19 August 2011

Orange Yogurt Cake

I’m glad that my girl loves baked goodies because all her ‘mommy I want to eat cake’ requests once a week has helped in improving my baking skills. After all the burnt or undercooked cakes I finally have a nice looking, moist no-longer-dense-at-the-bottom cakes. Yay!! There’s another recipe for orange yogurt cake which I’ve shared before but this recipe is tweaked from a butter cake recipe which I have been using for all my yellow/butter cakes. Orange moist cake, chocolate cake to name a few.

You Need

2 cups of self raising flour
1 cup of caster sugar
a pinch of salt
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of soda bicarbonate
125 grams of butter, softened at room temperature
3 large or 4 medium eggs
1/2 cup of plain yogurt
2 tablespoons of milk
zest and juice from 1 orange


How To
1. Preheat your oven to 180 °C. Line 8 inch square baking pan with parchment papers. Remember to brush some butter on the bottom and the sides of the pan before you line the pan with paper.
2. Sift the dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder and soda bicarbonate) leave aside.
3. Using your electric mixer, cream butter together with the sugar and orange zest on medium speed until fluffy and turns pale yellow.
4. Add in the eggs, one by one and beat well after each addition of egg until creamy. Make sure you scrape down the sides for even mixing.
5. With the mixer on low speed, add in the orange juice and yogurt before adding in the dry ingredients in 3 additions
6. Finally add in the milk and make sure the batter is all well mixed.
7. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
8. Remove from the oven and let the cake cool in the pan for 5 minutes before inverting the cake to continue to cool on a wire rack.

Notes: Here are some of the tips I’ve picked up or learned on my own in making sure the cakes turns out right which I’d love to share with you.

1. Always make sure the butter and eggs are at room temperature. Like most people if you keep your eggs in the fridge, take them out along with the butter and let them to sit out at room temperature for 30 minutes before you start baking.
2. Prepare the pans, preheat the oven and get all the ingredients ready before you turn on the mixer. It’s easier to focus on the mixing of the batter when you have all the ingredients ready rather than you scramble around the kitchen looking for the milk, or even vanilla essence.
3. Remember to scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl every now and then.
4. Different oven may have different temperature hence it’s advisable to get an oven thermometer to determine what’s the actual temperature because sometimes even though it’s stated 180C on the oven display it may not be the actual temperature.
5. If the top of your cake starts to brown before the cake is halfway cooked, use an aluminium sheet to cover the top to prevent from burning. Never lower the oven’s temperature because in my case, the change of temperature often resulted dense cakes.
6. Make sure you mix well after each addition of dry ingredients before adding the next batch.

These are some of the tips I can think of right now, will continue adding them once I have new ones. But the one thing I’ve learned despite all the tips given is never give up even though your cake may not turn out the way it should be even after a few times of baking. Just continue baking and if the cake doesn’t turn out right, go through the recipe again and try to tweak the steps the next time. In my case, it’s always the beating and I get very excited anxious in getting everything done before it’s even ready.

Hope you’d enjoy this recipe! And thanks to all the
902 likes on my Facebook page. It’s really nice to know that I’ve inspired you in some ways or that you enjoy my blog. Have a great weekend folks!
xoxo