Yoghurt Cake , Yoghurt Muffins (Yogurt Cake, Yogurt Muffins) of Any Flavour

Here it is my standard cake recipe for any occasion, it has now taken over the Victoria Sponge for the all in one quick throw it together always turns out delicious cake, this cake seems even more moist the second day.  I’ve been playing around with it over the last few months.  I tried out a few different yoghurt recipes but nothing stood out and I went back to playing around with my double strawberry muffin recipe and this came out.  I have been baking away using different fruits or just plain with icing just like the ones I made for the 3 yr old’s birthday and middle child’s birthday. It really seems to suit any flavour you through at it and now that we’re entering into winter fruits season I will be throwing in some chopped apples and even trying an upside down pear version.

Last week, my 3 yr old’s new nursery teachers had to endure a few variations on this yoghurt cake and it went down well…they now understand along with my neighbours that this is the price they pay for knowing me.  This is the perfect cake if you don’t want to use or have electric whisks as it’s based on the muffin method of mixing dried ingredients together and wet ingredients together, folding them at the last minute and that’s it.  The cake mixture will turn out moist and keep so for  days.  Even if you think you’re not good at baking cakes or never made one before this is a great starting point as all the work is done by the baking powder and bicarbonate of soda to do the rising and the large quantity of yoghurt will ensure it’s moist.

Footnote, 4th October 2010: Feedback

As one of the nursery teachers handed me back my cake plate this morning when I dropped off the 3 yr old she confirmed what Bikerboy and I had thought last week when experimenting with leaving out the bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) which is; the cake with the bicarbonate of soda is superior.  This is the plus of giving away my baking, not just because it stops me eating it…and for someone as greedy as me with no discipline  I need the help...but I also get to hear what people’s opinion are which I find invaluable.

The nursery teacher last week said that she loved my plum cake, which was the one without the bicarbonate of soda, and as I handed over another plate of cake but this time made with the bicarbonate, I told her to wait until she tasted this one.  This morning when she confirmed the second batch was better it sealed the recipe I have below.

Yoghurt Cake or Yoghurt Muffins

20cm / 8″ cake tin, bottom lined with baking paper or greased with butter and dusted with flour

Oven temperature  170C fan / 190 C / 375 F / Gas 5

Wet Mixture
250 grms / 1 cup  of thick plain yogurt
120 grms /  1 stick of butter melted (if using unsalted add 1/4 teaspoon of salt)
3 large eggs, lightly mixed together until blended
1 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract (not essence)

Mix all together in a bowl.

Dry Mixture
275 grms /  2 cups  of plain flour (all purpose)
200 grms /  1 cup of granulate or caster sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4  teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda), slightly rounded spoon

Mix all together in a separate bowl.

1-2 tablespoon of milk

FRUIT - if you want to add berries you can add as much as a cupful or a little as a handful.

Once you have the two separate bowl ready you can leave like this for a long time, you can even leave it overnight just put the yoghurt mixture in the fridge.  Once you mix the two together however you can’t wait around as the bicarbonate of soda will start to react with the yoghurt and you want to make sure it does most of its work in the oven.  For this reason make sure the tin is ready beforehand.

Mix the dry ingredients with the wet ones and using a large spoon fold the two together until it’s all mixed and you can no longer see any flour.

The mixture should be slightly sloppy, not stiff and should fall off the spoon quite easily if it’s not add between 1 to 2 tablespoons of milk.  If you are folding in fruit do it at this stage.  When everything is mixed pour into prepared tin and bake for 40 mins.  Check after 35 mins. If making muffins bake between 15-20 mins.

Larger Quantities For 23 cm / 9″ cake tin or deep 23 cm / 8″ sandwich tins as follows:

Wet Mixture
375 grms / 1 1/2 cup thick yoghurt
170 grms /  1 1/2 stick of butter melted (if using unsalted add 1/4 teaspoon of salt)
3 large eggs, lightly mixed together until blended
2 teaspoon of vanilla extract (not essence)

Mix all together in a bowl

Dry Mixture
310 grms /  2 1/2 cups  of plain flour (all purpose)
280 grms /  1 1/4 cup of granulate or caster sugar
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2  teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)

Mix all together in a separate bowl

1-2 tablespoons of milk

See recipe above.

Bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
I  experimented with this recipe  leaving out the bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) and although it makes a good enough cake it’s not as good as when it’s added even with such a small amount, it lifts the mixture and makes for a better lighter crumb.

Mix your yogurt, vanilla extract.

Beat the eggs first slightly, I do it with the fork.

Add the melted butter

When you have the dry ingredients in one bowl and all the wet ingredients in another you ready to mix the two.

Fold the two mixture with a large spoon until the two combined, if the mixture is a little stiff add between 1 or 2 tablespoons of milk.

Making it into Muffins.

If you’re using frozen blueberries they like to sink to the bottom so to help them stay put sprinkle a little flour over them before adding them to the mixture.

The Blueberry Cake

And this is where I made the classic mistake of not flouring the frozen blueberries first and ended up with all of them at the bottom or in this case at the top of the cake…well it was kind of different having a layer of blueberries on top.

My Many Plum Cakes.

I have already posted about my first attempt and failure of the upside plum cake because of not lining the bottom of the tin, heck of an ugly cake…but you know you certainly can’t judge the delicious eating of the cake by its appearance.

My second attempt at the upside down plum cake, was more successful but I made the mistake of buying plums that were too small and by the time you removed the stone there was hardly any of plum flesh on them.  I resorted to using some large plums I had to hand but didn’t have enough of them, which meant leaving large gaps inbetween the plums, so when the plums shrunk during baking there remained a large gap between the crumb and shrunken plums.

My very small plums below which I had to discard and opt for the larger variety I had.

Unfortunately it meant there wasn’t enough of the larger plums to make a snug fitting around the base of the tin…knowing better now I should have cut them into quarters and turned them the other way.

My third and so far final attempt at the upside down plum cake…using a good fleshy plum snug in the bottom of the tin and turned them with the skin facing the bottom  to see if it helped with the uneven surface of the cake I had before, which it did.

The cake below is one I didn’t add any bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) and though the cake was fine, I would opt for adding the tiny bit of bicarbonate as it makes for a better cake, lighter crumb.

To Make Some Good Natural Colour Icing

Reduce a cupful of berries with tiny tiny bit of water like half tablespoon in a small pan with a lid until all the berries burst and come to the boil.  Don’ do what I do and let it overboil.  Take the lid off let the liquid reduce until thicker, sieve it and when cool use it to add to your soft butter and icing sugar.

The icing below, lilac colour was made from blueberries.