Blueberry and White Chocolate Cake

If there was ever a cake made for breakfast time, this is it.  Filled to bursting with white chocolate chips and juicy blueberries you'll be hard pressed to find a more decident breakfast treat.

The soured cream in this cake creates a moistness like no other. I ate this cake over the space of a week and it stayed so squishy and moist.  I have to admit, this is one of my very favorite loaf cakes I've ever made. I can't wait to try it out with forraged blackberries over the next few weeks.

I hope you enjoy this cake as much as I did. In fact, I'm off to make another one for the weekend. Happy Baking.

Blueberry White Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

• 100g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 150g golden caster sugar
• 2 large, free range eggs
• 2tsp vanilla extract
• 200g self raising flour
• 1tsp baking powder
• 150ml soured cream
• 220g blueberries
• 150g white chocolate chips


• For the frosting :
• 180g full fat cream cheese
• 100g icing sugar

Cooking Directions:

1. Line a loaf tin with baking parchment and preheat the oven to 175°C.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Turn the mixer down to low and add the eggs in one at a time, beating well between each addition. Mix in the vanilla extract.
3. Add half of the flour, the baking powder and half of the soured cream and beat to combine. Add the remaining flour and soured cream and mix again. Stir through half of the blueberries and all of the white chocolate chips, pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin and bake for 1hr - 1hr 15minutes.
4. Allow to cool in the tin for 20 minutes before transfering the cake to a wire rack to finish cooling.
5. When the cake is cooled, make the frosting. Whip the cream cheese and icing sugar together until creamy and then spread over the top of the cake. Scatter with the remaining blueberries and serve.

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Lemon Zucchini Loaf

Sometimes you just have to say "to hell with the diet, I want cake for breakfast".  That's exactly what I thought earlier this week, so I set about to make an every so slightly better-for-you cake thats acceptable to eat for breakfast. That's where this lemon zucchini (or courgette to you and me) loaf was born.

 

If you like carrot cake you're gonna lose your mind at this zucchini loaf.  I absolutely love to add veg to cakes and bakes, it adds a moistness that simply cannot be beaten.  I mean, I made this cake on a Monday, we finished it off on Friday and it was still just as moist and delicious as the day I made it. Nowt that's what you want from a cake, if you ask me.

This loaf is so adaptable. I added grated lemon zest but you could substitute this for lime. Add a handful of poppy seeds or even leave the citrus out all together and throw in a teaspoon of cinnamon for a nice spicy number.  Plus, if you fancy making this baby dairy free, just sub in soya yogurt for greek yogurt and Bob's your mam's sister's husband.  They're all gonna be winners.

Lemon Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:

• 225g grated courgette
• 200g sugar
• 120ml sunflower oil
• 120ml plain, full fat yogurt
• 1 large, free range egg
• 3 lemons, zested
• 220g self raising flour
• 1tsp baking powder


• For the frosting:
• 200g icing sugar
• 3tbsp lemon juice

Cooking Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 175°C, grease and line a loaf tin and set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer add the grated courgette, sugar, oil, egg, yogurt and lemon zest. Mix together until combined. Slowly add the flour and baking powder to the wet ingredients, mixing until just combined.
3. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tin. Once cool, remove from the tin and set aside while you make the glaze.
4. To make the glaze mix the icing sugar and lemon juice together to make a thick drizzle. If it's too thick add a little extra juice, too thin add more icing sugar. You want it to drip down the side of your cake. Drizzle over the loaf, allow to set for about 20 minutes and serve.

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Double Chocolate Banana Bread

Banana bread is one of life's great pleasures. I love everything about this simple little loaf cake, the intoxicating fug it creates while baking is enough to make me weak at the knees.  I'm guilty of buying bananas with the sole purpose of allowing them to go black and gooey, just so I can mash em up and bake them into my absolute favorite cake. There's a reason we rarely serve up a banana bread in Pet Lamb, it's because I'll eat it all. No lie!

There are so many versions of this cake all over the internet, it's amazing how versatile banana bread can be. This double chocolate version is so totally indulgent and rich that I only try to bake it on special occasions, I seriously have no control when it comes to this baby. 

This particular loaf was whipped up so I could have an extra naughty birthday breakfast of dippy eggs followed by a slab of double chocolate banana bread, heated up in the oven of course.  Get that chocolate all nice and melty, it's no fun unless you get it all over your chops.  The perfect fuel for a busy day.

If you're a banana bread addict like me, check out my other favorite incarnation Hazelnut Chocolate Chip Banana Bread. It's a more sophisticated take on this loaf but equally as delicious!

Double Chocolate Banana Bread

Ingredients

• 50g (1/4cup) Butter, melted and cooled slightly
• 60ml (1/4cup) Sunflower oil
• 3 Over ripe bananas, mashed with a fork
• 150g (3/4cup) Light brown sugar
• 1 Large, free range egg
• 1tsp Vanilla extract
• 125g (1cup) Self raising flour
• 60g (1/2cup) Cocoa powder
• 1tsp Baking powder
• 1/2tsp Salt
• 150g (1cup) Chocolate Chips

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 175C and grease a loaf tin and line with baking parchment.
2. In a large bowl mix together your mashed bananas, melted butter, oil, sugar, egg and vanilla extract until combined. Sift your flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt over the wet ingredients and stir until just combined. Stir through 3/4 of the chocolate chips and pour the batter into the prepared tin. Sprinkle over the remaining chocolate chips and bake for 60 minutes until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out mostly clean. Remember there are chocolate chips in there so you may have to test the cake in a few places to ensure you're not just hitting melted chocolate.
3. Allow to cool in the pan for 20 minutes before removing from the tin and placing on a wire rack to finish cooling. Slice while still warm and sticky, enjoy and try not to eat the whole thing.

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Easy Bakes - Maple Pecan Breakfast Pinwheels

Sometimes the lure of being a domestic goddess is just too much to ignore.  That kickass double chooclate babka on pinterest, or those super cute rainbow bagels you saw on Buzzfeed, they look doable.  That is until you read the instructions, look at your watch and realise aint nobody got time for that, before pulling out a tube of ready made cookie dough from the back of the fridge and eating it raw.  

What if I can tell you there's a way to fake it?  Like these maple pecan breakfast pastries, they look pretty complex right? Wrong! They are the easiest, tastiest morsels ever and you can totally pretend to be the ultimate domestic goddess, drowning in compliments while you gush about your handmade pastries. Nobody needs to know they only took you ten minutes to whip up with ingredients you probably already have on hand.  

I'll always recommend you use all butter puff pastry for everything, it just tastes better, and even better if you buy it in ready rolled sheets. Lazy girls unite!

There's no end to the wonderful concoctions you can whip up with just a sheet of puff pastry and a few other ingredients.  I've been in suffocating breakfast luxury for weeks.  I'll be sure to share some more of my creations with you guys soon.

Maple Pecan Pinwheels

Ingredients

• 1 Sheet of ready rolled all butter puff pastry
• 150g Pecan nuts
• 100g Dark brown suagr
• 3tbsp Maple syrup
• 25g Unsalted butter, melted
• 1 Large egg, beaten with a little milk
• 50g Apricot jam
• 200g Icing sugar
• 3tbsp Water
• 1/2tsp Vanilla extract

Cooking Directions

1. In a food processor pulse the pecans until finely chopped, you can also do this by hand just ensure the pieces are nice and fine. Pour the nuts into a bowl and mix with the maple syrup and melted butter, set aside while you prepare your pastry.
2. Preheat the oven to 175C and line two baking trays with baking parchment.
3. Unroll your chilled pastry and cut into six equal squares. Transfer your squares to the baking sheets, leaving room between each square. To shape the pinwheels cut a line from each corner of the square to almost the middle, leaving around a 3cm space uncut. Put a tablespoon of the pecan mixture into the center of each square before folding alternate corners into the middle of the pastry and pressing down. Make sure you work quickly as the dough becomes harder to work with the warmer it gets, the best way to combat this is to keep one tray in the fridge while working on the other.
4. Brush each pastry with the beaten egg and bake for 18-20 minutes until golden brown and crisp. Allow to cool slightly.
5. While cooling make your glaze. In a small saucepan heat the apricot jam with 2tbsp of water until runny. Combine the icing sugar and water until smooth and transfer to a piping bag, snip the end to make a small hole. Brush each pastry with the sticky glaze before drizzling with the icing.

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