Licking the Bowl

Passport & Plate - Licking the Bowl

France | Friday, March 14, 2014 | 5 photos

Ingredients
FOR THE CAKE BATTER:
Butter for greasing the tin
1 single-serve tub of plain yogurt
3 tubs of all-purpose or baking flour
1 1/2 tubs of sugar
1 tub of olive oil (plus extra for ensuring good consistency)
2 eggs
1/2 sachet of baking yeast
Vanilla extract to taste (for new bakers,
A pinch of fleur de sel
15-20 raspberries (feel free to add more or less, based on your taste preferences)

FOR DECORATING THE CAKE:
15-20 raspberries
Baking chocolate for garnish

Note: A 200g packet of raspberries should be sufficient for the batter & decoration.

 

How to prepare this recipe
1. Preheat the oven to 180C and grease a round baking tin with a little butter.
2. Empty the yogurt into a mixing bowl.
3. Rinse & dry the empty yogurt tub and use it to measure out the flour, sugar, and olive oil by turn and add each to the bowl.
4. Crack the eggs and add the yeast and vanilla extract to the other ingredients.
5. Mix all the ingredients together using a whisk until smooth. Add a little extra olive oil if required to ensure a good consistency (the batter should be fluid -- not as thick as honey, yet not as runny as crepe batter).
6. Add the raspberries to the batter and whisk again (the raspberries will naturally become crushed and blend into the batter as you whisk). Add a pinch of fleur de sel - it provides a great contrast that brings out the flavor of the raspberries!
7. Bake the cake for 30-35 minutes (the top of the cake should be golden-brown). The cake is done when a toothpick or knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
8. Let the cake cook until it is no longer warm to the touch before garnishing. Garnish with chocolate shavings (you can use a cheese or vegetable grater for this) and fresh raspberries.

 

The story behind this recipe
As a child, I loved baking with my mother – preheating the oven, measuring ingredients, greasing the baking tin. While I didn’t mind helping with the preparation, to be perfectly honest, I was there for the sheer pleasure of salvaging the leftover cake batter from the mixing bowl. “Licking the bowl” made up for the indulgence I lost out in frosting: my mum never frosted her cakes to keep them “healthy.” As a result, in my culinary associations cake is always virgin: pure in its composition (fresh ingredients, never a packet mix) and pure in its form and taste, freed from the trappings of frosting.

Thus, I was delighted when my French friend Sophie introduced me to gâteau au yaourt (yogurt cake). French children make this cake as early as four years old because it’s incredibly simple: seven ingredients, a mixing bowl, an empty single-serve yogurt tub used as a measuring cup, and a whisk. No complicated ¾ teaspoons to measure, no butter and sugar to cream first, no messy electric beaters. And no frosting. The result is divine –with the moist, flavorful crumb and slightly crunchy golden crown: simplicity at its best. My first taste of gâteau au yaourt took me back to the cakes my mum had lovingly baked.

Gâteau au yaourt always turns out wonderfully – moist, well-risen, and with a delicate flavor. The recipe is flexible, adaptable and a pleasure to play with. While the cake has a long tradition in France, I have updated the recipe to make it my own. I have made numerous variants, such as pouring cardamom-spiced batter over pineapple rings and caramelized sugar for a pineapple-upside down cake with a kick; infusing the batter with hand-squeezed navel oranges and fresh rosemary sprigs; adding the juice of Meyer lemons and a sprinkle of lavender flowers for a Northern California-inspired take.

For my Passport & Plate submission, I created an elegant new variant: cake crumb studded with crushed raspberries and fleur de sel, topped with shaved chocolate and raspberries.