Sunday, November 8, 2009

Benedictine Yogurt Cake

I rarely crave sweets, and I almost never eat dessert - I'd rather  let the savory flavors of a good meal linger. But recently I found myself unable to get the thought of the French yogurt cake at one of my favorite blogs, Citron et Vanille, out of my head. Perhaps it's the gloomy weather, or the fact that the ever-shorter days depress me ... there really is something undeniably comforting about the smell of a baking cake. I suppose the fact that it's not overly sweet attracted me, but I was also drawn to its simplicity, as I have next to no experience making cakes.

As the shadows got longer, my urge to make this cake grew stronger. There were just a couple of  things standing between me and a yogurt cake: I only had two eggs left, rather than the three the recipe calls for, and I only had a loaf pan, not a round cake pan. I told you I never bake sweets!

So I decided I would MacGyver this thing one way or the other. I hunted around for other yogurt cake recipes to make sure I could pull this off with just two eggs, and, reassured, I set out to bake a cake. Now just about every traditional yogurt cakes calls for a tablespoon of rum or cognac; lacking these essential spirits I decided to try Benedictine, a French herbal liqueur, which gave my cake a subtle, pleasant  hint of honey and oranges.

The top and middle of my cake came out beautifully - moist, not too sweet, with a light crumb. The bottom on the other hand ... clearly there were some problems here. It actually didn't taste burnt, but it didn't taste exactly right either, and I ended up cutting the bottom off to eat it. I later discovered that my (new!) oven has sporadically decided to cook  25-50 degrees too hot, so I think that was the problem.  (For some reason I've had no problem with bread.)  Or perhaps the loaf pan was the wrong vessel after all. If anyone has any suggestions after reading the recipe - feel free to chime in!

Benedictine Yogurt Cake
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1/2 cup oil
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp Benedictine
1 tsp vanilla extract

Beat the eggs and the sugar together. Add yogurt, flour, oil, baking powder, Benedictine, and vanilla extract. Stir to mix everything together but don't overwork the batter. Pour into a greased loaf pan (or cake pan!) and bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes, until the top is golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Let sit  for 5 -10 minutes and remove to a rack to cool completely. 




Benedictine Yogurt Cake on Foodista





21 comments:

  1. sounds like a very good recipe Trix and I like it in the loaf pan, kinda like a pound cake...Thanks for the recipe...

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  2. i give you two thumbs up for being adventurous. her blog gets me every time, too. ;)

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  3. Good thinking like MacGyver. They look really moist and of course delicious.

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  4. This sounds like a perfect recipe for a cold winter's day. I'm guessing that you hotter-than-usual oven was partly responsible for the blackened outside. I wonder if the smaller perimeter (and therefore thicker layer of batter, which would take longer to bake) of the loaf pan was to blame.

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  5. now this sounds like a great cake for my coffee, yum...sent you an email did you get it?

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  6. I love yoghurt cakes. One recipe which never goes wrong. And this looks lovely with tea or coco. Thanks
    A

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  7. I have never had yogurt cake, but I love yogurt and cake!!! This recipe looks great. When I get in a kitchen I will give it a try. Right now, I am stuck in transition in a hotel room. It stinks.

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  8. Sounds like some fun kitchen experimentation! The flavors sound really yummy. I'm with you on the lack of sweet tooth thing, and also have little cake making experience. I resolve one of these days to experiment more with desserts!

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  9. I'm impressed that you actually checked your oven temp -- you earned your foodie gold medal with that. And, the cake looks fab so your oven is getting the job done (thanks to you of course!)

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  10. I have never tried yoghurt cake but I will now! The cake is still looking yummilicious so well done babe!

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  11. yummm! I've been wanting to try yogurt cake for sometime now but after seeing yours I'm convinced I need to make this asap!

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  12. Thanks Tracey! Oven temperatures are always making a big difference in the result of bake goods, my new oven cooks so much quicker than the old one. Whatever I baked, I always used the 375F with my old oven (when I made that yogurt cake) with the new oven 350 is way enough. I would suggest decreasing temperature at the end, and checking out the cake color once in a while and if the top gets too cooked too fast, you might want to put some aluminium foil on top to prevent it from getting too dark.

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  13. Sounds delicious! I am with some of the others, lowering the temperature might work. Also, since you're baking in the loaf pan, your batter is thicker, so it'll take longer to get done in the middle (and too high of a temp will cause the bottom to blacken). Do you have a glass 9X9 baking dish? (you know, the cheap Pyrex ones) That might work well too...I seem to be able to bake really evenly with glass.

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  14. Thanks for the tips everyone! I definitely think it was a combination of my oven deciding to freak out and cook too hot plus the loaf pan. Now I know I have to fiddle with the temp and ignore the stove dial, and just look at the temp on the thermometer. Or maybe I should just go buy a cake pan? I mean, really - it wouldn't kill me to have one!!

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  15. Would love a nice little slice of this Yogurt Cake with a cup of tea right now. ~~Looks like you got some good advice regarding the problems with baking.

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  16. Cake pan is never a bad idea. They're good for savory quick breads, too. I love serving my quick breads in a wedge shape like a slice of cake.

    Nice MacGyvering... very smooth.

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  17. Oh wow! Benedictine is fab on ice and forever going to be a favorite in this recipe too!

    8-)

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  18. I love the crust of your bread. I bet it's tasty as it looks. I've no idea what's benedictine! But I'll check it out later.

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