2021 Seasonal Baking Round-Up
As well as rounding up my favourite reads of the year, I thought I’d share my favourite seasonal bakes from 2021 with you. If you’re new round here then you might not know that I also have a blog, Everything Looks Rosie, where I share a new seasonal recipe post every Sunday (in fact, every single week since 2014 without a break!). This last year I challenged myself to invent as many of my own recipes as possible - and the results have been very tasty, if I say so myself! It hasn’t all been plain sailing - let’s not mention the gooey middles or cakes stuck to tins - but I’ve learned a lot and I’m always so delighted when I hear you’ve been making and enjoying my recipes.
When I’ve not been making my own recipes, we’ve been spoilt with new cookbooks this year. Anna Jones’ ‘One: Pot, Pan, Planet’ saw my favourite veggie chef tackling sustainability with many recipes that are now kitchen staples. I’ve also been very much enjoying working through Nigel Slater’s ‘A Cook’s Book’ this Autumn and Winter. For baking, Jess Elliott-Dennison’s ‘Lazy Baking’ is filled with simple yet effective, tasty bakes that I was lucky enough to support in the recipe testing phase!
Here’s a round-up of my own favourite recipes this year. I’ve chosen one from each month but if you click on the month you’ll be taken to the relevant page on my blog with all that month’s recipes. And join me on the 30th when I might just go Live on Instagram again to do a bit of baking - follow me there to find out more.
This blood orange drizzle loaf is a cross between an upside down cake and a drizzle loaf: a moist, orange flecked sponge topped with fresh, slightly caramelised fruit, and covered with a zesty blood orange drizzle. A definite hit in our house!
I experimented with these rhubarb bostocks with blood orange poached rhubarb in February – and was very pleased with the results: brioche pastries soaked in syrup, covered in almond frangipane and baked.
Sensing the national mood and many a neglected sourdough starter, for Easter I shared a recipe for sourdough hot cross buns. The sourdough tang perfectly balanced the sweetness of the dried fruit and spices. A very therapeutic and satisfying bake!
My lemon and honey drizzle cake balanced sweet and sour flavours, first a lemon hit followed by the aromatic floral notes of honey, perfect for Spring. The lemon sponges are drizzled with a honey and lemon mixture that makes them extra flavourful.
By May, the pink, forced rhubarb is replaced with its traditional, slightly bitter cousin as Spring produce gives way to early Summer’s arrivals. Tangy rhubarb paired perfectly with sweet, aromatic elderflower in my rhubarb & elderflower cake.
To celebrate the start of Summer and stone fruit season I made a peach, amaretti and vanilla cake: a soft, vanilla-rich sponge filled with chunks of fresh peach and flecked with almond from the amaretti biscuits.
This cherry and mascarpone cake is rich and puddingy: the mascarpone makes for a tighter, sweeter crumb that balances the fruit’s sharpness. I think this was one of my favourite bakes of the whole year, if not ever! I hope you try it.
These blackberry and cardamom buns combine my two favourite ingredients: seasonal brambles and aromatic cardamom, which together were a match made in baking heaven.
These toffee apple cookies are pure comfort: a brown butter cookie, scented with vanilla and filled with chunks of apple and fudge that melts in the oven. I made them in my Instagram Live and they were a hit with many of you.
It’s an Everything Looks Rosie tradition to share a pumpkin showstopper recipe for Halloween: this salted chocolate pumpkin tart has a buttery biscuit base filled with a rich, chocolatey pumpkin ganache tempered by sea salt.
This pear and marzipan cake was the perfect late Autumn/ first festive bake as it combined orchard fruit with rich almonds, the marzipan turning gooey and caramelised in the oven with just a hint of the festive indulgence to come.
After seeing pictures online of snowflake or star-shaped bread (especially by @violaminerva!) I wanted to give it a go myself – my version has a sweet chestnut and vanilla filling. A lovely bake for these in-between days.
Do let me know if you have any baking requests for the new year.