If I’m holding a card making class, I like to make sure I bring along some sort of baked good to keep the participants suitably fuelled for the crafting experience.
My motives are purely selfish though, because I love to bake and love any excuse to do so. I would bake a cake or tray of biscuits per day if I could. The only problem is I like to sample the end product (for quality control, you see) and if I baked a cake a day, I would sample each cake every day and would soon need to buy a new wardrobe consisting mostly of drawstring trackpants and roomy kaftan tops.
So the baking occasions are rare for me (though I consider rare to be once every week or two). But I do like having a treat at my craft workshops and I knew the ladies would love these cupcakes, given that I absolutely adore them.
I first made Raspberry Yoghurt Cake for the first time last year, in a big square cake tin, to use up some slightly runny Easiyo yoghurt I had sitting in the fridge (an Easiyo allows you to make your own fresh yoghurt at home; you get a kilo of yoghurt for half the price you pay in the shops – it’s awesome!)
Little did I know I would discover what is possibly one of my favourite cakes of all time. It is incredible; a dense, moist cake with a subtle yoghurt tang, bursting with tart, fruity raspberries and topped with a luscious vanilla-speckled cream cheese icing.
Okay, so this cupcake wasn’t exactly bursting with raspberries, but you get the idea.
The recipe is ridiculously simple, but it does make a LOT of batter, so if you’re making this as a big cake and you have overflow, pop some mixture into cupcake liners and bake for around half the time for yummy little cupcakes like the ones above.
You could try all sorts of different variations on the flavour combinations too. I’ve used silvanberries in place of raspberries, which were nice, and I think blueberries or boysenberries would be awesome too. I’d also love to try this cake with a lemon cream cheese icing and lemon zest in the cake for a Lemon Raspberry Yoghurt Cake (my mouth waters at the very thought of such a combination).
I first discovered this gem on an internet forum, so I have orangerbera to thank for the original inspiration. But I have adapted this recipe to reduce the oil, and bump up the yoghurt and raspberry content. I’ve been meaning to experiment with reducing the sugar, but I keep forgetting until I’ve added it all in. Oops.
Obviously, I need to make this again soon to carry out these experiments…
RASPBERRY YOGHURT CAKE
Adapted from a recipe by orangerbera in the Simple Savings forum
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 cups caster sugar
- 2 eggs
- 500ml plain yoghurt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
- 2 cups self raising flour
- 2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries
Vanilla bean icing
- 1 1/2 cups icing sugar
- 200g cream cheese
- 50g butter, melted
- 1/2 vanilla pod (or 1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste, from the supermarket. It’s my pantry standby)
- hot water (as needed)
- Raspberries to garnish (if a garnish is desired)
Preheat oven to 170C and grease and line a 25cm round (or square) cake tin.
In a mixer beat the oil and sugar together, add the eggs and vanilla essence and beat until fluffy.
Stir in the yoghurt, then fold in the flour, being careful not to over mix. Fold in the raspberries.
Bake in the preheated oven for 45 to 60 mins or until ready, testing with a cake skewer – when it comes out clean, it’s ready.
To make the vanilla icing, combine the cream cheese, icing sugar and melted butter in a bowl with an electric beater. Scrape the middle from the vanilla pod and add to mix (or just add your vanilla bean paste). If it’s still a little thick once the vanilla is in, add a few drops of hot water for a more syrupy icing. Spread icing on top of the cooled cake and garnish with raspberries.
Variation: For the cupcakes above, I was able to make (from memory) 24 cupcakes, possibly more. I baked the cupcakes for about 25 minutes, using the cake skewer test to determine their readiness.
