Saturday 15 September 2007

Another Yogurt Cake

This is yet another yogurt cake I have made within a week. Yes, I know, this Strawberry Yogurt Cake doesn't look really appetizing with all the cracks and holes on the cake surface. I have poured in too much batter into the pan before adding in the strawberries, and I must have added too much strawberries too, as a result, the remaining batter was not enough to cover the strawberries. So most of the strawberries were peeking out of the batter but I still went ahead to bake the cake. Hence, I ended up with a very much pimpled-face cake ;'(



The recipe is as straight forward as the lemon yogurt cake I made last week. With only a few stiring and mixing, the batter is formed and ready for baking. This cake was done with the help of not just one, or two, but three eager assistants! My niece came over to play with the boys after school. She showed great interest in what I was going to bake and offered her help. Naturally, the other two kids also made their way into the kitchen. The three of them crowded around the kitchen table, each taking turns to stir, add, and crack the eggs. So, with three extra pairs of hands, a rather easy recipe became a little "complicated". Everyone wanted to have a hand in every single step, and would made noise whenever the others took a little longer to stir the mixture, or sieved in too much flour and so on, and so on. I am not complaining though, I really enjoyed their company, it's fun to be able to share your hobby especially with your loved ones, even if it means having to do the extra work of cleaning up the mess they have created.


Despite the not too nice appearance, the cake was quite tasty. It was moist, fluffy and tasted almost like freshly baked muffins. After taking a few small bites, my niece came back to ask for a whole slice of cake. She even requested to pack some home. My younger boy gobbled down a slice in no time. My elder boy was the only who didn't show much interest as he didn't like the sourish strawberries. This cake is made with some ground almonds, which I believe is not that commonly used in other similar yogurt cakes. I wasn't able to taste the ground almonds when I first tested the cake. It was only when I had a whole slice of it for breakfast the next day, then I could taste the nutty bits in the crumbs. I was a little hesitant whether to post the recipe as I am really not sure about its original source. However, since it is indeed a simple and yet great in taste cake, I thought I should share it here. I thank the originator for sharing this recipe, and I hope I can get the source soon.

Ingredients:

125ml (1/2 cup) yogurt
100g (1/2 cup) granulated sugar
60g (1/2 cup) brown sugar
3 eggs
95g (1/2 cup) ground almond
140g (1 cup) plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
125ml (1/2 cup) oil (I used olive oil)
some strawberries, diced

Method

  1. Pre-heat oven to 180 degC. Grease and line a 20cm round pan with baking paper.
  2. Mix yogurt, sugar, eggs in a large bowl.
  3. Add ground almonds and sieve over flour and baking powder. Mix till combined.
  4. Add oil and mix well.
  5. Fill 2/3 of the batter in the prepared pan, arrange diced strawberries on the batter and pour the rest of the remaining batter over the strawberries.
  6. Bake at 180 degC for 40-50mins or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
  7. Let cool in the pan for 20mins before unmoulding.

47 comments:

Anh said...

The cake looks soooo moist! I love apple cake...

Baking Fiend said...

trawberries, almond and yogurt... i can imagine the fragrance from yr kitchen while this was baking! what's not to love?

Anonymous said...

I tried baking but was unsuccessful. The cake wont rise.. :-( puzzled???

Anonymous said...

Hello HHB!
my! your cake looks delicious. I love the versatility of the recipie and the ground almonds give it a unique twist to an already delicious cake. I will defitnatly be giving this recpeie a try! Thanks!

Happy Homebaker said...

Anh, yes the cake stayed moist till the next day :)

Ida, I could smell the almonds when the cake was baking, too bad those strawberries I bought were real sour! It's almost impossible to get any decently sweet strawberries here.

Hi Anonymous, sorry to hear about your unsuccessful attempt. Could it be due to your oven temperature or what about the baking powder. There's no actual beating in this cake, so the only think to rely on for the cake to rise is the baking powder. Do check whether it is still fresh. Hope this helps, and better luck next time. I failed my previous yogurt cake too!

Hi Debbie, will love to hear your feedback after you tried it :)

Cuisine Paradise said...

Wow..this cake is beautifully done.. i love the moist texture and the fresh fruit used.. can i replace it with pear or peach instead of strawberry? And the yogurt can replace to those flavour yogurt? Sorry.. to trouble you :)

Happy Homebaker said...

Ellena, although I have not tried it, I think it shouldn't be a problem to replace the fruits/flavour of the yogurt to your choice. I'll love to make a peach or blueberries version :)

serena said...

Hi Happy homebaker, for the oil can I replace it with apple butter. I understand I can use apple butter to replace three quarter of solid fats in cakes. I'm watching my diet due to high cholesterol.

Kitti said...

Lovely!! I made one too - only I didn't have strawberries or almonds so I made it with apples and pecans! Added a little cinnamon to the batter too, it was delish! Next time, for a really dessert-y type cake, I will make a caramel syrup to pour over the top. Thanks for the great recipe!

Cookie baker Lynn said...

It looks so moist and delicious! Yummm- I'd love to have a slice to go with my morning tea.

GFAD said...

Hello. Came from the wokkingmum. Went through your recipes, they all look very good! Will be a regular reader from now on!

Do you think you can share some more of your simple dishes for lunch and dinner? Am always on the lookout for fast and easy dishes for my kids!

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi Serena, I am not sure about using apple butter, in fact this is the first time I came across this (please pardon my ignorance!) I checked the internet, and came across some website that mention you could use apple butter to replace up too 3/4 of the oil used. I do believe it will affect the texture of the cake slightly...it could be slightly denser? Nevertheless, if you are not overly concerned over the texture, you can also give it a try. I do hope it will turn out well. Hope this helps :)

Hi Kitti, I love your version! How clever of you to adapt the recipe according to what you have on hand! I try to do that too, though sometimes it didn't work that well ;)

dear Lynn, I would love to share a slice of it with you!!

ka..t, thanks for visiting. I certainly like to share my simple and easy dishes which I made for my kids...but actually I am not a good cook, hehe, so of the things that I cooked are really not up to standard! Will try to include those that I think are worthy in my future posts.

Anonymous said...

This cake looks lovely. Can I replace the oil with melted butter and by how much?

rgds
JK

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi JK, I think you should be able to replace the oil with melted butter...though I won't know how the taste will be affected. As for the amount, I am not too sure about it...may be you could try using equal amount of melted butter (125ml), but I am not sure the actual amount that you need to melt (from the solid block of butter) to get 125ml. Sorry, didn't really help right! but I do recommend that you stick to oil (I use olive oil)...I didn't miss the butter from the cake at all, in fact it is a healthier choice, don't u think so? :)

Anna said...

Mmm, I can tell that'd taste gorgeous. Will definitely give it a try ^__^

Anonymous said...

it looks really nice! beautiful... can only wonder what it tastes like!

Anonymous said...

Hi, i made this cake last nite and its really delicious.I used peach instead of strawberry.
Just 1 question, can i replace the same amount of flour for the 95gm of ground almonds or do i need to reduce a little?

Rgds
gossiping

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi Gossiping, I am not sure about replacing the the ground almonds with flour as I have not tried it before. sorry, I'm not of much help here.

Anonymous said...

HI Happyhomebaking

would like to ask, can the yoghurt be cold before using? or do i need to leave it at room temperature for a while?

thks
regards
octopusmum

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi Octopusmum, I didn't make it a point to bring the yoghurt to room temperature...I took out the yoghurt from the fridge and set it aside while I prepare the other ingredients.

Anonymous said...

HI ive been following your recipe and drooling at your beautiful pictures. Im so inspired! Im gona attempt to bake the strawberry yoghurt cake. is it ok to replace butter with margarine in general? i have a blog too at sweetcrumbs.blogspot.com :) visit when you are free. feel free to comment too.

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi Missy, I'm glad to hear that you like your blog. You have a lovely blog too :)
Yes, you may replace butter with margarine. However, butter will give cakes a better flavour as compared to margarine.

My Family said...

hi, I hve the same prob w anonymous, my cake didn't rise. It looked uncooked in the middle. Cake was dense and heavy. U were saying might be baking powder prob but how to test powder is fine? Taste was v nice and pleasant. But was too sweet for me. Maybe I used a sweeter yogurt (yoplait strawberry).

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi My Family,
Sorry to hear about your failed attempt :( I guess the only way to test your baking powder is to make sure it has not pass the expiry date. If you have used the same baking powder earlier on other cakes and it didnt give any problem, then it could be due to the oven temperature. Otherwise, maybe it could be due to the way you mix it. I have problem with the other yoghurt recipe too...mine always turned out dense and kueh like :(

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi My Family, I was just told that another blogger has tried this recipe a couple of days agao and had the same problem like yours. She thinks that she could have over stirred the mixture. I am not sure whether this piece of info helps?

My Family said...

Hi Happyhomebaking,

Thanks for all the replies. I tried baking this cake again with a more experienced friend in baking and it turned out the same way. It might be over stirred. Actually what do u mean by over stirred? Is it the sugar, eggs and yogurt step or the flour & baking powder step? Do I use spatula to stir in the flour istead of whisking it in? When u say "mix", do u mean just stirring or whisking? Really want to make it work cos the cake smell so nice after it's baked and most importantly is that my daughter who is super fussy with food, LOVES this cake. I find the conversion table v helpful too. Thanks!!

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi My Family, I would think the over stirring part is when you stir in the flour/ground almonds/baking powder. For this cake, I used a whisk to mix everything. I stopped the mixing once the flour 'disappears' into the batter. and just a few quick stir will get the oil mixed into the batter. The other possibility will be the amount of ingredients, hope you measure them with a weighing scale, I finds it more accurate than using cups to measure.

C ` said...

hello!
i''ll be trying out this cake soon, may i ask what brand of yogurt you use? thanks!

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi C, for this cake I used Greek Style yoghurt, the brand name is "Farmers Union".

GingerBread said...

I baked a banana yoghurt cake for the first time.The recipe called for a self-raising flour and a soft peak whipped eggwhites. The method is to fold in the flour and yoghurt alternately,and i ended up with a pudding consistency of a cake. I tried it the second time by using plain flour and baking soda.It came out way better than the first one but it didn't rise as much.Anyone here had made BANANA YOUGHURT CAKE?how does it look like and how can i achieve an ideal volume and texture?Please help me.

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi Luchie, I have no luck with yoghurt cake too...most of the timethe cake turned out quite dense :(

Michele said...

Hi HBB, I noticed this recipe really has quite a bit of sugar... do you suppose reducing it by 20% would be ok?

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi Michele, this cake didn't taste too sweet, 100g of sugar is just about right...the sponge cake recipe which I have been using also calls for 100g of sugar and it didn't taste sweet at all. I am not sure whether it will affect the finished baked if you were to reduce the sugar amount.

Serena said...

Hi Happy HomeBaker,
Wow...your cake look so YUMMY... I like strawberry and Yogurt...Must have a great try on it by using my own make plain yogurt...and it is less grease because only using olive oil... Even can still soft for the next day...Thanks for sharing...

From Serena's Lovely Home

Sharon said...

Hey hey, I tried this recipe and the cake was yummy! I put it in a bit too long though and the crust on top is a little crispy, haha. But still nice!

Thanks for posting this recipe!

Jodie said...

This bread looks gorgeous!!!!
Thanks for sharing your delicious recipe, I can't wait to give it a try for myself..

Hugs - Jodie :)

Erin said...

Just finished eating a piece of this cake, it was delicious! Thank you so much for the recipe!

Anonymous said...

*drools.........*

looks so yummy...................wanna have a bite.....................sob sob

joyful said...

hello happy homebaker, i saw this recipe and decided since i have all the ingredients on hand i shall try it out. i just had a go at this recipe and made them into cupcakes instead of a whole big cake and baked them for about 15minutes.. and they turned out really nice. am so glad with the outcome, thanks for sharing yet another great recipe :)

Anonymous said...

hi

The cake looks delicious- can't wait to try it out!

One question - do we use natural plain yoghurt or sweetened yoghurt for this recipe?

Thanks

Happy Homebaker said...

hi, I used low fat plain yoghurt (not Greek yoghurt) for this recipe. Hope this helps :)

Anonymous said...

Hello happy homebaker!
This recipe is fantastic! May I know how should I store this cake?

Please reply!
Thanks!

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi, you can keep it in room temperature for 2 to 3 days.

Anonymous said...

Hello!
Ohh, I see. Thanks so much for the information!

Anonymous said...

Yogurt is much like buttermilk and so I think the addition of a half teaspoon of baking soda would fix the problem. As well, I don't know how much you mixed it, but usually to error on the side of caution, do not over mix! Hope this helps.

Wendy said...

Hi HHB, Love your blog :D I want to try out this recipe. I need help with step 2 : Mix yogurt, sugar,
eggs in a large bowl. do i have to mix till sugar dissolved?? Or just combine all three and mix
together till all is well combined for 1 - 2 mins??

Happy Homebaker said...

If you are using an electric whisk, just mix for 2 to 3 mins until well combined will do.