well flavoured and had such an amazing texture, almost gritty but in a really good way. I think the maple syrup really helped bring out the nature of spices and pumpkin, something about a pumpkin pie loaf is so ‘American’ and it didn’t seem right to leave out the maple even though I know it comes from Canada 
The cake was drizzled with a lemon icing (just lemon juice mixed with icing sugar until the desired consistency is gained) which lent a pleasant tang to the finished cake.
I took the loaf into work and by the following day it had all been eaten, now that tells me one of two things – one the cake was a great success or two my work colleagues aren’t fussy; I hope it’s the first option 
Next up is soup. Sweetcorn and red pepper soup adapted from a recipe on Riverford’s (the organic vegetable box et al supplier) website for chicken and sweetcorn soup; as you can imagine I simply swapped the chicken for a diced red pepper and for personal preference I blitzed the soup in a liquidiser because I prefer a smoother soup.
The soup was delicately spiced and so creamy, a real delight although a few more herbs wouldn’t have gone amiss, I still have a huge pot full left so maybe I’ll experiment for lunch tomorrow.
Hot soup and sandwiches, in this case tuna salad, has to be one of the best lazy meals going.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
This looks like a perfect start of the day. That sandwich looks so yummy.
Yes ….nothing better than a potter around the kitchen on a cold day. It looks like you had a wonderful time George with all these wonderful creations
Rosie x
George this look absolutely tasty and yummy!!Like it! Gloria
Thank you ladies.
The pumpkin pie loaf could just as easily be Canadian as American… pumpkin pie is huge in Canada during the autumn season. As for maple syrup, sigh, let me just say that after Greek honey it is right up there for me!