Holly - The Cafe Boat

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Holly - The Cafe Boat

Coffee and Cake on the canals! We're currently offering a take away service only. Location and opening hours will be updated each week.
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10/02/2026

This week's bakes.

The name of the game is comfort. And conjunctivitis apparently! This is what we've been eating to keep ourselves happy through this bit of winter, with all it's rain and endless viruses.

Pie. Flapjacks. Jam tarts. Beans on toast 🤘

19/01/2026

Pineapple and Coconut cake

A bit of sunshine in cake form! A cake batter that includes fresh pineapple, sour cream, dessicated coconut and not that much sugar (110g compared to the usual 250g+ for a 8inch sponge) made this a delightful treat! First enjoyed when it was still warm from the oven, then with cups of tea the following day. Something about coconut is just a joy!

18/01/2026

A splash of colour 💗

Most of my recent bakes have been firmly in the brown/beige of the colour spectrum. Not very Instagram-y of me but its because when I bake cakes at home (rather than for customers) I tend to forgo any icing or extra flourishes in an effort to keep the sugar down and also because I run out of time!

Here's a few colourful bakes from the cafe boat.

1. This one was a plain vanilla sponge topped with icing sugar, we made it specially for a video. Did you see it?

2. Cupcakes topped with berry icing! This was an American buttercream with the colour coming from a forest fruit reduction - really delicious. Recipe in the eBook for both the cupcakes and the icing.

3. Battenburg, made at a customers request and quite a challenge for me as a marzipan novice! I filmed the making of this so you can see how much I messed up the first batch 🥴

14/01/2026

OAT BISCUITS (Chocolate dipped version)

A real classic crunchy biscuit. So quick, so easy to make. This is a recipe I remember from school which I thought was pretty special. Then I googled 'oat biscuit' it came up top of the page on Good food so it turns out it's just the standard oat biscuit recipe. (A NESTLE TOLLHOUSE story if I ever I heard one)

For a reason though! These are great as they are, with added raisins or dipped in melted chocolate (though pretty sweet, I think dark chocolate would have been better, added to the biscuit mix in chunks)

No secret family recipe, just Google Oat Biscuit and click the top one! 😁

08/01/2026

Chocolate cake 3 ways!

Not content with consuming all the chocolate over Christmas, I made Chocolate and olive oil cake the other day (dairy free and GF if you use the ground almonds option. I didn't have any but I used gluten free plain flour and it turned out well!).

On the first day we had it just-warm from the oven with cream.

Second day I had a restrained version with greek yoghurt and pomegranate (first choice would probs have been raspberries but I was working with what I had)

Then last night I went the opposite way and had it warm, loaded with an un-restrained ganache & served with vanilla ice cream (no I didn't wait for it to soften before scooping).

Find the recipe online by searching Chocolate Olive oil cake

17/12/2025

Peanut butter everything!

Yesterday I was making Williams porridge and a splash of milk got into our massive tub of peanut butter 😬 I felt like I had to use it all up so scoured the internet for some good PB Recipes.

First up I made a surprisingly light loaf cake (recipe by good housekeeping, just search 'peanut butter loaf'). Peanut butter normally makes bakes quite dense but by whisking the eggs whites before adding them to the batter, this one manages to stay light!

Then I made an old favourite, Deliciously Ella's oat cookies (I wouldn't say they're cookies, or biscuits, more of an oat cake/bar?) made with just four ingredients: 2 x mashed bananas, a swig of Maple syrup, a cup of peanut butter and enough oats to make it into a sturdy batter. Shape into rounds and bake for 20 mins. Extra good if you add chocolate chunks but I'd used all mine up in the loaf cake!

Theres also a sneaky bit of sourdough in that first pic, my first one! That didn't contain any peanut butter but I did toast it and load it up with the stuff 🤘

09/12/2025

It's a mince pie time of year! These were a rough puff version of a classic mince pie that I made last year (we're being taken down by colds and coughs left, right and centre at the moment so I haven't made any yet!)

Great if you can make your own mince meat (find it in the eBook) and pair with your favourite type of pastry. I'm going to try and make some frangipane topped ones before the year is out!

Second and third slide are double chocolate cookies, Nigella recipe. And then some lovely Christmassy scenes from Cambridge!

18/11/2025

LEMON CUPCAKES

to brighten up gloomy winter days!

At the request of our resident lemon-lover, William, we made these yesterday. Based on a recipe by Hummingbird Bakery, I love how the butter/milk ratio makes them so light and fluffy! Here's the recipe:

120g plain flour
150g caster sugar
1.5 TSP baking powder
Zest of 1 lemon
40g unsalted butter (room temp)
120ml whole milk
1 egg

Mix all dry ingredients together with butter in stand mixer (if you're not using a sandwich mixer, rub the butter into the flour first until resembles breadcrumbs and then add sugar, baking powder and zest, mix)
Slowly add the milk and mix. And finally the egg.
Divide between 12 cupcake cases, half filling each.
Pop them in the oven for 20 -25 mins at 160°C

For the frosting:

Mix 80g of butter (room temp) with 250g icing sugar. Slowly add 100g cream cheese by the teaspoon until all mixed in. Mix in a teaspoon of lemon juice. Spoon onto the cooled cupcakes and top with lemon zest!

16/11/2025

Cambridge bakes

Whilst I've been sampling the bakeries of Cambridge, Vic has been on the hunt for the best coffee and he found it at

We went yesterday (coffee was perfect!! Vic had a guest roast which was fruity as heck) and lo and behold it's surrounded by lovely independent shops, including a couple of bakeries. We had an eclair and a spiced chocolate orange Paris Brest from and then popped to for some pumpkin loaf and a pumpkin scone with coffee glaze before hitting the swings.

It was a really lovely morning and came home feeling inspired by these small businesses (both Flux and Monroe Street Bakery and one-woman enterprises - pretty cool)

10/11/2025

Chocolate Orange bread and butter pudding

We made this recipe by at the weekend and it was INCREDIBLE. Like all of Rukminis recipes it was super quick to make (10 mins) and took just 25 mins to bake.

The original recipe calls for farmhouse white bread but I used brioche for extra indulgence (as if it needed it 😅)

Recipe is from The Sweet Roasting Tin book, highly recommend!

Address

Cromer

Website

http://www.hollythecafeboat.com/

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