I am back at work again, in an office with people I have worked with before. It’s good to work together and I am enjoying myself, even with the large amount of work that we have to get through. There’s laughter and friendliness and they have made me so welcome … so what better way to show them I appreciate them than to bake a cake? We could all have a slice with our coffee or tea and share it with anyone else who comes into our office. (And maybe I could fatten them up a bit? They are all very slender and I am getting very stout. I need to even things up a bit)
As I am in the middle of the Great Greek Yoghurt Experiment I could make a cake involving yoghurt! I once had a marvellous recipe for a cake that involved either sour cream or yoghurt and blueberries but I had let a friend have my copy and it has disappeared for good now. Drat. Let that be a lesson to you – if you ever find a really great recipe, make sure you don’t let someone have your only copy.
I had to start searching for something similar and found something on one of my favourite blogs, Chocolate & Zucchini, a recipe for a Blueberry Yoghurt Cake. In fact, it wasn’t that similar but it sounded good. Well, it had blueberries in it so it was vaguely similar to the other cake…..this was going to be a light, not overly sugary or sticky cake. Just something that would go well with a cup of tea. There’s a place for over indulgent cakes and sitting at our desks probably isn’t it. A plain cake, as my Granny would call it. Light and moist with blueberries popping up throughout to give a little sharpness and a light crunchy topping of sugar…. that should work for our elevenses.
Get your cake tin ready – I am using a springform lined with those brilliant paper liners. Pre heat your oven to 180 degrees
Then, ingredients – yoghurt – about 250 ml (that was most of these two pots and the rest could be eaten later…. 😉 )
200g of sugar
2 eggs
80 ml of sunflower oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla paste extract
A sloosh of cognac… the recipe said rum but we didn’t have any, so it was either cognac or gin. As I feel gin is necessary as a medicinal measure every now and then, I thought I would use the cognac.
I’d have to use cognac.
That had to be combined gently – no furious beating.
In the meantime, in a bowl, combine
2 cups – (which actually weighed out as 300 g) of plain flour. (I like to use the Italian ’00’ flour as it is ground extra fine and makes beautifully fine and light cakes and smooth sauces as well as marvellous pasta)
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda.
Make sure they are well mixed together then add that to the cake batter.
Again, don’t over stir it.
Next, frozen blueberries – just before you pour the cake mixture into the cake tin, throw a handful or so of the frozen berries in (if you don’t like blueberries try raspberries)
Then put it all into the cake tin and put that into your oven.
Thirty five minutes or so later, have a look – is it browning nicely?
Does a skewer come out clean? If not then put it back in for a few more minutes
And so… we have a cake.
Most of it was taken to work, and none of it came home. Make of that what you will.
Well, make it, will you?