Summer Cake with Strawberries, Lemon and Yogurt

In summer, waking up in the morning to warm sunshine and a blue sky feels so good. But it feels even better when you know that there's a freshly baked strawberry cake waiting for you to eat it for breakfast. Well, I must correct myself: not only for breakfast, but all day long. Seriously, this cake is perfect at any time. Serve it with a spoonful of lightly sweetened plain greek yogurt on top and there you go - the most delicious summer dessert of all time!

Strawberry Summer Cake

batter
150gm butter or margarine, at room temperature
150gm white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
a pinch of ground nutmeg
a pinch of ground cinnamon
3 eggs
zest of 1 lemon (about 2 tsp)
280gm regular white flour
2 tsp baking powder
130gm plain yogurt or buttermilk

+ about 300gm of fresh fruits, cut in halves or pieces or slices - I was using 1 large nectarine cut in thin slices and about 20 large strawberries cut in halves. What kind of seasonal fruit you add totally depends on your taste. blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, pears, apricots, nectarines, kiwi, rhubarb - add anything you wish.

Preheat your oven to 200 C. Line a medium size round baking pan with baking paper but do not grease the sides of the pan. Place soft butter, sugar, lemon zest, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in a large bowl and beat using a hand mixer on high speed until fluffy for about a minute. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. In another bowl sift together flour and baking powder and sieve it over the wet mixture, quickly beating it in. The batter should be very dry and sticky. Now add the yogurt or buttermilk and quickly beat it in as well making sure that everything is well incorporated. Now the batter should be extremely fluffy, light and smooth. Put the batter into the lined baking pan spreading it evenly. Arrange all the pieces or slices of fruit on top of the batter and lightly press them in. Now prepare the crumble mixture...

crumbles

30gm butter or margarine, at room temperature

30gm sugar

50gm regular white flour

a pinch of salt

Combine the ingredients for the crumbles in a bowl and beat using a hand mixer on low speed for about 10 seconds, just until the mixture is lumpy and crumbly, and arrange the crumbles on top of the cake onto the fruits. Put everything in the oven and bake for about 45 minutes until done and nicely golden. Let it cool completely and then remove the cake from the baking pan. Enjoy ...

Yogurt and Berry Muffins

Everytime I have left-over food in my kitchen I try to use it up as soon as possible (and that's only one of many extremely economical habits of mine ...) For that I immediately look for a suitable recipe and this, mostly, leads me directly to smittenkitchen. If you have the same passion of scanning and stalking cooking-baking blogs for yummy recipes, you probably know exactly what I'm talking about. In her most diversified blog Deborah shares a lot of ordinary and extraordinary recipes and each is followed by an amusing story and beautiful photography. That's where I got my yogurt and berry muffins recipe from. I was actually reading through her post of a lemon yogurt anything cake with the intention of baking a fresh yogurt loaf but then I thought 'why not use the same recipe for some lovely muffins?' - Yogurt makes your muffins soft and berries make them fruity, combine those ingredients with a lot of love and voilà - breakfast is ready.

Yogurt and Berry Muffins
recipe (slightly changed) from smittenkitchen

1.5 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup plain yogurt (if you use sweetened yogurt, you might want to reduce the amount of sugar to about 1/2 cup)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
zest of 2 lemons
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1.5 cup redcurrants (or any other type of berries), fresh or frozen and thawed

Preheat the oven to 180 C. Line 12 muffins moulds with paper cups or one loaf pan with baking paper. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. In another bowl whisk together yogurt, sugar, eggs, lemon zest and oil. Sieve the dry ingredients over the wet ingredients and whisk well just until incorporated, try not to overmix. Gently fold in the berries. (In Deb's recipe it says to mix the berries with another tablespoon of flour before adding them to the batter mixture, but I skipped this step because I don't mind the berries sinking to the bottom of the muffins. Do whatever you wish.) Fill the batter in the prepared muffin cups (or loaf pan) and bake for about 25 minutes (or 50 minutes for a loaf cake) until done. Let cool completely and dust with some icing sugar if desired.

Strawberry Yogurt Cake With Yogurt Frosting

After my amazing holidays that were filled with sunshine, sea and grandma's israeli dishes, I am back and wanting to share another strawberry recipe that I tried and fell in love with at the same time. As I already mentioned about a hundred times I have a huge passion for anything fruity combined with anything milky, especially strawberries with yogurt, which make this cake very moist and heavy. Try it out, you're gonna luv it!

Strawberry Yogurt Cake With Yogurt Frosting

batter
3 eggs
200gm sugar (which can be reduced)
240gm greek yogurt (about 10% fat)
80gm oil
250gm white flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
about 2 cups strawberries, cut in halves

Preheat oven to 180C. Line a round baking pan with baking paper.
Beat eggs and sugar until very light and bubbly. Beat in yogurt and oil.
Sieve over flour combined with baking powder and beat in quickly just until incorporated.
Fill the batter into prepared baking pan and spread evenly. Place strawberries on top of the batter and lightly press them in.
Bake for about 45 minutes until done.

topping
100gm cold whipping cream
100-200gm greek yogurt (depends on what amount of frosting you desire)
4 tsp powdered sugar
(some pretty strawberries, cut in halves - optional)
 
Beat whipping cream until stiff and combine with yogurt and sugar.
Keep in fridge until the cake is completely cooled.
Spread frosting onto the cake and place some strawberries on top, if desired.
Keep the cake in fridge, cooled yogurt tastes better than at room temperature. Enjoy :)

Gulchathaii

Strawberry Yogurt Cake

There's nothing yummier than a cooled strawberry yogurt cake on a hot summer day. Probably it's also the reason why almost everyone was asking for the recipe. And I have to agree as well that this cake turned out pretty delicious. Definitely going to bake it again, maybe I'm going to replace strawberries with raspberries next time. If you're into berries and yogurt like I am, give it a try! 

Strawberry Yogurt Cake

200gm soft margarine or butter
175gm sugar (can be cut down to an amount of 120gm)
3 eggs
200gm yogurt (I was using low fat yogurt)
300gm white flour
3 tsp baking powder
zest of one lemon
strawberries, cut in small pieces, as much as desired (I was using about 400gm)

Preheat oven to 175degC. 
Cream soft margarine/butter with sugar using a mixer on high speed. Beat in eggs until fluffy. Add yogurt and lemon zest and quickly beat in as well.
Combine flour and baking powder and whisk together. Sieve over the wet mixture and beat in just until incorporated.
Line the bottom of a baking pan (about 8inch x 12inch) with baking paper. 
Fill in batter and spread evenly. Place cut berries onto the batter and lightly press them in. 
Bake for about 45 minutes until done. Let cool completely and keep in fridge.

Optional: Dust with powdered sugar.

 

Gulchathaii