Recipes

Anna Jones’ Blueberry Breakfast Cake

Anna Jones's Blueberry Breakfast Cake

Serves 6

This is 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.

During early spring, 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. 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.

  • ½ cup (100g) coconut oil or olive oil, plus more for greasing pan
  • 1 cup (250g) plain yogurt, plus extra to serve
  • 10 Tbsp. (150ml) golden honey or maple syrup
  • 2 firm, crisp apples, roughly grated
  • the zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
  • 3 organic eggs, separated
  • 1¼ cups (100g) rolled oats
  • 1 cup (100g) ground almonds
  • ½ cup (50g) whole wheat flour
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • sea salt
  • 1½ cups (200g) frozen berries, plus extra to serve
  1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. If you are using coconut oil, gently melt it and allow it to cool. In a bowl, mix the yogurt with the honey, and add the apples and the lemon zest. Add to cooled coconut oil or olive oil. Add the egg yolks to the yogurt mixture.
  2. Put the oats in a food processor and blitz until you have a scruffy flour, then pour into a bowl and add the almonds, whole-wheat flour, and baking powder and whisk to get rid of any lumps of baking powder.
  3. Add the dry ingredients to the yogurt mixture and mix to combine everything. Whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until they form soft peaks, then gently fold them into 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.
  4. Rub a 9-inch ovenproof frying pan with oil and warm it over 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 can use a similar-size cake pan instead. If you're using a cake pan, pour the batter in without heating it on the stovetop).
  5. Scatter your frozen fruit over the top and put the pan into the hot oven for 45 to 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.
  6. Serve in the middle of the table, with more yogurt and some more berries if you like.

Reprinted from The Modern Cook’s Year by Anna Jones (Harry N. Abrams, 2019).