Fruit yoghurt sponge

Sorry I’ve been absent for a while – it was a triple whammy of New Year low, new job and new home computer.  It’s a fairly regular pattern I think: after all the richness of Christmas excesses my palate always starts craving something simple and wholesome around this time of year.  And what could be better than a simple sponge cake?

This cake is enriched by using yoghurt; I’ve experimented by using a flavoured yoghurt and matching it with some fresh fruit.  I went for blueberry because that was all my local supermarket had other than strawberry, and I am not made about strawberries baked into things.

I was hoping for the cake to take on the purple tinge of the yoghurt but, as you can plainly see, it didn’t.  What I didn’t expect – and what turns out to be the true joy of this cake – is that the sponge tastes of blueberry….

…let me clarify: the sponge itself tastes of blueberry.  Normally in such a cake, the sponge tastes of sponge and you get the burst of blueberry in your mouth when you bite into a blueberry.  However, with this cake, the flavoured yoghurt has infused the sponge resulting in the most wonderfully fruity tasting cake.  I loved it.

Ingredients

175g unsalted butter, at room temperature
275g caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs
175g Greek style yoghurt – I used blueberry flavour
275g self raising flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
130g fresh blueberries
2 tablespoons light brown sugar to sprinkle on top of the cake

Method

Preheat oven to 180C/ fan oven 160C/ 350F/ gas mark 4.

Line a 20cm round springform tin with baking paper.

Beat together the butter and sugar until light and whippy.  Don’t skimp on this stage.

Beat in the vanilla and the eggs, one at a time.

Stir in half of the yoghurt, followed by half of the flour.

Take a spoonful of the remaining flour and toss the blueberries in it to stop them sticking or sinking in the batter.

Stir in the second half of the yoghurt, the flour and all of the bicarbonate of soda.

Fold in the blueberries.

Spoon into the prepared tin and level the surface.

Sprinkle the light brown sugar over the top of the cake.

Bake for approximately 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the sponge comes out cleanly.   Don’t panic if your cake takes longer – mine took about 1 hour 15 minutes.

Leave to cool in the tin for about 15 minutes before de-tinning and leaving to cool completely on a wire rack.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.