Yogurt cake

When I was younger, me and my mom often visited a great-aunt for tea. Our aunt was extremely fond of yogurt cake, so much so it was always that cake she served with tea.

Yogurt cake, unlike traditional cake, is made with oil. The oil gives it a fluffy and soft texture and it keeps it fresher for longer. Yes, it also has yogurt.

I could no longer remember the exact taste of it as it had been a good 20 years since the last time I had it. However, I did remember clearly that this cake matches divinely with cheese. That's it! Cheese! 

As I ate the first mouthful of cake, my memories came back. It may be a simple cake but it has a wonderful flavour on it's own. It also goes well with jam but cheese is, without a doubt, THE best match.

The measurements for this cake are traditionally made with the yogurt pot. A 125g plain yogurt pot is used to measure all ingredients. Alas, at home we make our own yogurt so we do not have yogurt pots. Instead, I used a ½ cup as it looked like a similar measure to a yogurt pot.

Our aunt used a tube cake tin so I used my mother's tube cake tin as well. The recipe is from my mom's recipe book.

Serves: 8 slices.

Ingredients:

• ½ cup Greek yogurt (or plain yogurt)
• 3 x ½ cup sugar (1.5 cups)
• 3 x ½ cup plain flour (1.5 cups)
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs
• 1tsp baking powder

Method:

1. Butter and flour a 19 cm (7.5 inch) tube cake tin. 
2. Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until light. It won't be as wet as you are used to but do not worry.
   
   
   
3. Add the yogurt and the oil and whisk well until combined.
   
   
   
   
4. Add the sieved flour and baking powder and mix.
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. Whist the egg whites to hard peaks and add them slowly to the mixture.
   
   
   
6. Fill the tin with the mixture and bake at 180°C for 50 min or until you insert a skewer in the middle of the cake and it comes out clean.
   
   
   
7. Let it cool in the tin for 5 min and then remove from the tin and let it cool on a baking rack.