WHEN LOU LOU CAME FOR EASTER TEA

First of all, Happy Easter for those of you who celebrate it. I'm currently sat in bed eating left over cornflake cakes and typing this up as the birds cheep outside my window. Hello, perfect Sunday morning.

Earlier this week I received the most beautifully packaged tea set from interiors and lifestyle store Bombay Duck and I thought, what better way to make its debut than an Easter style tea party for my friend and her children to come over and enjoy. 

I can't begin to describe how much I love this LouLou collection, from the polka dot print with gold detailing to the art deco design of the teacups and saucers, it's totally my style. I haven't even packed it away, it's too good to hide away in boxes so now I just need to find a place to showcase it where my mad kitties Shirley and Audrey won't knock it over.

For my Easter tea party I decided to whip up some super easy cornflake cakes (everyone knows how to make those), and some banana and chocolate chip loaf. This is an easy recipe to follow if, like me, you leave your bananas in the fruit bowl for too long and they go brown.

In terms of ingredients, you'll need the following:

• 1 ripe banana (peeled weight 100g/4oz)
• 1 tbsp milk
• 50g/2oz soft butter or baking spread
• 75g/3oz plain flour
• 75g/3oz caster sugar
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 1 free-range egg
• 50g/2oz dark chocolate chips
• 
  

1. Preheat the oven 160C/325F/Gas 3. Grease and line a 450g/1lb loaf tin with non-stick baking parchment.
2. Use a fork to mash the peeled banana in a mixing bowl. Add the remaining cake ingredients (except the chocolate chips) and beat with an electric hand whisk until combined and smooth.
3. Stir in the chocolate chips and spoon the mixture into the prepared loaf tin. Level the top.
4. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until well risen, shrinking away from the sides of the tin and golden-brown.
5. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes, then remove from the tin and leave to cool on a wire rack.
6. For the decoration, break the chocolate into small pieces and add to a heatproof bowl.
7. Melt the chocolate in the bowl over a pan of simmering water (ensuring that the bowl does not touch the water). Stir regularly, until almost completely melted, then remove from the heat. The heat of the bowl will melt any remaining lumps.
8. Spoon the melted chocolate into a piping bag and pipe zig-zags across the top of the loaf. Set aside for the chocolate to set. Slice and serve.

Thank you to the amazing team over at Bombay Duck who gifted me this tea set for my Easter celebrations and I hope you all have a brilliant end to the bank holiday weekend if you're reading this in the UK.

P.S. I thought I'd add a little picture of the packaging, just so you can appreciate its beauty. I'm yet to decide how, and where, I'm going to be using these boxes, but one things for sure, I'll be filling each and everyone with something.