We’re open again for takeaway!

This week, the Cake Shop is reopening for take-away! We’re going to be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. with a few simple things that we’d like to share with you: new recipes that we’ve been working on over the past months, alongside some full-fat favourites. There will be coffee, tea, and Easter cakes for sale. It’s a kind of reset; one that we hope will bring many familiar faces to our door.

Terry says:

I was raised to eat simple healthy foods. During my twenties, my friends and I subsisted off instant ramen, but we always combined it with tempeh and fresh vegetables – we’d scour the markets at day’s end for cheap boxes of fruit and veg. Tahini and miso kept us skinny punks alive.

Droll middle age has meant I’ve had to be more conscious of what I’m eating. Recently I took a month-long cleanse, a rollercoaster of release, elimination and fasting. It was an intense ride, but well worth it – a way of becoming more aware of those little nuisance food addictions, needless indulgences and displacement activities. I even gave up coffee.

I’m looking for balance, not perfection, so don’t worry – I still love my comforts. But the exciting thing about stripping back was that I was forced to get inventive, in a way that I hadn’t since my punk days. Limitation led to experimentation: how can I make this steamed broccoli seem like more than steamed broccoli? What about making it into a soup, throwing in some almond meal to thicken the broth? Flavours became more intense. When I began to reintroduce foods that I had cut out, the tastes and textures were like lightbulbs going on. I had chocolate for the first time a few days ago and it almost short-circuited my tastebuds. 

Some of the techniques, approaches and recipes that I developed over those weeks are here to stay. You’ll see a lot of vegan and reduced sugar, dairy and fat recipes appearing on the Cake Shop menu, alongside the full-fat classics, of course.

I’ve been buying these fantastic bunches of carrots from my local boys, Feeling Food. The carrots are beautifully sweet, and they come with the glossiest locks that I just can’t bear to throw away – so first I made carrot top pesto, then carrot top houmous. Then I decided that the carrot tops needed to hook up with the carrot bottoms, so I made some cured carrot lax. Smoky, crunchy, sweet, these pink orange ribbons drape really well over a toast, and it goes without saying that they have amazing chemistry with the carrot bottom houmous – they were born together.

People have been asking me if I’m done with the cleanse, and I have to reply that I’m never done: simple or indulgent, food is an endless adventure.

We’ve got carrot top and bottom toast on our takeaway menu, alongside soups and a selection of cakes. We’re particularly excited to share our new vegan corn muffins with rhubarb compote: sweet and earthy corn is balanced by tart jammy rhubarb, brightened with a little orange zest. Our Easter cakes, cookies and jams are also available for postal delivery, so feel free to drop us a line. We can’t wait to see you!