I woke up this morning and after having my morning juice, I discovered we had nothing for breakfast. Nothing. So what do you do then? Well, as I usually walk my boyfriend down to the train station, I thought: “I’ll get a croissant from Marks” You know, fresh from the oven and still smelling like a croissant and all that. I rarely do, so they are actually a treat.

However, once I got there I changed my mind. Ever since I cut down almost to 0 sugar, I found that most shop bought pastries and cakes are much too sweet for me 😦 It has happened more than once, that I buy something, get home full of anticipation and as soon as I bite into it…disappointment. They are so sweet I cannot finish them.

So, what to do then? In my case, I threw together what I expected was going to be a super easy breakfast cake…and it was! I just had a slice and it is perfect for breakfast. Filling, but not too sweet, with a lovely crumb and a hint of spices. Great with a tea or a coffee.

The list of ingredients is rather long, but don’t get discouraged because once you have them ready all you have to do is put them in a bowl together and mix with a spoon. No extra steps or random mixing or whisking in separate bowls.

Ingredients:

250 grs wholemeal spelt flour (can use white spelt or regular flour)

1/2 cup pumpkin pure

1/2 cup almond milk (can replace with regular milk). If using white flour, you may need to add a bit more milk.

1/4 cup maple syrup (if you want your cake really sweet, add 1/4 cup more)

1 egg

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 cup sunflower oil

1/2 cup almonds. I forgot to add the almonds so I put them on top of the cake. I like how they look, they make the cake a bit more interesting. But you can also chop the almonds and mix them in with the batter.

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Pinch of salt

Note: If you don’t have the spices, use more vanilla essence or replace them with the zest of one orange. You can also replace the almonds with raisins, walnuts or pecans or a mix thereof.

How to:

1.- Preheat your oven at 180 C. Line a baking tray of 20 cm X 17 cm (or similar)with baking paper.

2.- In a bowl place the flour, spices, salt, baking powder. If you want to add your almonds to the batter, rather than place them on top, add them now. Mix everything with a spatula or spoon. Make a well in the middle.

3.- To the well add the maple syrup, egg, milk, pumpkin pure, oil and vanilla essence.

4.- Mix everything together with a spoon until you have a rather firm batter, like this:

4.- With a spatula distribute the mixture evenly in a baking tray lined with baking paper or previously buttered and floured.

5.- Add the almonds on top. Then place in the oven for 30-40 minutes (depending on your oven).

6.- To know if your cake is ready, poke it with a skewer, if it comes our clean, then it is ready. You can eat it as is:

7.- Or you can dissolve 2 tablespoons honey in one tablespoon water over a low heat and paint the cake with that. Because this is not a very sweet cake, the honey glaze provides a nice sweet layer and a lovely shine:

8.- You can also make the glaze by mixing 1 tablespoon of orange or apricot jam and 1 tablespoon water over a low heat.

If you prefer, you can serve the cake with a little dusting of icing sugar instead of the glaze.

For a more “cakey” cake you can slice it in two, fill with apricot or orange jam and put back together. Probably a filling made with caramel would work well too.

For a moister version of this cake, you can slice in half, paint one half with a bit of orange liqueur and then fill with orange jam and put back together.

9.- And that’s it! You can put it together in 20 minutes and it cooks in 30. Ready to provide a home-made, healthy breakfast cake for the whole family in under an hour 🙂

Hope you have a lovely day today!

Namaste,

Paula