Cake for breakfast, anyone? Bake Em The Nutritionist’s high protein strawberry shortcake yogurt loaf

We’re huge fans of Em The Nutritionist’s nutrient-packed, delicious cooking. The 29-year-old Bedford-born foodie sensation (hello nearly 2m Instagram followers) combines her nutritional creds (training at Kings College London) with a deep passion for food and flavour (working as a teen in her grandmother’s restaurant).

Her latest recipe book Live to Eat: The Food You Crave, The Nutrition You Need (£12.50, Seven Dials) by Emily English (The Nutritionist is not her actual surname) is packed with dishes you will actually make, rather than just drooling over the photos and then ordering a Deliveroo, including this nifty WFH lunch, her Super Greens Shakshuka.

But first things first: what are you having for breakfast? If you’re bored of porridge and Greek yogurt, here’s something a little different: cake! Albeit a healthy, protein-packed (9g per slice – that’s more than an egg), low calorie cake.

“This breakfast loaf contains a whole tub of strawberry yogurt to give it the most delicious, moist crumb as well as packing it with protein and flavour, combined with high-fibre oat flour and ground almonds,” she says. “Bake into muffins for ease if you don’t have a large enough loaf tin.”

Sold! Let’s do this.

Em The Nutritionist’s Strawberry Shortcake Yogurt Breakfast Loaf recipe

Protein 9g, under 210kcal per portion

Image: Clare Winfield

Serves 10 

• 450g Skyr-style strawberry yogurt (I use Arla)
• 2 large free-range eggs, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 100g caster sugar
• Zest of ½ lemon
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 150g oat flour or ground oats
• 50g plain flour
• 50g ground almonds
• Cupped handful of strawberries, diced

Preheat the oven to 190°C/170°C fan. Line a 900g loaf tin with nonstick baking paper (no need to line if the loaf tin is nonstick).

In a bowl, mix the yogurt with the eggs, vanilla extract, sugar, lemon zest and olive oil, until smooth. Fold in the bicarb and baking powder, then the oat and plain flour and the ground almonds. Do not over-mix the batter. Tip into the lined tin and sprinkle the diced strawberries over the top.

Bake for 50–60 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean, watching to ensure it doesn’t burn (cover the cake with foil if it starts to brown too quickly). Everyone’s oven varies slightly, so check, and if needed, bake for an additional 15 minutes. Allow to rest for 15 minutes before serving.

Live to Eat: The Food You Crave, The Nutrition You Need (£12.50, Seven Dials) by Emily English, is out now