carrot fudge and red bean paste pancakes

and yes, it really was bad. i used this recipe from the frugal wartime recipes of great britain. and i don't know if it's a genuine recipe (my grandma had never heard of the concept) or it was made up for the article out of some piece of hearsay, but i don't think even in wartime you'd be convinced this was either a) fudge or b) tasty. imagine grated carrots mixed with orange juice and set into a jelly, and that's exactly what you get, hence the bright colour.

suffice it to say, i won't be making this recipe again. but i will try my hand a carrot halwa one day.

i even tried to turn the copious amounts of this carrot fudge (that i was going to take to the allotment bonfire party , but would've been too embarrassed) into cupcakes - my mum dared me to turn it into something edible, but the cupcakes still had a dodgy jelly texture that was just quite wrong.

needless to say it provided a lot of laughter, if not sustenance.

but, one disaster that ended up turning into an amazing discovery, occurred when a vegan red bean cupcake recipe decided not to cook.

i experiment all the time, and putting beans into cakes wasn't exactly new for me (my chocolate black bean cake is a greatly requested recipe amongst family and friends). but it turns out that eggs are pretty important, and flax seeds won't cut it when beans are involved.

so after these 'cupcakes' being in the oven for 40 mins without any change in texture or colour, besides becoming a little darker and probably enriching the flavours, i removed them and smooshed them all up in a bowl into a very delicious paste, that reminded me of sweets my dad used to bring back from work trips to Tokyo.

so, i googled what to do with red bean paste.

and since i am a pancake fanatic, i decided upon this shanghai red bean crepe recipe, but exchanged the regular flour for buckwheat (of course)...

♥ these were yummy with a drizzle of maple syrup and a sprinkle of sesame seeds!