GREEK YOGHURT HONEY CAKE

I have never tried Greek yoghurt before this. This yoghurt's flavour is not as sour as its 'siblings', and has a creamy texture that I like. Tastes like beaten cream cheese to me. Thank you hubby for buying it for me ^o^

I wanted to do a little experiment on DIY baking strips hence I decided to try it with this beautiful butter cake. Baking strips help to bake levelled cakes, so the cake does not dome on top and does not need to be trimmed. But the strips can be quite costly and they come in different heights (meaning will need to purchase a few different strips for different height pans)

picture from google

I used a CLEAN, wet towel! Yup, that's what you need. No extra costs as we usually have an unused towel somewhere in the house. Just fold the towel to fit the height of the pan, soak in water, squeeze out excess water and secure the towel to pan with a paper clip / safety pin. The height can be easily adjusted too. I am quite happy with the results. Caution: Please be careful to use towel thick and wet enough to avoid fire in oven. I do not recommend when using very high heat.

DIY "baking strips"

 Another trick: If the cake still has a slight dome, upon removing from the oven, immediately cover a thick towel over the cake and LIGHTLY press down and smooth out the cake (wear your mitten, please). There, as level as a pancake.

Ok, now here's the cake part. It is YUMMILICIOUS!!!! This is a kind of butter cake, I made some slight adjustments to the recipe to turn out a very soft and moist version. This recipe was given to me by Ms. Hoh Weilee, a beautiful lady inside out whose passion in the kitchen is really due to the love she has for her family. A gentle, soft-spoken and talented person whose gifts are not restricted to baking. There's art, photography, cooking, etc. Permission was given to me to share her recipe. Thank you, Weilee.

GREEK YOGHURT HONEY CAKE

Ingredients (after my adjustments)

(A)

170g unsalted butter at room temperature

150g fine sugar

1/4 tsp salt

(B)

3 x 50g eggs

(C)

100g plain flour

150g cake flour

2 tsp double-acting baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

(D)

240ml Greek yoghurt

50ml honey

1 tbsp milk

1 tsp homemade cherry extract (or vanilla extract)

Method

1. Grease 8" deep round pan and preheat oven at 170C.

keep butter wrappers for such use

2. Sift dry ingredients (C) in a bowl and set aside. Mix all wet ingredients (D) in a measuring cup and stir. Set aside.

3. Cream (A) till pale and fluffy at medium speed which took me about 8 min. This step is crucial to obtain a soft cake.

4. Add in one egg and one tbsp sifted flour into batter at a time. At low speed, beat till incorporated. Repeat till all eggs are added in. Scrape down and beat for 30 seconds at medium speed.

this is to prevent curdle

5. Pour in balance 1/3 (C) into batter. At low speed, beat till well combined (should not be more than 20 seconds).

6. Pour in 1/2 of (D) into batter. At low speed, beat till well combined (should not be more than 20 seconds).

7. Repeat steps 5, 6 and lastly 5. Scrape down the batter and beat for 30 seconds at medium speed.

remember to scrape down and mix well again

8. Pour into pan, level top of batter and give the pan a few taps. Bake for 40-55 min or until skewer comes out clean when poked in the centre.

cake top is quite flat with DIY "baking strip" unlike my past butter cakes

9. Cool in pan for 10 min before removing to cool completely on rack.

10. Garnish as you like.