Jane Dallaway

  • Friday’s bake: Festive Fruit & Nut Loaf

    7 December 2025

    Another loaf cake recipe created with Claude as my assistant. I knew I wanted to ramp up the festive flavours now that December was here.

    Richard had his slice served with a dollop of brandy cream. I went for mine on its own. A good effort overall; it has all the great taste of Christmas cake, but in a simple loaf form.

    For my future self, here’s the recipe:

    Ingredients

    • 200g almond flour
    • 80g mixed nuts, chopped (combination of walnuts, pecans, and almonds - use roughly equal amounts of each)
    • 20g extra nuts for topping
    • 150g mixed dried fruit: 50g dates + 50g cranberries + 50g sour cherries, all chopped into small pieces
    • 50g dried apricots, chopped
    • 3 eggs
    • 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
    • 2 tablespoons maple syrup
    • 1 teaspoon baking powder
    • 1.5 teaspoons cinnamon
    • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
    • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
    • 1/4 teaspoon salt
    • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    • Zest of 1 orange

    Method

    1. Preheat fan oven to 155°C (fan oven) and line a loaf pan with parchment paper.
    2. Soak all chopped, dried fruits in warm water for 10 minutes if they’re very firm and then drain thoroughly and pat dry with kitchen paper.
    3. Mix almond flour, baking powder, spices and salt in one bowl.
    4. Whisk eggs, olive oil, maple syrup, vanilla and orange zest im another bowl.
    5. Combine wet and dry ingredients until just mixed.
    6. Gently fold in the mixed dried fruits and 80g of chopped mixed nuts.
    7. Pour into the prepared pan and sprinkle remaining nuts on top.
    8. Bake for 40-45 minutes, checking with a toothpick for doneness (it should come out with just a few moist crumbs).
    9. If the top browns too quickly, cover loosely with foil for the last 10-15 minutes.
    10. Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

  • Sunset stroll

    28 November 2025

    I’d been out for lunch with a friend. When I got home, I realised Richard had already headed out for an afternoon walk with Breezy.

    I used Find My combined with Breezy’s Tractive GPS tracker to spot that they were on the beach. So I quickly headed down.

    I arrived just in time to watch the sun set. What a beautiful way to finish off a lovely afternoon!

  • Abandoned football stadium to community garden

    25 November 2025

    As I’ve shared before, I really love abandoned spaces. I especially love watching them transform as nature reclaims them, even if I’m usually only seeing it through beautiful photography.

    I also love seeing spaces reused by, and for, the community.

    I found this via The Knowledge

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