Yoghurt cake (with sprinkles)

Those of you who were impressed with the lack of refined sugar in my apple and honey muffins might want to look away now 😊.

I love trawling through Pinterest for inspiration. When I was looking at food on there one day a recipe for yoghurt cake caught my eye. I like cake and yoghurt but would they really go together?

After a bit more searching I found a Sainsbury’s recipe that was really similar to the basic sponge recipe I use. It seemed a good way to experiment…

The original recipe included the juice of two oranges. I left them out because I wanted to know how yoghurt changed a cake. I tasted the batter once the cake was in the oven, though, and wished I’d added orange and lemon. The yoghurt made the batter taste light and fresh, it would have matched those citrus flavours really well. In the end I settled for adding some lemon juice to the icing that we added on top of the cake.

I had Sophie, my littlest helper, with me today. I asked her if she wanted to make a cake she answered ‘put sprinkles on’. You’re the boss, Sophie!

The original recipe said to cook for 50-55 minutes. My kitchen was smelling lovely before that time, though and there were a few dark bits around the edges – I’ll check it after 45 minutes next time I cook a yoghurt cake.

I’ve not had much luck with making a well risen sponge in the past – my cakes tend to look perfect while they are in the oven but shrink as soon as they come out. I was determined not to fail this time so I creamed the sugar and butter together before adding the other ingredients. I was also careful not to over mix the batter – a couple of minutes on medium speed did the job. I was way happier than is normal for baking when my cake came out of the oven and stayed up 😊.

The yoghurt definitely added to the moisture in this cake, and made it more dense than a traditional sponge. The children all complained that their slices weren’t big enough,  though,  and asked for seconds. I’m taking that as a win!

Ingredients

Serves 10

For the cake:

• 225g self-raising flour
• 175g caster sugar
• 175g margarine
• 70g low-fat Greek style yoghurt (the original recipe said 45g but my hand slipped!)
• 3 eggs

For the icing:

• 130g icing sugar
• 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 1/2 tbsp water
• Your choice of decoration (we used sprinkles)

Method

1. Heat your oven to 180°C.
2. If you’re not using a silicone cake tin line a deep 7 inch cake tin with greaseproof paper, or wipe with margarine and then coat with flour.
3. Measure the sugar and margarine into a mixing bowl and mix with a wooden spoon until the colour turns to a pale yellow (this is known as creaming). 
   

   
4. Sift the flour and add all the other ingredients into the bowl and whisk on a medium speed for 2-3 minutes, until you have a smooth and fairly thick batter.
5. Pour the cake mixture into your cake tin and place in the oven for 45-50 minutes. After this time to check the cake is cooked stick a knife into it, it should come out clean (if not, pop it back in the oven for five minutes).
6. Put the cake, still in the tin, on a cooling rack for 10 minutes before turning it out of the tin and leaving it to fully cool (this will take less than half an hour).
7. Once the cake is cool make up the icing – sift the icing sugar into a small mixing bowl, add the lemon juice and water and stir together until you have a smooth, thin paste.
8. Spoon the icing over the cake, covering it fully, then add your decorations (the kids love getting involved in this bit).
9. Leave the icing to solidify  (this will depend on how runny the icing us and how thinly its spread), then serve and enjoy.