A Vanilla Yoghurt Cake for two!
Making a cake for two may seem like a really big task, especially if you’re not cooking for yourself. For me, baking a small cake was really a matter of practicality. Because the cake is small, it finishes quickly and you can make two instead of 1!
But enough of my cake fantasies. I use a lot of yoghurt when baking cakes. I got inspired by a recipe that called for sour cream in cakes, so I went to do a little research and made a few cakes with yoghurt instead of sour cream. The trick worked! Not only is yoghurt cheaper than sour cream, it replicates the ingredient almost seamlessly!
Yoghurt in Cakes
Yoghurt is acidic in nature, which means that it needs to be balanced out with an alkaline in the cake mixture. Hence, you’ll find that this recipe calls for baking soda instead of powder. Baking soda (or sodium bicarbonate) is great when making eggless cakes – it reacts with the acid component in the cake to make it soft. To put it simply, the reaction between the baking soda and acid emulates having eggs in the cake.
Adding yoghurt to cakes keeps it from drying out in the oven, therefore adding to the moist factor of cakes. In addition to being already emulsified, yoghurt is rich in stabilizers like guar gum, xanthan gum, and carrageenan. These may sound like French, so here’s what you need to know: all these help in making the cake tender and moist, even after baking. As yoghurt is also rich in fat (please use the full-fat version), the fat content of the cake gets a boost. This also helps to make the cake soft.
While some say that there’s a unique tang in cakes that contain yoghurt, I have yet to come across any such flavour. I normally use regular, unflavoured yoghurt in cakes. However, I have used a Raspberry Coconut Yoghurt from Thick & Creamy before to bake a cake. I had to control the amount of sugar in that cake, but it turned out really well!
Here’s an easy, 6-inch cake recipe. You can find 6-inch cake pans in Phoon Huat/Redman, and it’ll cost less than $5. Most of these ingredients can be found there as well.
Ingredients
- 85g Butter
- 85g Sugar
- 1 Egg
- 1 Tsp Vanilla
- 3 Tbsp Milk
- 100g Plain Flour
- 1/2 Tsp Baking Soda
- 1/4 Tsp Salt
- 1/4 Cup Yoghurt
Method
- Preheat the oven to 175 Degrees Celcius and grease and line a 6-inch cake pan. You can use a loose bottomed one if you prefer, as I have. Sieve the flour, baking soda and salt together, set aside.
- In a medium bowl, cream the butter and sugar till light and fluffy, about 4 mins on medium speed. Then, add the cracked egg, beating for 1 minute. Then add the Vanilla, continue beating.
- Stop the mixer and add the remaining ingredients. Mix on low speed until just combined, about 1 to 2 minutes. Pour batter into waiting tray and bake for 40 mins. If you find the top burning, you can slip and aluminium foil oven the top halfway through the bake time.
- Insert a skewer to test the cake for doneness at the 30 minute mark. If its still slightly wet, then leave it in for longer. You're looking for a clean skewer with bits of crumb on it.
- When fully cooked, remove cake from oven and let it cool completely. Dress it with a store-bought jam of your choice. Serve for tea with pride.
