Orange and Yoghurt Cake with a Honey Glaze

 

 

This cake evolved from a perfectly written French version, but naturally I started off without checking that I had all the ingredients..

Story of my life, honestly..

But also: Necessity is the Mother of invention..

So here we’ve ended up with a delicious Orange Yoghurt cake with a honey and orange glaze, by accident. It’s perfect for offering a slice to anyone who happens to call by, now that we actually can call by again!

EQUIPMENT:

• A medium sized Jug
• A medium sized bowl
• A whisk
• A sieve
• an 8inch/24cm round sponge tin

For the glaze: Or see NOTES below, for orange-flavoured icing recipe..

• small saucepan
• pastry brush

INGREDIENTS:                                                 

• 200g sugar
• 2 Oranges, zested and juiced
• 120g low fat natural yoghurt
• 3 eggs
• 200g Plain flour
• 10g Baking powder
• a pinch of salt
• 115g melted butter OR 115mls flavourless oil (see NOTES).

For the glaze:

• 1 tablespoon of runny honey
• 3-4 tablespoons of orange juice

METHOD:

• Heat the oven to 180 Fan
• Butter the tin,  and line the base with baking parchment. I use the ready-cut ones.
• Put the sugar, orange zest, yoghurt, oil/melted butter and eggs into the jug, and mix together with the whisk

• Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into the bowl
• Add the wet ingredients and fold in (I just used the whisk to do this) the mixture will be nice and shiny.
• Pour the whole lot into the prepared tin, and pop into the oven.

• Bake for 10 minutes at 180 Fan, then reduce the heat to 160 and give it a further 25-30 minutes, until the top springs back when you press it, and  a tester comes out clean.

Make up the glaze:

• Put the honey and orange juice into a small saucepan and heat until the honey is melted and the mixture has boiled.
• As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, paint the top of the cake liberally with the glaze using the pastry brush
• Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then remove it onto a rack to cool fully. I gave it a second coat while it was on the rack, just because I had some of the glaze left over.

NOTES:

• The original recipe called for 115ml flavourless oil, and I really thought that I had some, but it was nowhere to be found – I blame that deep-clean I did last week. Therefore I used melted butter. If you can find your flavourless oil, please feel free to use it instead of butter.
• I had Full Fat Greek yoghurt, so I used that. Apparently low fat or 2% natural yoghurt is best. Don’t use 0% fat or flavoured yogurts.
• You could use Lemon zest and juice if you prefer, or even mix up your citrus fruits – depending on what you have to hand.
• I also made this cake in a 2lb loaf tin – and the circular sponge tin gave a much better result, so I won’t be using anything else in future.
• This cake would be also delicious with a drizzle of Orange-flavoured icing instead of the  glaze if you prefer –  just use some of the juice from the zested oranges – the icing recipe is below:

ICING:

• 200g  – or thereabouts – of sifted Icing sugar
• Orange juice, from the zested oranges – then drink the rest!!
• 1-2 teaspoons of Boiling water
• Add a – very – little  juice to the sugar and start stirring.
• Add a teaspoon of hot water to make mixing it a little easier.
• Stir all the time until the icing has a nice dropping consistency.
• If you think it’s too watery, just sift in some more icing sugar.
• Drizzle or spread the icing over the cold cake, allowing it to run artistically down the sides a little.
• Allow to set ( 15-20 mins), then slice and enjoy!