When all else fails, bake.

The last couple of weeks months have been unusually hectic. Having finished a major project at work, I thought I'd have more time to do stuff. But life has caught me out, and it's only now I've been able to have a bit of an indulgent break and do what I want. Yes, there's a pile of ironing to do, but it can wait a few days longer. Besides, I should be at Glastonbury trying to find the Strumpets with Crumpets van (surely the best named food van ever - I wish we'd stumbled across them before Sunday last year), and no ironing gets done at Glasto.

Baking has definitely suffered as a result of this lack of time. I love baking, but things seem to have just got in the way of me doing more recently. I did make Pimms cupcakes for my friend's birthday a couple of weeks ago, but having to bake to a deadline seems to take some of the pleasure out of it (although everyone seemed to like them).

Pimms cupcakes, with strawberry, orange and cucumber icing.

So yesterday I set out early (well, for a Saturday) to pick up a few things to make the spiced apple cake from the excellent Spooning with Rosie.  Me and the boy have made quite a few recipes from this book, and not one have failed. (It pains me that Rosie's deli is only down the road in Brixton, and I am yet to venture there. I must rectify this, and soon.)

Ready to go in the oven.

I've made this cake a couple of times now. The first time I used wholewheat flour as I couldn't find any buckwheat flour as called for in the recipe. How much difference can it make, I though? Turns out a lot - it's a much better cake with the buckwheat flour, so do try to find it if you can.

Nom nom nom.

It's not a fancy pants cake. You probably could jazz up a slice and serve it as desert after dinner, but really it's a cake destined to be enjoyed with a cuppa. So tonight I'm going to settle down in front of the telly, stick the Big British Castle's coverage of Glasto on, crack on with some knitting, and eat a slice between rows. Because everything seems better when there's cake.