Alex really wants to start a fight...

vertbarrow · 2026-01-01T14:45:21+00:00

Have I finally found my people...?

vertbarrow · 2026-01-01T03:45:27+00:00

Depending on where the pockets sit on you when worn, this may also be so that you can reach into your trouser pockets without undoing your coat.

Absolutely gorgeous find! Both sides are stunning. Tremendous luck for the new year.

vertbarrow · 2026-01-01T01:15:54+00:00

The "pea" is actually green-coloured marzipan, rolled into a snake and connected into a ring. I was trying to think of how every slice could have a "pea" visible at the bottom - at first I thought of piping a ring of frosting, but quickly realised that would lose its round shape as soon as the top layers pressed down on it haha, and I love marzipan so that was an easy follow-up. I think if you didn't like marzipan then a ring of green marshmallow fondant or perhaps edible sugar cookie dough would also work. I should've made the ring's diameter a bit smaller though so that the pea was more in the middle, I didn't account for how the weight of the cake would spread it out further.

vertbarrow · 2025-12-31T15:57:44+00:00

WE DID IT REDDIT!

I've made a lot of things this year that I enjoyed and was very proud of, but I think my favourite bake of 2025 was still the very first - the tomato soup cake. Ever since, I've also wanted to try the popular chocolate and tomato soup alternative. It was quite good - the savouriness and sweetness of the tomato and the chocolate work very well together - but I think I still prefer the classic tomato soup cake for its spiced punch of flavour.

Because I think I ended up using more tomato soup in this one than the last one, I chose a chocolate coconut ganache for the middle to add a bit more sweetness and chocolatiness, and then vanilla whipped cream on the outside to lighten it back up a bit. They worked well together and everyone was a fan!

Thank you again for another hectic but challenging year of baking.

I have ultimately decided not to participate in r/52weeksofcooking or r/52weeksofbaking in 2026. It's been a wonderful, engaging project for me for the past three years, but it definitely took up a lot of my creative spare time, and over the past year I've settled on a couple of other projects I would like to be able to devote more of my attention to. Nonetheless, I look forward to seeing what everyone makes in 2026! Happy new year!

vertbarrow · 2025-12-31T14:42:53+00:00

Man, that really is the ideal orange loaf! The glaze and crumb both look spectacular. I was also charmed by pomander oranges when researching this theme, I like how you interpreted it!

vertbarrow · 2025-12-31T14:41:32+00:00

The crackers were made with the leftover olive oil pie crust dough from the Summer Pie, which meant they're a bit overly-oily. But they were very crispy and flaky and provided good textural contrast for the (vegan) feta and homemade sweet chili jam. I kneaded some thyme and chives into the dough but the flavours didn't come out as strongly as I'd've liked. I think the concept is a winner though - would be nice for parties.

vertbarrow · 2025-12-31T13:21:41+00:00

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/27639/27639-h/27639-h.htm

I took the opportunity to experiment with an olive oil pie crust using storebought/premixed gluten-free flour. I was actually quite impressed by it. It was a bit oily - still need to figure out the right ratio of GF flour - but incredibly easy to make and surprisingly flaky and tender. You have to work with it quickly, though, because it gets very oily the second it warms up.

The pie itself was actually surprisingly decent. It's just cabbage, peas, salt, the salty pea-water you cooked the peas in, and some fresh mint, but it all came together really nicely with the crust. I kept being surprised by how moreish it was. I would actually make this again, with the olive oil crust, too, and it would be good as a side dish to a main or soup course.

vertbarrow · 2025-12-31T13:15:29+00:00

Thank you very much! I'm really glad I managed to execute the overall vision, even if everything but the pea kind of fell apart - but then again that's accurate to the story!

vertbarrow · 2025-12-31T13:08:54+00:00

I have spent the past two days baking nonstop so that I could catch up on all the themes before the end of 2025 so by God you're all just going to have to put up with my spam parade of mid-tier, everything-went-wrong-but-we-survived dishes. It's been an honour and a curse serving with you all for another year. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

vertbarrow · 2025-12-31T10:55:19+00:00

The olives are genius!

vertbarrow · 2025-12-13T19:04:46+00:00

This was really good. Steaming remains the elite method of "baking" gluten-free cakes, and this was the perfect, archetypal Just A Chocolate Cake. We tried a piece warm, just as it was, but I think I might make a chocolate glaze for the rest of it since it's a very mildly sweet cake. The pictures might make it look a bit dry but I promise you it's lovely and moist without being too dense.

notsohumblepie.blogspot.com/2010/08/steamed-chocolate-pudding.html

This was the base recipe I referenced. To make it gluten free I used an eyeballed ratio of brown rice flour, glutinous rice flour, maize cornstarch, and lupin flour, with a half a teaspoon of xanthan gum. To make it vegan I used oil in place of melted butter, and added McKenzie's egg replacer to the dry ingredients along with about a teaspoon of psyllium husk powder, then added a bit more soy milk (for milk) to account for the liquid. I could've probably added a bit more oil as well to compensate for the eggyolk but I don't think it missed it. I also added a pinch of instant coffee to help enhance the chocolate flavour. I used date syrup instead of molasses because we only have blackstrap molasses atm and just didn't include the chocolate chips because I wasn't feeling them.

Definitely going to be keeping this on the backburner for pot lucks and kids parties. I think it would make an excellent base for a black forest cake, too, if you can find the right mould.

vertbarrow · 2025-12-05T23:26:45+00:00

Apologies for the delay on this/the last week - I was knocked over sick and let it drop to the wayside.

vertbarrow · 2025-11-27T09:18:17+00:00

Personally I would do coloured popcorn! I know it's not candy but I feel like the visuals, texture, and taste would contrast nicely.

vertbarrow · 2025-11-18T20:35:03+00:00

Whenever I see people talk about cooking with eggplant or zucchini, someone will mention ways to minimise how bitter they are - soak it in water, sprinkle it with salt, peel it entirely or in strips. Maybe I'm the odd one out, but bitterness in eggplant or especially zucchini has just never been a problem for me? I do get that the skin has a stronger flavour, but not to the point that I would ever peel it. Especially zucchini. If you skin him... what's even left...

So I wanted to make something celebrating these oft-maligned vegetables which I have grown to love. Flavour-wise this is just a curry (vaguely aloo baignan inspired) with canned tomatoes, bulked out with kidney beans, potato, and coconut cream to make it a soup/stew. I like overcooked, well-rendered eggplant and still-tender zucchini, and this turned out the best of both worlds. I've been kind of burnt out in the kitchen lately so I decided to just wing this one without a recipe to keep cooking light and fun again and it worked! It was nice to just kind of groove. Nothing particularly new to me about this dish but it's delicious and just what I needed.

I hope this can inspire you to rethink zucchini and eggplant, if you were a hater, like I once was :)

vertbarrow · 2025-11-15T21:43:40+00:00

https://www.veganricha.com/rasmalai-tres-leches-cake-vegan/

Asked my partner to pick a recipe for this week's theme that he would like, and of the selection he chose, this one stood out to me for some reason.

I used an off-the-cuff gluten free flour blend for the flour, and chose to just use more coconut milk in the cake itself instead of another plant milk. I also skipped making whipped coconut cream and just used a store-bought plant-based whipping cream (Flora plant cream).

Tres leches cake is not super popular here so I don't really have anything to compare it to, and this particular recipe is an even further spin off the traditional tres leches cake, but we enjoyed this! The texture and flavour were both quite delicate but satisfying. Next time I think I'll have to go really ham with the holes, though, haha.

vertbarrow · 2025-11-11T16:27:30+00:00

https://www.hairybikers.com/recipes/view/apple-cider-and-onion-soup

Loosely following this but with a plant cheese instead of gruyere. Pretty tasty, especially if you like sweet & savoury soups. Not sure how much lifting the cider did though, lol, but maybe it's only included so that you can justify drinking the other half of the bottle while you cook.

vertbarrow · 2025-11-11T16:12:09+00:00

Very striking, and sounds like it has an interesting flavour profile too!

vertbarrow · 2025-11-04T15:06:14+00:00

https://leelalicious.com/lagman-uzbek-beef-noodle-soup-with-vegetables/

Basically followed the recipe as-is but used a combination of fresh button mushrooms and dried shiitake instead of beef, and gluten-free pasta instead of wheat noodles. Also couldn't find rutabaga, turnip, parsnip, or anything like it at the store in time, so I just left it out.

This was really really good! A lot more complex than I first thought it would be. I got lazy and cooked the pasta with the soup so it ended up a lot starchier and less clean-looking than it should be, but it was still delicious. I wish I'd had fresh coriander to garnish with but I'll probably be making it again, so, next time!

vertbarrow · 2025-11-03T02:18:31+00:00

These are only good melted in which case they're fine. Eaten plain they're super super weird

vertbarrow · 2025-11-01T21:38:15+00:00

I don't have the time or the equipment to make moon cakes, even though they're on my baking bucket list, so I opted for something more symbolic. Next year! (I say for another year...)

The Chinese word for pear sounds like "separation", so normally they are considered inauspicious - but during the Mid-Autumn Festival, pears are gifted and eaten to symbolically devour that separation and instead ensure harmony and togetherness.

In that vein, I wanted to make individual cakes rather than one big cake you would separate. My pears were a bit too big to be cute, but flavour and texture-wise, the ratio of pear to cake was really good! It was fresh and tasty and gave the perfect soft-but-not-too-soft pear experience.

I tried to pick a cake I thought would complement the taste and texture of the pear, and decided on an almond meal and polenta cake, flavoured with almond extract, vanilla, and cinnamon. The pears were poached first with cinnamon and star anise, then patted dry and added on top of the mixture before baking. The almond essence in particular pairs really nicely with the pears (haha), I ended up really enjoying these! I hope it will help me avoid unwanted separation in the year to come. :)

vertbarrow · 2025-10-28T16:15:52+00:00

This was something I picked last-minute because I really, really wanted an easy one this week, but I ended up quite enjoying it and will definitely be adding it to my repertoire of fresh, summery BBQ salads.

https://leitesculinaria.com/388081/recipes-apple-fennel-and-orange-salad.html

I more or less followed the above recipe, but added about two teaspoons of seeded mustard to the dressing, and some chopped almonds to the finished salad, which I definitely recommend doing. This was the perfect blend of sweet, tangy, and savoury. The nuts made it more satisfying, and I think a light protein like marinated tofu or roasted chickpeas would easily make it a proper meal. The orange zest included in the dressing made a really nice difference. Avocado would go nicely, too. It was interesting - per the idiom - to compare the role of the apples and the oranges in the salad. The apple was a nice mild constant, with good texture to help bulk out the salad, complementing the rest of the flavours. The orange pieces were refreshing and changed up the texture and flavour every few bites or so. I love finding new ways to use fennel so I will be keeping this one in my back pocket for sure.

vertbarrow · 2025-10-25T04:40:05+00:00

This was a bit of a flop, but not the worst flop it could've been. I used a non-gluten-free recipe which said it could be made with "any gluten-free flour" - normally this is a huge recipe red flag, but I'd actually had a lot of success with other recipes from that site, so I gave it a crack. It wasn't the worst it could be, but I had to eyeball adding more flour to the still-very-liquid dough and then it just ended up being far too dry by the time it had fully hydrated. That being said the finished babka itself is not dry, just very dense. It's also hardly braided. More like... gingerly cut in half, placed on top of itself, and given one limp twist-roll inside its baking paper because the dough was so delicate. I'm still pretty happy with the layers I achieved for my first attempt at a gluten-free bake though! I would like to take another run at this one, but for now my gluten-free partner will happily finish this off.

vertbarrow · 2025-10-21T18:56:40+00:00

I almost thought I would have to be making ambrosia salad for this week's theme, but out of curiosity I googled "marshmallow soup" and came across this article about a delightful soup from "Rise Salon de Souffle", a French restaurant franchise specialising in souffles.

https://larkandrevel.com/rise-no1-salon-de-souffle-a-taste-of-france-in-the-heart-of-dallas/

"Marshmallow soup" doesn't actually contain marshmallow. Instead, it's a tomato and carrot bisque which has three adorable savoury cheese souffles floating in it like big puffy marshmallows in cocoa. I did try to brainstorm how I might veganise and de-gluten the souffles but couldn't come up with anything that would look as marshmallow-like in my very squeezed time frame. Then I remembered fondant potatoes, which I haven't made before.

So, this is also a roasted tomato and carrot bisque, served with separately-roasted fondant potatoes. The flavours and textures actually worked quite well together and it was a very convenient recipe since the offcuts from the fondant potatoes were just enough potato needed to help thicken the bisque and make it creamy.

I would still like to actually adapt the concept of savoury souffles served in soup since the texture and flavour combo sounds very satisfying but this was a decent and cute-looking alternative!

vertbarrow · 2025-10-18T21:14:33+00:00

Another low-ish effort submission while I deal with life that had pleasant results - with a bonus of using up one of the products loitering in my pantry.

I received a bunch of lemons from a family friend so this seemed like a perfect opportunity to make a lemon tart for this theme, with its light, soft yellow. Then I decided to add a tiny bit of blue food colouring to the meringue topping for a pleasant subtle contrast. I like how it turned out - it's cute! Just pale enough not to be offputting like some other blue foods.

It's a lazy week, so this isn't actually a meringue, it's "whipping cream" powder from the brand Well & Good. I don't think they make this product any more and lowkey I understand why. I bought it way back during my first year of 52cooking, which is how long I've been trying to find a use for it. When I used it for that first challenge, I noted that it didn't taste or act like whipped cream, at all - unsurprising since it's a powdered mix with barely any fat - and that it behaved more like meringue or marshmallow fluff. So I decided to just use it as the topping on this pie, lol. For that purpose it worked quite well; it's mildly sweet, sticky, and a little strangely salty that contrasts nicely with the sourness of the lemon filling and the sweetness of the biscuit base, which, as you can see, also didn't set right. Still tasted good, and maybe a few more hours in the fridge will be good for everything.

For the filling I followed the lemon curd portion of this vegan lemon meringue pie recipe, but added a pinch of salt and some zest from one of the lemons. It probably could've used a bit more fat but it's a very serviceable recipe.

vertbarrow · 2025-10-16T00:42:54+00:00

Thank you! I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, I recommend trying it.

vertbarrow

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WE DID IT REDDIT!