Celebrate the end of summer with these 4 Fabulously Fruity Desserts. Plus find the linky for #CookBlogShare Week 35!
I can’t believe it’s nearly the end of summer already! Our family holiday has been and gone (more about that below), the kids are going back to school next week, the evenings are already starting to get darker that little bit earlier and there’s a new series of The Great British Bake Off on telly!
August has been a pretty quiet month on both my blogs as I took the decision this year not to schedule blog posts to go out while I was away. This was definitely a GOOD decision, as I was able to do pretty much NO WORK on holiday (O.K. so I did check social media and my emails a couple of times…but that’s good for me!)
The rest of the time I focused 100% on having fun with my family, relaxing and enjoying discovering some amazing new places.
We visited Berlin, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Malmö and enjoyed soaking up the culture, then had a few days relaxing at Center Parcs near Hamburg at the end, which was bliss. It was a great trip, but the thing I enjoyed most about it was spending some serious quality time with my little family.
I did manage to share two new recipes after I was back from holiday, though! The first is a really delicious, low calorie, vegetarian dish: Harissa Spiced Cauliflower Steaks with Herby Green Lentils – perfect if you’re trying to be good after an indulgent holiday!
The second was my Lamb Paella: a twist on a traditional paella, using diced lamb leg steaks instead of the usual chicken and seafood. Those of you who follow me on social media will know that I recently visited Wales, as a guest of PGI Welsh Lamb, and this recipe was inspired by that trip.
Lamb Paella (Paella de Cordero)
Over on Productive Blogging I have also just shared a couple of posts this month:
- 12 easy ways to grow your Mediavine income
- Follow vs nofollow links… and how using the wrong one can seriously harm your SEO!
Otherwise, I’ve also been busy preparing for my first live event: #ProductiveBloggingLIVE, which is happening in early October!
4 Fabulously Fruity Desserts
I have to admit, I struggled a little with this week’s theme…there were some really great recipes linked up, but no common theme among them…until I spotted that many of the dessert recipes linked up last week featured fruit as their hero ingredient! So, this week’s roundup features limes, bananas, plums and dates – all in a delicious dessert form 😀
Coconut and Lime Drizzle Cake
Hands up who is looking forward to watching The Great British Bake Off this year? Jacqui at Recipes Made Easy is one of the many baking bloggers who bakes along to GBBO every year. Each week the show is on, Jacqui shares a recipe on her blog which is inspired by the most recent episode. In fact, she has been doing that every year since 2016, and this Coconut and Lime Drizzle Cake was the very first Bakeoff Bakealong recipe she shared on her blog. I love how Jacqui has taken the classic Lemon Drizzle and given it a bit of a tropical twist! If you want to follow Jacqui as she bakes along to GBBO 2019, you can find her over on her new baking blog Only Crumbs Remain.
Plum Upside-Down Cake Flavoured with Rose
Another twist on a classic bake! Here Choclette at Tin and Thyme has taken the traditional pineapple upside-down cake and given it a British autumnal fruit makeover, using plums instead of pineapple to create her Plum Upside-Down Cake Flavoured with Rose. My mouth was watering as I read Choclette’s account of timing the cooking of this cake for when guests were just about to arrive – so they could eat it warm, straight out of the oven – yes please!
Banoffee Cheesecake (No Bake)
Yet another fruity dessert twist! This time Kat from The Baking Explorer has taken the classic banoffee pie and turned it into a no-bake cheesecake! Her No Bake Banoffee Cheesecake features a biscuit base made with half Lotus Biscoff biscuits and half digestive biscuits. She has put banana in the cheesecake filling as well as on top, and added lashings of toffee sauce and plenty of whipped cream. If you are a banoffee pie fan, you are going to love this cheesecake version!
Squidgy Date and Coconut Flapjacks
The final recipe in my fruity dessert roundup this week are these scrumptious sounding Squidgy Date and Coconut Flapjacks from Helen at Family Friends Food. These easy flapjacks were the happy result of Helen’s experiment to see if date syrup would work instead of golden syrup in flapjacks… Turns out it doesn’t just work, it makes them BETTER… Helen describes these as “As close to perfection as I’ve yet achieved! Squidgy inside with a slightly chewy crust, and a wonderful fruity, spicy flavour.” Sounds like the perfect flapjack in my book. Not only would these make a delicious dessert, they are also perfect for picnics, snacks and kid’s lunchboxes!
#CookBlogShare2019 Week 35
And so we come to this week’s linky. You can link up any foodie post that you have – both old and new posts are welcome. All you need to do is:
- Link up a recipe or foodie post by clicking the blue ‘add your link’ button below and following the instructions (maximum of 4, please).
- Add a link from your post back to this post (so everyone else can find it and link up too!) and / or add the #CookBlogShare badge to your post (you can find the code below).
- Comment on one of the host’s posts and a minimum of 2 other posts linked up here, and generally share the love with a bit of social media action!
If you wish, you can tweet a link to your recipe to me @easypeasyfoodie and also (if you have room on the tweet!) my co-hosts Jacqui @recipecrumbs and Monika @monikasecipes, using the #CookBlogShare hashtag and we will retweet them. You can also post your recipe on the Cook Blog Share Facebook Page.
Need some help on Instagram? You and me both…so let’s help each other! Whenever you post to Instagram, use the #CookBlogShare hashtag, then quickly hop over to the #CookBlogShare feed, liking as many as you can and commenting on any that particularly catch your eye. Not a big job at all, but if we all do it, it would make a BIG difference!!
I will comment on a selection of my favourite posts this week and pin them to the Cook Blog Share Pinterest Board. I can’t wait to see what you’ve all been making!
Just to remind you, by joining in, you are giving the #CookBlogShare hosts permission to use your pictures in a round up and on social media, if your recipe is selected as one of our favourites!
The next #CookBlogShare will be hosted by Jacqui at Recipes Made Easy 🙂
Pin 4 Fabulously Fruity Desserts for later
Jacqui Bellefontaine says
wonderful round up I want to make that lovely upside down pud sadly i will have to buy plums as my plum tree has only given me a handful fo plums this year. As for the cheesecake and flap jack i want to try those too. nOw just magic me some time.
Thanks for including my cake in this fine collection and the link to Crumbs for this years GBBO baking along.
Eb Gargano says
Thank you, Jacqui. Oh no – I’m sad to hear about your plum tree! No worries about the link to Crumbs – I’m really looking forward to bakeoff and the blogging bake along this year 😀 Eb x
Choclette says
Well done for switching off whilst you were on holiday. It will surely have recharged your batteries more than if you had half an eye on what was going on blog wise. Sounds like you all had a brilliant time. I’ve never been to Scandinavia and would love to go at some point.
Love a fruity bake and I’d happily wolf down all of these. Thanks for featuring my plum cake. I’ve made it so many times recently I’ve rather lost count. I might have wolfed down a fair few slices.
Eb Gargano says
Yes, you are so right. Much as I love blogging, it was really good to switch off for a couple of weeks and fully recharge my batteries. I don’t blame you for partaking in a fair few slices of your plum cake – it looks wonderful! Eb x
Monika Dabrowski says
That plum cake looks so appetising! And I love the look of your paella! Yum!
Eb Gargano says
Thanks, Monika! Eb x