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This is the simplest, most versatile and trustworthy way of cooking a cake. From our moms’ and grannies’ era, this cake can be tasted both for breakfasting or evening snack, or coating it with chocolate (in a future post I will talk about the wonderful marble cake), or as base for a cake at a party or celebration. Also, it is the easiest of all the cakes and last long with a bit of care so I cook it many more times than any other. Ladies and gentlemen, the yoghourt cake.

1 sugar free yoghourt
The same measure of olive oil
2 measures of brown sugar
3 measures of wholemeal flour
3 eggs
16 gr. of yeast
A small lemon’s skin grated
A spoonful of cinnamon

(in this recipe the recipient of the yoghourt serves as unit of measurement: if you want to make it smaller divide the measure by half, and if you want to bake a super-cake multiply per two)

preparation

Preheat the oven at 180ºC. Beat the yoghourt with the sugar and, when they are mixed, add the oil. Beat again and add one per one the eggs. Add the cinnamon and the grated lemon skin. Mix one measure of flour with the yeast and add them beating. Add the other two flour measures slowly, beating a lot. If the mixture is too liquid add half more of flour. Drench your fingers with olive oil and grease the interior of a mould. Now cut an piece of aluminum foil in the shape of the bottom of the mould, put at the bottom of the mould pressing all its surface with your fingers soaked again in oil: the foil will paste perfectly to the bottom of the mould, this is very important in order to demould the cake easily when baked. Pour the dough in the mould and bake for 20 minutes or until it gets golden. To bake correctly a cake bear in mind that: 1- Do not open the oven door before the cake has grown up and has passed 5 minutes because it could fall down. 2- If you pierce the cake with a toothpick and the toothpick remains clean means that the cake is cooked enough at the inside. 3- Retire from the oven before the crust gets too tough because after retired it will continue cooking itself with the remaining heat for a few minutes. Demould hot and leave to cold covered with a paper napkin (do not put it in the fridge). Enjoy!

extras

I usually bake it with cinnamon and lemon but you can add anything you want instead: chocolate chips, fruit (for instance apples), vanilla, etc. You can coat it with melted chocolate and put it in the fridge to create a wonderful, crunchy, chocolate crust, decorate it with grated chocolate, M&M’s, powdered sugar… Also you can add it a bit of liquor (at Spain we call it “getting the cake drunk”): Moist (just a bit) with the help of a teaspoon using the following mix: a glass of water, 2 tablespoons of sugar and two or three of your favorite liquor (most used are rum and Cointreau), and a bit of lemon juice optional. Unfortunately my liver doesn’t like alcohol anymore but I assure you that the flavor is great.

alternatives

Many people prefer add the flavor of a fruits yoghourt. The most popular is the lemon yoghourt. Other also popular is the coconut yoghourt. You can try to reduce the number of eggs, but many people bake it with 4.