THE CLASSIC YOGURT CAKE (YOGHURT POT)
The traditional yogurt cake is a French marvel. It is a super moist, economical cake, without butter.
If you are unfamiliar with this basic French cake, I suggest you learn how to make it.
It is magnificent as it is, plain, just flavored with vanilla. And in addition, you will use it to make many variations, like here with apricots.
No need for scales to measure ingredients. It is the yogurt pot, which serves as a measure.
It must therefore be washed after emptying the yogurt.
1 pot of yogurt = 125 ml = ½ cup of American measure
Apricot Yogurt Cake Ingredients
The base :
1 pot of yoghurt, 2 pots of sugar, 3 large eggs, 3 pots of flour, 1 packet of baking powder, ½ pot of oil.
A few apricots cut in half if small or sliced.
Yogurt :
You can put a plain yogurt, like Greek yogurt or another less thick yogurt.
If you prefer, use a flavored yogurt: apricot for example, vanilla or whatever you prefer!
The oil:
Just like yogurt, oil makes ultra moist cakes.
Preferably use a neutral vegetable oil.
But that’s just a matter of preference! If you like the taste of olive oil in your cakes (or another flavored oil), it’s not forbidden!
Apricots:
It is important to use very ripe and tasty apricots.
I made this cake in the summer, before I went on vacation, but I didn’t have time to publish the recipe.
My apricot tree was very generous, as usual. Neighbors and friends, squirrels and my little family, everyone had a blast!
I also made jams, clafoutis and froze a lot of the apricots (halved and pitted).
Out of season, you can make this cake with apricots in frozen pieces (or store-frozen), canned, in syrup, or even with apricots.
rehydrated dried apricots.
The apricots give a slightly tart taste to the cake!
REMARKS :
You can replace 1 jar of flour with 1 jar of cornstarch. Cornstarch gives soft and light cakes.
If you prefer a little almond flavor, replace a jar of flour with 1 jar of ground almonds (or almond flour).
Regarding the oil, you can put 1 jar. It gives a softer cake, not dry and more airy.
Sugar: you can decrease to 1.5 jars. Sugar is also important for a moist cake, so don’t reduce it too much.
TIPS FOR ADDING APRICOTS TO DOUGH
Fresh apricots: rinse them quickly. Pat them dry with paper towel. Cut them in half and remove the pits (if they are large, cut them again to have medium pieces). Pour ⅓ of the dough into your mold (previously buttered + floured or lined with a sheet of baking paper). Then, proceed in this order: lay out ⅓ of the apricots, pour the second ⅓ of the batter, then ⅓ of the apricots, the rest of the batter, the rest of the apricots.
Frozen or frozen apricots (in halves or small pieces): in this case, be careful not to thaw the apricots before adding them.
Prepare your dough. Do as in the case of the fresh apricots, but this time, arrange the apricots that you have just taken out of the freezer. And bake immediately in a preheated oven for at least 15 minutes. Cooking time will be longer with frozen fruit. Watch towards the end. If you find that the surface is starting to brown too much before the cake is done, cover with aluminum foil.
Apricots canned or in syrup: they must be drained well, patted dry with paper towel. Roll them in the cake flour.
Prepare the basic device and arrange the apricots as described above. Or if you prefer, gently fold them into the batter.
Dried apricots: you can add them, cut into small pieces, or rehydrated. To do this, simply steam them for a few minutes. Pat them dry with paper towel. Dip the apricot pieces in the flour (all the cake flour, no extra flour). Remove them by shaking them to remove the excess flour. Prepare the dough, incorporate the apricots, bake.
Candied apricots (in small pieces): pass them in the flour of the cake and remove them. Prepare the basic yoghurt cake batter. Gently stir in the apricot pieces before cooking.
IMPORTANT tips for successfully baking your yogurt and apricot cake
Preheat your oven for 10 to 15 minutes.
Butter, or even better, line your mold with baking paper before pouring the batter.
Ripe, frozen apricots render juice. Do not let your baked cake sit in its pan. Turn it out as soon as you take it out of the oven and let it cool on a wire rack. The grid will allow moisture to escape from the cake. This will prevent a soggy bottom.
Do not rely on the cooking time given in the recipe (this is valid for all cakes!). An exact cooking time does not exist. This depends in particular on your oven (the temperature at which you set it may not correspond to the actual temperature), and your mold (size, material, thickness, etc.). MONITOR towards the end (when you notice that the surface of your cake has already started to brown) and experiment with a toothpick or knife inserted in the middle. It should come out clean.
If you find that the surface of your cake is starting to brown too much, cover it with aluminum foil to avoid burning it.
TIP FOR EASILY UNMOLDING A CAKE EVEN IF IT IS STILL VERY HOT
Butter your mold and spread baking paper at the bottom and around the edges. It will be very easy to unmold!
Note: in the photos you can see that I spread apricot jam on the surface of the cake. I like its taste. But it’s optional!
CHOICE OF MOLD AND QUANTITIES FOR A THICK CAKE
To have a thick apricot yoghurt cake, if you don’t have the exact mold for the recipe, or its equivalent, you must adapt the quantities of the basic yoghurt cake to your mould.
Two rules:
The mold must be high to have the thickness you want (but not too much!)
Fill your mold to ⅔ or at most ¾ of the height of the mold. This will prevent the cake from overflowing.
In this recipe, for a thick cake:
I used a round springform pan, 20 cm in diameter. (But, with the addition of apricots, I recommend a 22 cm mold instead, it’s better, the
cake will not be too thick and the cake will cook faster).
And I adapted the quantities to 1 ½ pots of yogurt (just use the rule of three to find the quantities of the other ingredients).
Quantities for 1 ½ pots of yogurt:
1 ½ pots of yogurt, 3 pots of sugar, 4 large eggs and 1 small egg, 4 ½ pots of flour, 1.5 packets of baking powder, ¾ pot of oil.
Note: the detailed recipe in printable version is given below