Breakfast cake
This cake came to me when I was playing around with breakfast ingredients. I wondered if you could use all the things you’d usually put in porridge but change the form. This has ground oats and coconut oil, egg whites. It’s probably a bit more sugar than you’d put in your porridge but not far off. It feels indulgent without being too much.
A shallow cake that is best cooked in a pan, then spooned out into a bowl and topped with more yogurt and berries, though as it cools it firms up, and any leftovers can be sliced and warmed in the oven.
Rice flour works well her in place of the whole-wheat if you want to make it gluten free. Aquafaba (which, if you’ve not come across it, is the liquid from cooking chickpeas that miraculously whips up like egg whites) works in place of the eggs (I used ½ cup/135ml of aquafaba) and coconut or oat yogurt works well too for vegans.
During early spring and winter seasonal fruit is in short supply, so I reach into my freezer for bags of blueberries, blackberries, and dark cherries, which see us through until the first strawberries find their way to us.
In summer I make this with fresh cherries, blueberries and / or the first of the blackberries.
- Duration
- Prep: 15 mins Cook: 45 - 50 mins
- Serves
- 6
Ingredients
- 100g coconut oil or olive oil, plus extra for greasing
- 250g plain yoghurt, plus extra to serve (coconut or oat yoghurt works well for vegans)
- 150ml runny honey or maple syrup
- 2 firm, crisp apples, roughly grated
- The zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
- 3 organic eggs, separated (135ml aquafaba works well for vegans)
- 100g rolled oats
- 100g rolled almonds
- 50g wholemeal flour (rice flour works well here if you want to make it gluten free)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 200g berries, plus extra to serve (when seasonal fruit is in short supply, so I reach into my freezer for bags of blueberries, blackberries and dark cherries, which see us through until the first strawberries find their way to us)
Mix the yoghurt, honey + other wet ingredients
Preheat your oven to 190ºC/170ºC fan/gas 5. If you are using coconut oil, gently melt it and allow it to cool. In a bowl, mix the yoghurt with the honey and add the apples and the lemon zest. Add the cooled coconut oil or olive oil. Add the egg yolks to the yoghurt mixture.
Blitz the oats+ add the flour
Put the oats into a food processor and blitz until you have a scruffy flour, then tip into a bowl and add the almonds, wholemeal flour and baking powder and whisk to get rid of any lumps of baking powder.
Add the dry ingredients to the yoghurt mixture
Add the dry ingredients to the yoghurt mixture and mix to combine everything. Whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until they form soft peaks, then gently fold them through the batter with a spatula or large spoon. You want to incorporate as much air as you can here to make the cake light and fluffy, so try not to mix more than you need to.
Prepare your pan + add the batter
Rub a 23cm ovenproof frying pan with oil and warm it over a medium heat for a minute or two so the base of the cake crisps up nicely. Take it off the heat and pour the cake batter into the pan (I use an ovenproof frying pan here but you could use a similar-sized cake tin instead. If you’re using a cake tin, pour the batter in without heating it on the hob).
Add the fruit
Scatter your chosen fruit over the top and put the pan into the hot oven for 45–50 minutes, until the cake is golden and a skewer inserted into the cake comes out almost clean. If you are using a cast-iron pan the cake will continue to cook as it sits, so you can afford a few minutes less.
Serve
Serve in the middle of the table, with more yoghurt and some more berries if you like.
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