Strawberry White Chocolate Breakfast Cake
This is such a kiddy cake: it's light and fluffy, sweet and juicy, and packed with soft strawberries and creamy white chocolate. And although my childhood days are long over, I love this cake. I would even call it my favorite spring cake (for the time being, until my next discovery). And the fact that it's so easy to prepare - you just have to roll out of bed on a lazy Sunday morning and throw it all together - makes it a perfect weekend breakfast cake.
The combination of the ripe red berries and the milky chocolate works unbelievably well in a cake. I'm familiar with this duo in ice cream and other sweet snacks, but it never struck me as much as in this composition. I was worried that the sweetness could be a little overpowering, but there was no reason to worry, it was still balanced. In fact, this cute little teaser tastes so good that it was gone in less than 24 hours. I wanted to freeze a few pieces - my new habit to eat a little less sweets - but it was hopeless. One piece after the other kept disappearing until the last crumbs were gone and the plate looked almost clean. I think if I could choose between a plate full of cake or a little less on my hips, I'd always go for cake.
Strawberry White Chocolate Breakfast Cake
Makes 1 cake
plain flour 130g / 1 cup, plus 1 tablespoon for the strawberries
cornstarch 30g / 1/4 cup
baking powder 1 heaping teaspoon
fine sea salt 1/8 teaspoon
butter (at room temperature) 160g / 2/3 cup plus scant 1 tablespoon
granulated sugar 100g / 1/2 cup
vanilla bean, scraped, 1/2organic eggs 3
fresh strawberries, cut into cubes, 150g / 5 ounces
white chocolate, chopped, 100g / 3/1/2 ounces
For the topping (optional)
icing sugar or finely grated white chocolate 1 tablespoon
fresh strawberries 3-4
Preheat the oven to 180°C / 350°F (preferably convection setting) and butter a 20cm / 8″ springform pan.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt.
In a second large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter, sugar, and vanilla seeds until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix well in between. Continue mixing for 2 minutes or until the mixture is thick and creamy. Quickly mix in the flour mixture until combined. Mix the strawberries with 1 tablespoon of flour and add, along with the chopped white chocolate, to the batter. Using a wooden spoon, gently fold in the berries and chocolate until just combined. Scrape the batter into the buttered springform pan, even it out, and bake for 40-45 minutes (slightly longer if using a conventional oven) or until golden on top. Check with a skewer, it should come out clean. Let the cake cool for a few minutes before you take it out of the springform pan.
Sprinkle the cool cake with icing sugar or grated white chocolate and decorate with strawberries.
Cinnamon Peach Breakfast Cake with a Crunchy Sugar Crust
We left the island heat to be welcomed by tropical temperatures in the city. After four amazing weeks in Malta we're back in Berlin, and apart from the fact that there isn't the sea in sight, it doesn't actually feel so different. It's hot here, so much so that I decided to take it easy this weekend and leave my work aside and stay in my kitchen most of the time. My culinary life in the Mediterranean focused on seafood and countless wonderful nights in restaurants with friends and family, so now that I'm back, I feel like experimenting again. On the first night I felt too tired to lift a finger or a knife, but the next day I made my beloved fennel orange salad (just without the octopus) and a beetroot carpaccio that was so good that I definitely have to share it with you soon. Yesterday, I revisited my olive oil ice cream with sea salt, I had almost forgotten about it but thanks to Gillie from Yahoo Food, I remembered my luscious frozen treat. She asked me to join their Ice Cream Week on their Instagram next week which I really look forward to. I'm sure it will be full of great inspiration to help cooling off in the next few days!
It's been over a year since I turned a generous splash of olive oil into ice cream and I wanted to make sure that the recipe is still as good as I remembered it. There's no doubt about why I was so ecstatic about it, it tasted amazing and felt like velvet. After the cooling sweet a cake was next on my list, a simple breakfast cake with lots of juicy peaches and a crunchy cinnamon sugar crust. The fruits sunk deep into the spongy dough and spread their juices with the first bite. But the sweet crusty topping was the secret star, I sprinkled the cake so generously with cinnamony sugar before I put it in the oven that I was a little worried if I went overboard. But it was so, so good, so I felt no regrets!
This cake is a variation of my Apple Breakfast Cake.
Cinnamon Peach Cake with Sugar Crust
For a 20cm / 8″ loose bottom springform pan you need
granulated sugar 100g / 3 1/2 ounces plus 2 tablespoons for the topping
ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon, for the topping
plain flour 130g / 4 1/2 ounces
cornstarch 30g / 1 ounce
baking powder 1 heaping teaspoon
a pinch of salt
butter (at room temperature) 160g / 5 1/2 ounces plus a little butter for the springform pan
organic eggs 3
large peaches, quartered, pitted and sliced, 2
Set the oven to 180°C / 355°F (fan-assisted oven) and butter the springform pan.
Combine 2 tablespoons of sugar and the cinnamon for the topping in a small bowl and set aside.
Combine the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time and continue mixing for a few minutes until the mixture is thick and creamy. Mix in the dry mixture until well combined. Fill the dough into the buttered form and arrange the sliced quarters of the peaches in circles on top. Sprinkle generously with the cinnamon sugar and bake for 40-45 minutes or until golden on top. Check with a skewer, it should come out clean. Let the cake cool for a few minutes before you take it out of the springform pan.
Apple Cinnamon Breakfast Cake
This is my new breakfast love! After French toast, muffins and pancakes I have a new addiction, I fell for the lightest and most perfect fruity cake you can imagine. I mixed the flour with cornstarch which makes the texture more fine, it's soft, fluffy and tender. That's all I could ask for on a morning table which doesn't mean that it wouldn't work for tea time either. The problem is that the cake didn't last that long!
I went for an apple topping but I already have a few variations in mind, with blueberries, plums, pears, even some sour gooseberries when their time has come again. The apples were just right for now, I cut them in half and scored their surface. That's how I prepare them for my crumble cake and it keeps them juicy. Before I put the cake in the oven I sprinkled it with a bit more cinnamon sugar than I would normally use and it made a nice thin crust, aromatic and crisp. I recommend making this cake in a springform pan not bigger than 20cm (8"). If you work with a bigger form the cake will turn out flat and possibly dry. It needs the height and here's were the quality of this cake lies, its lightness and sweet juiciness!
Apple Cinnamon Breakfast Cake
For a 20cm / 8" springform pan you need
sour baking apples (like boscoop), cored, peeled, cut in half and scored on the surface, 2-3
butter (at room temperature) 160g / 5.5 ounces
granulated sugar 90g / 3 ounces plus 2 tablespoons for the topping
organic eggs 3
plain flour 130g / 4.5 ounces
cornstarch 30g / 1 ounce
baking powder 1 heaping teaspoon
a pinch of salt
ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon, for the topping
Set the oven to 180°C / 355°F (fan assisted oven) and butter the springform pan.
Mix the sugar and cinnamon for the topping.
Combine the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt.
In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time and continue mixing for a few minutes until the mixture is thick and creamy. Mix in the dry mixture until well combined. Fill the dough into the buttered form and arrange the apples on top. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and bake for 40-45 minutes or until golden on top. Check with a skewer, it should come out clean. Let the cake cool for a few minutes before you take it out of the springform.
