Jane Dallaway

  • Today’s bake: Apple and cinnamon loaf

    16 August 2026

    Apple and cinnamon almond-oat loaf topped with flaked almonds, in its paper liner on a wooden board

    This is a rework of a loaf I baked last week when I’d collected some windfall apples. A few months ago I bought a couple of 1lb loaf tins to give an alternative to always baking a large loaf, my theory being I could either bake half a recipe, or bake two loaves: one for now, one for the freezer. Last week I tried to make a single apple loaf sized to fit the newish tin but it came out flat and a bit lost in there, so this week I’ve scaled it up to fill the tin properly. That’s why the quantities look a little odd. It’s worked, so I’m writing it down before I forget how I got here.

    Ingredients

    • 100g almond flour
    • 33g oat flour (plus 1 tsp reserved for coating the apple)
    • ⅔ tsp baking powder
    • ⅛ tsp bicarbonate of soda
    • ⅛ tsp salt
    • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
    • ⅛ tsp nutmeg
    • 2 eggs, beaten
    • 53g full-fat Greek yogurt
    • 40ml extra virgin olive oil
    • 53ml maple syrup or honey
    • 1⅓ tsp vanilla extract
    • 110g apple, peeled, cored and diced into 5mm cubes
    • 1⅓ tbsp flaked almonds, for the top

    Method

    1. Preheat fan oven to 160°C. Line a 1lb loaf tin with parchment.
    2. Toss the diced apple in the reserved tsp of oat flour so the pieces don’t sink to the bottom.
    3. Whisk the almond flour, remaining oat flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg together.
    4. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, then whisk in the yogurt, oil, maple syrup and vanilla.
    5. Fold the wet mixture into the dry, mixing just until combined.
    6. Fold in the apple.
    7. Pour into the tin, scatter with flaked almonds, and bake for 35-40 minutes until golden and a skewer comes out clean.
    8. Leave in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

  • Dragons at the Royal Pavilion

    13 August 2026

    The dragon in the entrance hall, the first dragon we see on the trail

    I used my Brighton museums membership this afternoon and visited the pavilion. It’s a place I’ve been to most years at winter time to enjoy the decorated trees. I haven’t been in summer for years, if ever.

    The head of a big green dragon

    A dragon disappearing down the basement steps

    A pink and gold dragon's tail appearing out of a toilet

    At the moment there is a dragon exhibition and trail which was really playful and amusing. I can’t help feeling that someone had a lot of fun setting this up.

    Crace and Jones background artwork for the Chinoiserie decoration

    A fragment of the design for the carpet in the Saloon

    There are some lovely pieces of dragon related art in the upstairs gallery including a drawing created by the Craces and Jones sometime in the early 1800s for the pavilion, and a surviving fragment of Robert Jones’s design for the carpet in the Saloon.

    I’ll be back to see the trees come December and will keep an eye out for any dragons that are still hanging around!

  • Watching the partial solar eclipse

    12 August 2026

    We joined lots of other Brighton residents at the seafront to watch the partial solar eclipse. We found a spot on Hove Lawns and sat for a while, surrounded by happy people: families, friends, organised groups. Almost every group had some kind of viewing mechanism with them. I saw a lot of repurposed cereal boxes, a decent amount of solar glasses (us included), a few CD-based viewers and a lot of colanders.

    Crowds gathered on Hove Lawns for the eclipse, silhouetted against a hazy sun over the sea

    Crowds spread across Hove Lawns with Brighton's i360 tower and seafront buildings behind

    Great to see the partial eclipse. Even better to feel the sense of community. Everyone gathered for one thing, and for once it was a natural phenomenon.

    A blue crescent-shaped lens flare beside the hazy sun, echoing the eclipse's crescent shape

    This is the best photo I got, and it’s the lens flare that is the interesting bit, showing the crescent shape of the sun. Rarely would a photo of a lens flare be something I’d enjoy looking at!

    Holding up the homemade pinhole viewer, cut from a page of my notebook

    A tiny crescent of light projected through the pinhole onto the notebook page below

    Just before leaving the house I pierced a sheet in my notebook with a pin and used it to view the eclipse. It worked well enough, and I enjoyed the simplicity.