French Yogurt Cake

Few months ago, I prepared lemon curd.



I prepared this and this using it. But again, there was a leftover. Do you want to know what I did using the leftover?



No surprise, I used as a filling for this french yogurt cake.



I bookmarked this cake from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From my home to yours. The texture of the cake almost looked like a pound cake and the taste was awesome though it is plain. As it is less in sweet, I served it with lemon curd filling inside and icing sugar topping with sliced strawberries. They worked out wonderfully. Overall, the cake was very good in taste and in texture.



Basic Information:
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 35- 40 minutes
Serves: 6-8

Ingredients:



For Cake:



All purpose flour/ Plain flour/ Maida - 1 cup

Ground almond - 1/2 cup (Use 1/2 cup of All purpose flour if you don't have ground almond)

Baking powder - 2 teaspoons

Salt - a pinch

Sugar - 1 cup

Lemon zest - from 1 lemon

Plain yogurt/ Curd - 1/2 cup

Eggs - 2 nos, large size

Vanilla extract - 1/4 teaspoon

Vegetable Oil / Any flavourless oil - 1/2 cup



For Filling and Topping:



Lemon curd - 1/2 cup (Click here for lemon curd recipe)

Icing sugar - 3-4 tablespoons

Strawberries - 5 nos

Method:



For Cake:



1) Preheat the oven to 350F/176C. Grease the 8 inch wide round baking pan or an 8 1/2 - 4 1/2-inch loaf pan or any other pan to which you comfortable with.

2) Mix together all purpose flour, ground almond, baking powder and salt. Keep it aside.

3) In another mixing bowl, combine sugar and lemon zest. Rub it until it gets moist and aromatic.

4) Add the yogurt, eggs and vanilla extract to it and whisk vigorously until the mixture is well blended. I did it one by one for proper mixing using a whisk.

5)After mixing egg, add the dry ingredients (as said in step 2) to the batter and mix well without forming any lumps.

6) At last add the oil and fold it well using a spatula.

7) You will get a thick, smooth batter with a slight sheen. Scrape the batter into the prepared baking pan(as said in step 1) and smooth the top using spatula.

 

8) Place this pan in the centre rack of oven and bake it for 35-40 minutes for the round cake or until the sides of the cake comes out from the sides of the pan.

9) It will be golden brown in colour and the knife inserted into the center of it should come out clean.

10) Cool for 5-10 minutes and transfer to the wire rock to cool completely.

For Serving or Topping:

1) Make a horizontal cut and divide the cake into 2 parts as bottom and top. Apply lemon curd filling on the bottom part of the cake as shown in the picture.

2) Place the top portion above it and sprinkle with icing sugar.

3) Decorate with strawberry and serve.

Note:

1) You can also use home made almond flour for 'ground almond' or substitute with all purpose flour if you don't have.

2) It took only 35 minutes for me to get the cake done. However, please keep noticing to the cake since the baking time changes from oven to oven.

3) Without topping I stored this cake in refrigerator for a day. It was very good even after storing.

Fudge-Pecan Pie

I have lived in Chicago for almost a decade. By now I consider myself a city girl. But there are days when I want to sit down to a plate full of blue gill and hear the words "Hi baby doll." from a server I just met.


When I was young, I couldn't wait to leave my hometown of just over ten thousand. But there are small things that draw me back. Things like pecans harvested from a neighbor's tree that I like to stir into Fudge-Pecan Pie.


So I travel south, 350 miles south. I pass acre after acre of soy and corn. I stare at a landscape that is numbingly flat.

During the final hours of my trip, I wait for the scalloped wings of hawks to appear in the sky, like finely crafted kites. I read billboards that tempt drivers with fast food, but there are others that offer a proper southern meal. Their lineup, - chicken, corn bread, cobbler - is more inviting. I stop for a glass of ice tea and a zing of caffeine to push through the last of my six hour journey south.

Soon I see the greenish water of the Big Muddy River which still inspires stories (and sightings) of the Big Muddy Monster. The terrain is voluptuous down here and I'm privy to that well kept secret. I know if I drive further up the road the land will rise and dip. Houses will give way to apple trees and peach orchards and other fruit that's fit for pie.

I live in Illinois and I'm going to tell you one of our state's best kept secret. This is information millions of Chicagoans don't even know. If you travel...