Breakfast Cake. Cake for Breakfast.

Since living in South Africa I have come to realise the joy of cake for breakfast: it is bread, eggs and milk all in one.  Cake travels easily to the beach, with a thermos of coffee up a mountain or on an early morning car journey.  However, breakfast cake should be fruity rather than a chocolate-y, the aim is to feel full and awake, not heavy and guilty.  This moreish recipe takes the breakfast idea to the nth degree combining bran flakes, eggs, tea and orange juice all in one slice.

We marched my breakfast inspired cake up to World’s View, in the Drakensburg at sun-rise last week.  Sitting on-top of a mountain with a thermos of fresh coffee and a slice of breakfast cake after a 6 km climb was pretty special. 

Oh and it went down a storm at the Bridge party yesterday.  It really is as good for tea as it is for breakkie...and pudding...

Ingredients

175 g unsalted butter, softened

225 g caster sugar

3 large free-range eggs, beaten

175 g self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

50 g sultanas

1 heaped tsp mixed spice

1 heaped tsp cinnamon

1 large mug of strong tea-bag tea, without milk

75 g bran flakes

2 oranges

1-2 tbsp milk

1. Heat the oven to 180C.

2. Put the sultanas in a small saucepan and add the mug of tea.  Bring to the boil then remove from the heat and cover.  This will allow the sultanas to soak up the tea.

3. Cream (beat) the butter and 175 g of the sugar together until the mixture gets noticeably lighter and fluffy.

4. Add the eggs one at a time to the sugar/butter mixture, beating well after each egg.

5. Sift in the flour and baking powder and fold gently into the mixture.

6. Add the drained sultanas, bran flakes, the zest of the two oranges (grate on the fine setting), the juice of one of the oranges, the mixed spice and cinnamon and fold in.

7. Take a spoon-full of the mixture and hold above the bowl with the spoon tipped on its side.  If the mixture gently drops off the spoon you have the right consistency.  If it just sits add the milk.

8. Grease with some butter and base-line with greaseproof paper a loaf tin (23cm x 13 cm x 7 cm).  Spoon the mixture into the tin and level the top.

9. Place in the oven for 35 minutes or until well risen, golden brown, a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the middle, and most importantly the cake starts to come away from the edges of the tin.

10. When done, remove the cake from the oven and place, still in the tin, on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then remove from the tin and peel off the greaseproof paper.

11. Place the juice of the second orange in a small saucepan and add the remaining 50 g of sugar.  Bring to the boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves.  Prick the cake over with a toothpick (going about halfway down into the cake) and spoon over the orange syrup.

We ate the cake for 3 days then used the slightly stale last slices for pudding on Sunday – wrap left over cake in tin foil, place in a hot oven for 5-10 minutes, meanwhile make some more orange syrup.  Cut the hot cake into slices and place on plates.  Top with the sugar syrup and finish with a dollop of vanilla ice cream.  Seriously delicious.