69. Recipes // Lemon & Blueberry Loaf

Before I begin I want to apologise for the sheer lack of photographs in this post! It is safe to say, this is the least photogenic recipe I've ever created.

Whenever I see something on special offer I can't resist buying it, no matter what it is. I've walked away from shops with the strangest items before just because they were buy one get one free, or half-price... and it's no different with food. 

So, when I spotted blueberries for £0.50 last week, i had to buy them. No, seriously, I had to. There was no alternative. I snapped up two punnets and started o think about what I could do with them. Rather than have them on my desk at work for a healthy snack, I decided I'd bake something. I'd been thinking about baking a lemon drizzle as it's one of my, and my families, favourite cakes so I've created a cake that combines both of their delicious flavours!

Lemon & Blueberry Loaf

Ingredients

3 eggs

150g self-raising flour

150g caster sugar

150g butter

100g blueberries

Juice of 2 lemons

Handful of porridge oats

Method

1. Pre-heat your oven to gas mark 4 or 180 degrees Celsius

2. Grease, or line, a loaf tin

3. Squeeze the juice from 2 lemons

4. In a bowl, mix together the flour, sugar and butter

5. Add the eggs one at a time and stir into the mixture

6. Add the juice of the lemons (and some zest if you like)

7. Stir in the blueberries

8. Pour into the loaf tin and sprinkle with porridge oats

9. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until cooked through

10. Leave to cool before removing from the tin 

And then... devour!

46. Recipes // Chai & Banana Cake

After a long, challenging day at work on Wednesday I decided to relax by baking something that I could enjoy whilst curled up on the sofa, whilst watching the television with my family.

I didn't have much spare money to spend on ingredients, so instead I scoured the cupboards and threw together what I could find and they just happened to be Chai tea and bananas... it's basically banana bread but with a twist.

The recipe is incredibly simple, it takes a while to cook, but the end result is delicious! I'm not really one for measuring things out, especially not spices, so you may want to chop and change the recipe a little bit as it won't be one hundred percent accurate anyway.

Just to note: I used 'cups' rather than weighing my ingredients. Where I say '1 cup' I mean short, fat tumbler.

Ingredients

2 cups wholemeal flour,

1tsp baking soda,

Pinch of salt,

1/2 cup of softened butter/margarine,

1 cup brown sugar,

2 eggs (I used duck eggs to make it that little bit richer),

4 bananas,

8 Chai teabags

Method

1. Mash up your bananas and rip open the Chai teabags - tip the contents into a small bowl,

2. Add all your ingredients (inc. banana and Chai) into a large bowl,

3. Either whisk or mix all ingredients until it's a smooth (apart from the chunks of banana!) mixture,

4. Pour mixture into a pre-greased loaf tin,

5. Bake in a pre-heated oven on Gas Mark 4 (180 degrees C/350 degrees F) for one hour, or until cooked through.

This cake honestly is so tasty! The fact that it contains wholemeal flour, brown sugar and bananas sort of makes it healthy... kind of... a little bit? Maybe not. But, either way, it's a lovely little treat and is best enjoyed warm.

Love, 
Becci xo