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Beetroot soda bread

This is a super-simple loaf to make when you don't want to wait hours for it to prove. I love the pink-hue you get from adding beetroot to this loaf. It is a good loaf to make to use up the dregs of bags of flour.  Beetroot soda bread Makes 1 loaf 300g beetroot (I used vacuum packed) 1 tsp fennel seeds 100ml plain full-fat yogurt 400g flour (I used 300g plain white and 100g wholemeal flour) 1 tsp sea salt 2 tsp baking powder 50g seeds (I used sesame) Preheat the oven to 220C. Puree the beetroot with the fennel and yogurt in a food processor until smooth. Mix the flour with the sea salt, baking powder and seeds. Fold the liquid beetroot mixture through this. As it comes together you can form into a ball with your hands but do not work too much or the finished loaf will be tough. Scatter some flour on a baking tray and place your ball of dough on top. You can add some more seeds to the top. Dust with flour and cut a deep cross into the top of the loaf. Bake fo
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Sourdough discard blueberry and chocolate cupcakes

Since having our sourdough starter (Dough Exotic) we have had to be creative about how we use the discard. This recipe is based on The Boy Who Bakes banana and chocolate recipe; we didn't have any over-ripe bananas so used an extra egg.  Sourdough discard blueberry and chocolate cupcakes Makes 20 cupcakes 200g sourdough discard 1 tsp vanilla extract 3 eggs 150g softened unsalted butter 185g granulated sugar 150g plain flour 2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp table salt 125g blueberries 125g dark chocolate, roughly chopped into chunks Preheat the oven to 180C and l ine muffin tin with cake cases. Stir the sourdough discard, vanilla extract and eggs.  In a separate bowl whisk the softened butter and sugar until pale and creamy. Add this to the sourdough bowl. Fold in the flour, baking powder and salt.  Stir through the blueberries and dark chocolate. Spoon into the cupcake cases and bake in the preheated over for 22 minutes.

A sample of breakfasts from Melbourne

Those of you that don't follow me on Instagram ( @caggyp if you're interested) won't have been subjected to the constant barrage of photos of sunny Australia. I've just returned from 2 months Down Under and the food there was a big feature of my Instagram feed , so I thought I would share my breakfast/brunch favourites from Melbourne, where I spent the majority of my time, on here (i.e. impose my photos on you via all mediums I can think of) Tivoli Road Bakery (South Yarra, Melbourne) This Danish Pastry, if my memory serves me correctly, is a fig, almond and custard concoction, but whether I've got that correct or not it was abso-freaking-lutely delicious. I also enjoyed a slice of the Tivoli Road fruit loaf (jam-packed with apricots and figs) the mornings when I didn't indulge in their buttery pastries. The owner of the bakery is also originally from Cornwall, which I'm sure goes some way to explaining why I loved the bakery quite so much. 

Frozen yogurt breakfast bowl

I feel as if Instagram and Pinterest are awash with photos of breakfast bowls containing ingredients I just can't get my hands on in Wales (mail order acai berries anyone?) I did want to jump on the trend bandwagon however and so have been enjoying frozen yogurt breakfast bowls instead (sprinkled with some  homemade granola of course - this batch has cashews rather than ginger in though).  I make this in my smoothie maker - anything with the ability to blitz frozen fruit will do. I can thoroughly recommend this as a breakfast to get you kick-started in spring! To make 1 portion of frozen yogurt breakfast bowl you will need: A handful of frozen berries - the major supermarkets do this really well 1 banana 1 tablespoon of greek yogurt A splash of milk From experience of multiple attempts at this, you need to order the ingredients in the blender so that the banana and yogurt are nearest the blade (to create a kind of paste) with the frozen berries furthest away. Add a

Tropical mango and lime cupcakes

Today is my housemate and friend of six years Aimee's birthday. Her favourite food in the whole world is mango, so it felt only right to make her some cupcakes with a very definite mango influence to them. Aimee hates coconut so I went with mango and lime instead.  The recipe will make 24 cupcakes and enough lime buttercream icing to cover them all (lucky as it's her 24th). To make a batch of tropical mango and lime cupcakes you will need: 1 cup of plain flour 1 tsp baking powder 1/4 cup soft salted butter 1/3 cup granulated sugar 2 eggs 1/3 cup milk Grated rind of 1 lime 1/2 cup finely chopped mango (I used tinned mango as unfortunately mangos in January in the UK are few and far between and not very nice if you do buy a fresh one!) 1/2 cup soft salted butter 4 cups icing sugar Juice of 1 lime A little lime zest A little chopped mango  Begin by preheating the oven to 180C (fan, 170C) and lining the baking tray with paper cases.  Cream the butter an

Coconut and ginger granola

My standard breakfast most of the time involves oats in some way, be it porridge or granola. Recently I've really got into coconut oil and so this granola recipe uses it with ginger to make for a really tasty but quite subtly flavoured granola. I enjoy mine with yogurt and fruit but it would work well with milk too! The quantities are enough to fill a large Kilner jar and tend to last me a fortnight. This granola doesn't hold quite as well as the shop bought type as there is less sugar; it is more like baked oats. The ginger syrup is the substitute for the sugar added to usual granola recipes and I think it is a lot more tasty. To make a large batch of coconut and ginger granola you will need: 3 cups oats  1 cup nuts/seeds (I use a variety of different ones including pine nuts and sunflower seeds) 2 tbsp coconut oil 1 tbsp ginger syrup from a jar of stem ginger (you could even add some finely sliced stem ginger if you wanted!) Preheat your oven to 170C and line

Chilli chocolate birthday cake

On Wednesday it was my lovely friend Danny's birthday. I was invited to spend a long weekend with him and my favourite person, Emily, in Swansea. Danny's only request for his birthday cake was that it was "new flavours", which led to me and Emily baking Danny a chilli chocolate cake until 1am on Saturday morning.  Little duckling sheltering from the Welsh weather The cake was enjoyed on Saturday evening with everyone and it was super - the chilli isn't spicy at all but just gives a depth to the chocolate flavour that makes the cake taste extra special. The icing doesn't have any chilli in either so it just makes for a lovely celebration cake! It's important to use a good quality chocolate with a high cocoa content as it is so much more delicious than a cheap slab of chocolate; this cake deserves that sort of quality. The recipe is based upon one you bake in a  Le Creuset  but we instead baked it in a cake tin and it turned out perfectly. By al