Yogurt cakes

Yogurt Cakes

Basic recipe

Traditionally done with lemon – they freeze very well

1 pot yogurt – I use plain

2 pots sugar

1 pot vegetable oil (corn –Mazola- or sunflower)

1 pot eggs

3 pots self raising flour

Rind and juice of lemons or limes I prefer the favour of limes, it is stronger

Back ground info:

For years when making this cake I use to use fix amounts of eggs, say 3 eggs for a small yogurt pot, 9 eggs for a large one etc. etc. and was always braking my brain wondering how many eggs if I changed the quantity of the yogurt pots until one day I had lots of egg whites left over from making crème brulee and did not feel energetic enough to make meringues, so I decided to make an experiment and use the egg whites mixed with the whole eggs together to fill up the size of the yogurt pot, the result was fantastic the cake was light and perfect, so next time I tried just using whole eggs to find out if the amount of eggs was the same as the recipe I had been making for years and it was.

The beauty of this is that you do not have to worry about the size of the eggs, and on this particular recipe it is very important to have the correct proportions of dry and wet ingredients.

How to make the cake:

Mix all the ingredients together and bake at 170 C (fan assisted) for 45-50 minutes.

Have the juice of the lemons/limes ready and as soon as you take the cakes from the oven, pour the juice over the cake and let it to soak for a little bit before you take the cake out of the tin.

This is very important as only when pouring the lemon juice over the hot cake it soaks in properly.

I used to add the lemon ring to the cake mixture at first, but now a day I am just too busy to bother to grate the lemon ring, but I know it adds an extra flavour.

I have to give the credits of this cake to my old friend Felicity, it was her that introduced the cake to me around 1995, and it only seems yesterday we used to get so excited about our experiments.

Variations

Since I found this technique so practical I have made a few variations of the same cake.

Nuts

Make a mixture of flour and ground nuts, can be ground almonds, hazel nuts, cashew nuts, any nuts you like, I find the flavour improves if you toast the nuts first and then ground them using a coffee grinder.

I would probably use one quarter of nuts for 3 quarters of flour, but never measure it, just add a hand full depending how many nuts I got at home.

When I use nuts I do not add the lemon as the nuts are strong enough no to need the extra lemon, but if you like it there is no reason why not adds lemon as well.

Chocolate

Believe it or not I have used this same recipe for making chocolate cakes, all I do is add some cocoa to the flour depending of the quality of the cocoa two or three table spoons full.

I also add a hand full of chocolate chips; this gives a nice bite when you are eating the cake as it stays whole and is really nice, I once added some brandy to the cakes as they came out of the oven just like I do with the lemon, but I am going to experiment making a mixture of strong coffee and Brandy to pour over the hot cake and see what happens.

Apples

During the Autumn there are plenty of apples everywhere and I get given apples by many people that know I like baking so during the harvest of 2011 not knowing what to do with so many apples I decided to try and add apples to the yogurt cakes, this is what I did:

I did some mixtures using ground nuts and others plain.

I cut the apples in quarters, then I sliced them and placed the slices on top of the mixture on the tin, all neatly in rows, when the cake rises the apples sink and not only looks pretty but it taste delicious as apples are moisture and makes the cake that much juicer and fresh.

I did freeze some to see how they came out and although a bit soggy on the top no one seemed to mind and the cakes were eaten fast.

Any other fruit or vegetables that you like, I have done many different ones and always comes fine.

Banana and yogurt cake

1 pot yogurt

1 pot vegetable oil

1 pot eggs

1 pot mashed bananas

2 pots sugar

3 pots self raising flour

Vanilla sugar or vanilla essence

A hand full of ground hazel nuts or any other type of nuts optional

Mix all ingredients and bake for 45 minutes at 170 Centigrade

Notes:

The bananas have to be very ripe as that way they are sweet and also soft when mashed with a folk.

This version of the banana cake comes out really light and moist, I did a batch in which I sprinkled sunflower seeds over the top before placing the tins in the oven, but I think one could put any type like flake almonds etc.

Other fruits

Following the same technique, use one pot of grated apples for apple cake..

One pot of grated carrots for carrot cake.

One pot of peaches, nectarines etc. whatever you fancy.

Also good using courgettes and I have even made it using strawberries.

Using your imagination the list is endless.

Also a perfect mixture when you have to do a sponge cake.