Coffee and Breakfast

What is better than waking up and having a lazy morning alongside a beautifully made coffee, pancakes, chocolate cake (why not) and some family and friends to share this gentle start to the day?
Well I can tell you we have been making the most of our new Tassimo machine to make these moments a little bit more special and a nice upgrade from our normal filter coffee.
We have a bit of a tradition in our house that Sundays is all about pancakes, sweet, savoury or a bit of both and we try to mix things up everyone now and then.

Gluten free pancakes and free-range scrambled eggs are a favourite in our house

We always find mornings as a great time to socialise and why not make them special and throw a little Coffee morning even if it's juts for family? We decided to make this one a little special with some divine Chocolate brownie cake, it's indulgent but when shared with others it's makes for a nice one off treat.

Our Gluten free Chocolate brownie cake

This cake recipe is inspired by a John Torode's recipe and is pretty easy to make. We have been using a lot of gluten-free flours in recipes lately and found replacing it in this one worked pretty well but it's up to you what you want to use.

This makes one 20cm Victoria sponge tin

2 Large eggs
175g caster sugar
160g Unsalted butter or we used melted coconut oil
60g Cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla essance
75g roasted halzenuts (optional)
25g white chocolate buttons (optional)
125g plain or rice flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder (gluten free if needed)
1tsp whisky (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 160c.
2. Beat the eggs and sugar in a mixer until white and fluffy.
3. Melt the butter over a gentle heat and stir in the cocoa, then stir in the egg mix.
Add the vanilla, nuts, flour, white chocolate buttons and whisky.  
4. Pack the mixture into the baking tin and smooth the surface with the back of a spoon.
Cook for 20-25 minutes.
5. Leave to cool. Turn out and cut into pieces of your desired size.
6. Sprinkle with icing sugar (if you want!) and serve with a dollop of Greek yogurt

Serve with a lovely Tassimo latte, cappuccino or in Mr A's case a nice hot chocolate.

Enjoying a relaxing coffee morning.

Especially since I am pregnant I have really been enjoying little gatherings in the home, we held a few in the run up to Christmas and if your planning on throwing a little casual shindig here are a few tips to be the perfect host

1. Make your home welcoming to guests by having a few easy finger nibbles out, some soft background music and turn of the TV so you can actually sit down and chat

2. If you plan throwing a coffee morning have a selection of hot drinks on hand as everyone has different tastes, I always have a cupboard filled with various herbal teas, chai latte and decaff, ground, filter and artisan coffees.

3. Have more than one thing to eat - again everyone likes something different so throw together a few little nibbles, even something easy such as some homemade muffins, cake or breadsticks with hummus, dips or a plate with some cut up fruit.

4. Let the light in - luckily our kitchen it quite light and airy and we always make sure we have some fresh flowers out if anyone is going to be popping in.

We love having fresh flowers in the kitchen, especially if hosting a little get-together 

We were given the Tassimo in exchange for a review