Friday 31 August 2012

Banana Cake Mini's with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting



Here's my banana cake...so call me maybe? I think I'm going crazy with this song stuck in my head by Carly Rae Jepsen all thanks to my sister, S. Before she ate her banana she was using the banana as a phone and sung "Call me maybe?". But then her playful acts had reminded me that I was supposed to bake a banana cake. 2 weeks ago, I bought some extra ingredients home to bake some banana cake for my family and only to find out that I was missing the main ingredient...the banana. Luckily, bananas are slowly getting back in season and my mum has been bringing home heaps of ripe bananas from the market. It's funny how I started with no bananas to having more than enough bananas at home.

I've never been much of a banana cake fan as I just prefer eating bananas the way it is. But months ago, I made a deadset decision that I must bake 'that' banana cake from my recipe book one day. Everyone in my family is quite a big banana fan, especially my little sister, Pearl. She can easily eat 5 bananas at one go ever since childhood. So I was pretty positive that Pearl and everyone else in my family will definitely go bananas over this cake.
I wanted to get a little bit creative this time and make banana cake mini's with a frosting on top. But the next hurdle for me was, what frosting should I use? The classical passionfruit icing combination with the banana cake didn’t quite cut the mark for me although many people use it. First of all, I really detest passionfruit pulp. It’s not that I dislike passionfruit flavours but I can’t stand the pulp's presence in the food I eat. I would always pick it out or just avoid eating it completely if I ever see it. Secondly, there was no passionfruit available in my pantry and I’m not going to make the effort to go to the shops to buy something that I don’t like. So then I was on the search for a frosting that would be applicable to what I already have in the kitchen and most importantly the flavour must impress me (you’ve probably realised by now that I’m quite picky with frostings). Finally, I found one that I extremely liked...white chocolate cream cheese frosting! Chocolate always satisfies me and I know I can’t go wrong with this combination. Oh! Karen you've saved my day again.
My hunch was correct! The white chocolate cream cheese frosting was a beautiful combination with the banana cake and what's so good about this frosting is that no icing sugar is required. You get an ultra smooth, silky and light texture of the frosting compared to the overbearing sugar overdose from the ones containing icing sugar. For those who don't like white chocolate, you can barely taste it. It's hidden beautifully within the tangy cream cheese with a pinch of sweetness.
I can see myself making this again in a larger batch! The batter seemed rather a little bit too small for my liking and I knew that my parents would be asking why I didn't make a bigger batch because of the chuck loads of banana and flour that we've got at home if I just presented it the way it is straight from my lamington tray. There are probably a few things that I wished I could've done differently to this banana cake but I guess I'll do all that next time! Right now I'm gonna get my hands on some cake before it's all gone tonight!

Banana Cake Mini's with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Cake
(adapted from Women's Weekly MIX)

125g butter, softened
3/4 cup (165g) firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1½ cups (225g) self-raising flour
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 cup mashed banana (I used 3½ of medium ripe bananas - 460g)
½ cup (120g) sour cream
¼ cup (60ml) milk

1. Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced. Grease and flour a lamington tray; you may line the base with baking paper.

2. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar in a small bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. At low speed, stir in the sifted dry ingredients, banana, sour cream and milk until completely mixed. Use a spatula to scrape the sides of the batter down as well as the bottom of the mixture and mix until everything is completely incorporated.

3. Spread the mixture evenly into the lamington tray and bake for 40min. (The original recipe suggested 50min but I figured because of the low depth of the cake mixture, it'll cook much faster). Stand in cake pan for 5min then turn top-side up onto a wire rack to cool.

White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
(adapted from Citrus and Candy)

I didn't have enough white chocolate so I've re-formulated the recipe to suit myself. So if you want the original recipe, go here.

100g white chocolate (containing cocoa butter), chopped
170g cream cheese softened
25g unsalted butter
a spoonful of sour cream (approx. 2 tsps)

1. In a bowl over simmering water, melt the chocolate. Remove and set aside to cool, without it going back to form the solid hard chocolate though.

2. Beat the cream cheese, butter and sour cream until smooth. Scrape the sides down with a rubber spatula to incorporate everything. Add in the cooled white chocolate and beat until smooth. If the mixture is too soft, allow it to become firm in the fridge for 5-10mins before piping it onto the cake.


What do you do with the remaining pieces of banana cake after when all the circles are cut out?
You chop them into smaller pieces and put them into a pretty cup. Add ice-cream to it if you like.
Voila!

Saturday 25 August 2012

The red velvet butterfly!


I'm on a baking streak this week. Well, my strawberries are getting not so fresh now, so instead of eating them as it is, I thought I'd bake red velvet cupcakes to go with it. If you have recently never heard of red velvet cupcakes before then I'm sorry to say that you're a little bit outdated in the dessert world (no offense).

The first time I've come across the red velvet cupcake was through my friend J. She decided to bring in a batch of her lovely homemade red velvet cupcakes to share with all of us who were doing our honours. Now that I mention it, I really miss all the people that I did my honours with last year. It was a stressful year where we all got blood-boiled over our failing experiments, bloody long thesis to write up and the long hours of dedication which sometimes resulted in nothing. Despite all that, we were so close and united. Although we all sat in the corridor, we had a locker that was just dedicated to SNACKS. It was the best thing ever! Ahhh...sweet memories.

I must say, my first response to seeing the red velvet cupcake was that it was shouting out "artificial" in my thoughts due to the vivid redness of the cake. It sort've scared me to even go and try it, despite its classy name and close resemblance to the actual red velvet. Slowly afterwards, I see more and more of my friends baking and posting up red velvet cupcakes that they've made. The red velvet cupcake/cake had somehow gone viral where it's become like the new vogue in the world of cakes as well as in the cake industry.

It made me curious as to what this whole red velvet cake fuss is about that I've decided to make a batch myself. I did get a little bit excited because I saw the keyword "cocoa" amongst the ingredients only to find out that this was a chocolate cake. But at the same time I was feeling a little bit uneasy on the inside because I've never baked a good chocolate cake before. My subconscious suddenly filled me in with those memories of the past where I've failed with all the chocolate cakes I've baked which I really didn't want to remember at all.

I guess my subconscious was right for setting the alarm within myself. I happened to misread an ingredient which resulted in a hard-rock cake. The middle of the cake was continually uncooked and so I left it in the oven for an extra longer period. And silly me, the longer I left the cake in there, obviously the harder the crust became. I gave up in the end. If anything, this kitchen disaster of mine was quite a hilarious one. My sister, S and I were literally bashing this hard-rock cake of mine only to see it spring back up again each time. It was quite amusing. Well there you go, I've made an unbreakable red velvet cake on my first go. Big lesson learnt there! Baking soda (bicarbonate soda) is not baking powder!

I've never really seen butterfly red velvet cupcakes before and so I thought why not do that instead of the old boring slab of cream cheese frosting on top. Well, it's not that boring I guess...

Red Velvet Butterfly Cupcakes

The amount of red food colouring you use is completely up to you, depending on how red you want it to be. I used 15ml which doesn't produce such vivid redness as you would typically see for a red velvet cake. I've seen recipes that's used 60ml of red food colouring! It's a crazy amount to use...but suit yourselves. Adaptation of this cake is from honeyandsoy although I did make some changes here and there.

Cake:
2 ½ cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
Red food colouring (please play around with this)
115g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 ½ cups caster sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract (I use imitation vanilla)
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature (You can with substitute: 1 tsp white vinegar to 1 cup milk, let it stand for 5 min)
1 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp baking soda (bicarbonate soda)

Cream Cheese Frosting:
250g cream cheese, softened
120g unsalted butter, softened
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1½ cups icing sugar, sifted

Cake
1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Place cupcake wrappers onto cupcake/muffin tins.

2. Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder in a medium bowl and set aside.

3. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixture until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Mix in vanilla and the red food colouring, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula as you go.

4. Add one third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, beat well, then beat in half of the buttermilk. Beat in another third of flour mixture, then second half of buttermilk. End with the last third of the flour mixture, beat until well combined, making sure to scrape down the bowl with a spatula.

5. In a small bowl, mix the vinegar and baking soda. Enjoy the fizz momentarily and then add it to the cake batter and stir well to combine. Working quickly, divide batter evenly between the cupcake wrappers and place them into the oven. Bake for 20-25 mins. Cake is done when a toothpick/skewer comes out clean.

6. Allow the cupcakes to cool completely before cutting out a circle and adding the frosting to complete the assemble.

Cream Cheese Frosting
Using an electric mixer, blend the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Adjusting to low speed, add in the vanilla, and then the icing sugar gradually. Adjust to medium-high speed and beat until light and fluffy. Use immediately or refridgerate it covered until use. Make sure to bring the frosting back to room temperature before using it when taken out of the fridge.

Note: You may add more icing sugar to the mixture if you'd like the frosting to be sweeter or stiffer. But then by adding too much icing sugar may lose the tangy taste of the cream cheese.

Butterfly cupcake ensemble
Using a knife or a spoon, scoop out a circle from the centre of the cupcake. With the round, scooped-out cake, cut it in half (these will form the wings). Add a spoon of cream cheese frosting to the main cupcake and then place the wings (skins facing each other) on top of the cream cheese frosting.
Next, enjoy pulling it apart when eating it :)

Tuesday 21 August 2012

Reminiscence of the: Flourless Orange Cake



Such nice weather on a Winter morning today. Given that I always wake up before sunrise to head to work, I had the privilege to wake up to the bright morning sun and it was soooooooo pleasant! How much I miss sleeping in on a weekday. It’s nearly the end of August and you know what that means...Spring is coming! I’ve never been much of a Winter person. I mean it’s nice to snuggle up in bed, cuddle up with friends, have a hot chocolate every morning, stay beside a fireplace and dress-up in boots and warm trench coats. However, I always look forward to the next few seasons coming up after a good 3 months of the freezing cold winter. Since today is my day off, I thought I’d bake a flourless orange cake as I’ve been craving to bake ever since my visit to Le Petit Gateau.

Citrus-flavoured cakes have never appealed to me but since it was the only cake that vegetarians can have, I ordered it. To be honest, it was one of the least appealing cake to me since I'm a huge chocolate fan and I go crazy over anything garnished with strawberry. I guess this is what you call fate? It was meant to be? The cake was amazingly moist and dense with the almonds bringing out that extra burst of orange flavour and more importantly the cake wasn't overbearing to eat. I loved it. It has done so much justice to citrus-flavoured cakes where I’ve become a mini-fan of it now. I must thank my friend Ham for bringing me to such a cool dessert place. So much dessert porn that you would be just smitten with all the cakes in there. Don’t walk in if you know you might possibly get a blood nose ;) Although there’s a limited number of selections compared to typical cake stores, but seriously a few signature cakes would be enough to keep you coming back.

Unfortunately, I don’t think I can afford to go back every single time. One slice of cake is quite expensive to have in a small, classy, dessert cafe and I'm poor :(  Therefore, I was determined to embark on a search for this recipe. One day I happen to come across Karen’s blog to find the flourless orange cake amongst her recipe index. Not only that but she also has a love for the flourless orange cake...a much more meaningful story than mine you could say. My desires for that cake had risen once again and coincidently, I have more than enough oranges at home that no one in my family ever bothers to eat.

These oranges are little bit different to the typical oranges that you’d see normally. The inside is not orange...it’s red! I would’ve had it mistaken as a mini grapefruit (when cut open) if my mum had not told me that it was an orange. With their close resemblance to the bright shining sun, it gives me all the more reason to come and bake this wondrous cake!

I’ve been a good girl today and started baking in the morning while the sun is still bright and shiny. What caught me by surprise was how liquid the batter was. In my mind I actually thought that this batch was going to fail and I won't be able to have some cake. Luckily, it rose beautifully in the oven. Phiew! But then the cake was probably a bit more moist based on my memories in comparison to Le Petit Gateau's. But it was still good to eat.

Flourless Orange Cake

(adapted from Citrus and Candy)
2 medium oranges, seedless (I used 4 small oranges)
6 eggs
1 cup caster sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cup almond meal

The water needs to be replaced 3 times so that the oranges don't reabsorb the bitterness that's been seeped into the water. Also the seeds and white pith will need to be removed when cutting up the boiled oranges to avoid any potential bitterness in the cake.
1. Wash and scrub the outside of the oranges and place the whole orange (skin and all) in a pot. Fill with cold water to cover. Place over medium-high heat and bring to boil.
2. Once it's boiled, allow it to simmer for approx. 20mins and replace with cold water and bring it to boil again. Repeat this process once again.
3. On the third round, once the oranges are boiled, let it simmer for about an hour and then drain the oranges. Set them aside to cool.
4. When the oranges have cooled, roughly chop them to pieces and remove any seeds and white pith. Place them in a blender or food processor (skin and all) and blend until you get a fine puree. Measure out 1 1/4 cups of puree and store the rest in a container (if any) for next use.
5. Preheat oven to 175°C. Grease and flour a 23-25cm cake tin. Alternatively, you may line the base with baking paper.
6. Using an electric mixer, beat the eggs, sugar and baking powder until thickened and pale in colour. Add in almond meal and mix well.
7. On low speed, gradually add in the orange puree in 2-3 batches. Beat for at least 20sec after each addition.
8. Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake for 50min ~ 1hr or until when the skewer comes out clean from the cake.
9. Allow the cake to cool for 10min before transferring it to a cooling rack.

Serve with a dollop of cream or whatever you may wish, but in my case it was white chocolate sprinkles.


Monday 20 August 2012

Purple Ombre Chocolate Sprinkles Cake



Today is a special day for someone very special to me. It is my mother's birthday. Happy birthday mummy! You've just passed the 1st year of half a century of your life and you still look as beautiful and forever young from the first day I laid my eyes on you.

My mother never really tends to remember her own birthday in most cases and I guess that really worked in my favour this time as she probably thought that I was just baking another random cake to eat yet again. Family photos were nonetheless taken (with our funky pyjama's) and a cheery birthday song dedicated to her with my little sister playing the music on the piano. A moment that I've always dreamt of has all come to reality today.

For 2 weeks I've been pondering about what type of cake I should bake for my mother and until I came across Steph's blog with her purple ombre sprinkles cake, I knew that was the cake I should bake since purple is my mother's favourite colour. It's so amazing from the moment when you cut the first slice of cake out and see the awesome gradient of colours within. Pleasant! I had a few worries baking this cake. It is my first time making it and I was worried with the amount of layers I had to make as well as assembling them neatly where I'm not too good at when it comes to dealing with multiple layers of cake. Given all these factors, I still didn't take the initiative to bake as early as possible.


Oh dear! My papa's fuzzy hand in the background. They were telling me to hurry up with taking photos >.<
Yesterday was quite an eventful day, my friends and I decided to go for some classy High Tea down at The Westin Melbourne. The High Tea had a more casual set up without the tables and chairs, instead we sat on couches surrounded by mini tables but it still had some edgy class amongst all that. It was a shame that we didn't get the reserved spot close to the fireplace. What was worst was that I forgot to bring my camera out to take photos for this special occasion *bangs head on the wall*. So then, I had to rely on my friends fancy SLR camera ;) Coffee, tea and hot chocolate was unlimited so as a typical asian, I made the most of it and yes I paid the price of going to the toilet so many times afterwards!

So many events occured this weekend! The Manifest was on and we came across so many people cosplaying as anime characters. Another reason to bang my head for not bringing out a camera. I even bumped into two of my favourite ex-colleagues during our post-High Tea shopping spree at Daiso (OMG! I love DAISO so much) as well as my friend R, for which I haven't seen in a while.

As I got home I lazed around for 'a bit' and then started baking. Knowing how slow I would get with baking anything for the first time, I started baking around 9pm. I know, not the brightest choice of all and by the time I finished it was already midnight! This is not the first time that I've baked till wee hours.

Decoration all took place in the next day. It is my first time making chocolate molds and chocolate roses and I guess it looks quite okay for a beginner who just learnt it in 5mins! I kept on telling myself throughout last week to start learning how to make chocolate roses before today but I guess my laziness got the better out of me. Chocolate sprinkles were a b**** to handle. I nearly grated my skin along with the chocolate that I was grating but luckily only part of my nail was chipped. Sprinkling the chocolate around the cake was a total mess. It took me forever to get as many as I can onto the cake without it looking like some piece of dirt splattered over parts of the cake.

I've layered this cake alternately with strawberry jam and buttercream, and the whole cake covered with cream. Buttercream has always scared me due to how sweet it is, especially with the amount of icing sugar you have to use, but I thought I'd be a little more obedient this time and stick to the entire recipe. It was bloody sweet! I don't think my liver will be able to handle this. Luckily it wasn't entirely covered with buttercream (as I only made half of the suggested amount to start off with) or else I wouldn't have been able to finish a slice. I guess I'll just stick with the cream the next time I bake it again...if I ever do.

Purple Ombre Chocolate Sprinkles Cake

(adapted from Raspberri Cupcakes) - makes one-round 18cm 5 layered cake

Cake:
2 3/4 cups (355g) plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
225ml milk
2 tsp vanilla extract (I use Imitation Vanilla, since vanilla extract/essence is derived from alcohol)
1 3/4 cups (400g) caster sugar
225g unsalted butter, softened
4 eggs
Purple food colouring (I mixed blue and pink colouring together, approx 1:3 ratio)

Inner Layer:
Strawberry jam
Buttercream Frosting: 250g icing sugar (sifted) and 137.5g salted butter

Outer Layer (Whipped Cream):
300g thickened cream
1 tbsp icing sugar

Modelling Chocolate (enough for 2 roses):
75g milk chocolate chips
62.5g glucose syrup


Cake:
1. Preheat oven to 180°C and grease 18cm round cake tins (I had 2 to work with luckily). Line the base with baking paper.

2. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl and set aside. Mix milk and vanila in a measuring jug.

3. Using an electric mixer on low speed, beat the sugar and butter in a large bowl until blended. Increase to high speed and beat for approx 2min or until pale and creamy. Reduce speed to medium-low and add eggs 1 at a time, mix well.

4. Alternately add the flour and milk mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture (Add 1/4 of flour mixture and 1/3 of milk each time). Beat until smooth, occasionally scraping the bowl with a spatula. Divide the mixture evenly into 5 bowls (approx. 300g per bowl).

5. Leave one bowl of batter white, then gradually add colouring to each bowl. Gently fold into the mixture, adding slightly more colouring as you do to each bowl to give you an even gradient of colour.

6. Pour batter into cake tin and bake each layer about 15-20 min. Cool the cake in tin for 5min then transfer the cake onto a wire rack to cool.

Buttercream Icing:
Chop the butter into small cubes and leave it sitting on the bench for approx. 30min before beating it (I tend to cheat by microwaving it for a few seconds). Beat the butter at high speed, until smooth and fluffy. Reduce speed to medium-low and gradually add the icing sugar until combined, then increase the speed to high and beat until pale and fluffy.

Whipped Cream:
Using an electric mixer, beat the cream at high speed until the cream has become slightly more thickened in texture. Add in the icing sugar and beat at medium-low speed until stiff peaks start forming.

Modelling Chocolate (adapted from The Cake Makery)
Microwave the chocolate chips for approx. 1min or until completely melted. Using a rubber spatula, stir the melted chocolate to make sure it's completely melted without any lumps left behind and scrape the chocolate off from the edges of the bowl. Fold in the glucose in a circular motion with your spatula ending up in the middle of the mixture. Allow the mixture to cool. Wrap up the mixture in cling wrap if you're not using it straightaway and leave it at room temperature. Knead well before you use it! If the chocolate is too hard to work with, place it back in the microwave for 5-10secs and it should be easier to work with.

How to make the chocolate roses please refer go here.

Assembling the cake:
You may need to trim the tops of the cake to make them level (but I was too lazy to do that). Spread the first layer of cake with jam and then the next layer with buttercream, alternately. Cover the whole cake with the whipped cream, smoothing it out with an offset spatula. If you're decorating with chocolate sprinkles, it will be messy. My cake was on the wire rack and I had a plate under the rack to catch all the remaining spinkles that wouldn't stick to the cake. Stick your chocolate roses on top of the cake once you're done and carefully transfer the cake onto a cake stand and serve at room temperature.


Monday 13 August 2012

Cottony-Soft Japanese Cheesecake


Today was a complete disaster! Just when I thought the day started off beautiful where I managed to come across fresh punnets of strawberries on sale in the supermarket and shopping for ingredients with a good mood to bake...I ended up scratching my car :( I don't want to go through the details of how everything that lead to that but it really affected my mood for most of the day, but more importantly dreading the moment when I have to face my parents about it. I knew some scolding was coming along, it was just a matter of sooner or later. So then I thought just to ease off everyone's pain by a little bit, I thought I'd bake a Japanese cheesecake to atone for my mistakes.

I love the Japanese cheesecake as its texture is so different to the classical cheesecake. It's like a combination of a cheesecake and sponge cake giving it a cottony-soft texture that melts in your mouth straight away. It won't even feel like you've had a slice because it is so light compared to the regular cheesecake where the richness of the cream cheese will make you feel bloated.

This cake always tends to sink when I leave the oven door ajar for an hour before bringing it out. Well, well what can I say. A sad mood broods an ugly cake. I know it looks no where near as good as Ju's but then if it's cooked and it tastes delicious, what more can you ask for?

Japanese Cheesecake

(adapted from The Little Teochew)

140g caster sugar
6 egg whites
6 egg yolks
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
50g butter
250g cream cheese
100ml fresh milk
60g cake flour (I use plain flour)
20g corn flour
1/4 tsp salt

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C. Line the bottom and sides of an 8-inch round springform cake tin with baking paper. Wrap the bottom of the cake tin with aluminium foil to prevent the cake mixture from seeping out!

2. In a heatproof bowl, melt the cream cheese, butter and milk over a stove of hot boiling water. Cool the mixture. Fold in flour, cornflour, salt and egg yolks and mix well.

3. Whisk the egg whites with cream of tartar until it's foamy. Add in the sugar and whisk until soft peaks form. Beat at high speed for approx. 1min and then change to low speed for the last 3-4mins.

4. Add the egg whites to the cream cheese mixture and fold well. Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake in a water bath (tray of water on the rack below the cake tin) for 1hr 10mins or until set golden brown. Leave the oven door ajar for an hour before bringing the cake out of the oven.

Sunday 12 August 2012

Introductory 'Hello': Greek Yoghurt Cake

Greetings everyone! Welcome to my first blog post of one of my all time favourite cakes. The Greek Yoghurt Cake tends to make everyone ponder about what type of cake it is. I’ve been questioned by my friends and family many times about what type of cake it is despite when the name speaks for itself already like when you say cheesecake, pandan cake, chocolate cake etc. The Greek Yoghurt is incorporated into the cake mixture giving it the moist texture and density that will gradually melt in your mouth. So far it has been a winner for my dad and my colleagues also approve of it with their first try of this supposedly unique cake. Phiew!

Funnily enough some of my colleagues would refer back to my childhood friend when the name of this cake is mentioned. I’m often asked if I baked this cake because of her. The answer is no despite my childhood friend is half Greek and half Chinese…funky mixture eh? I’ve known this childhood friend of mine since from kindergarden and we’ve been associated in the same educational institute (primary –> secondary –> tertiary –> post-grad) up until now. It sounds crazy as though like we've been following each other throughout our lives and developing the same passion for baking and research. This probability is like 1 in a million! I feel blessed to have someone like her in my life.
Anyways, this cake is very versatile in the sense that it can be accessorised with many different toppings to compliment the flavours much more. I’ve tried with spreading custard on the centre layer and topping it up with strawberries and icing sugar. Must I say, the combination of flavours were in perfect harmony with each other.



Greek Yoghurt Cake

(adapted from Women’s Weekly MIX)

125g butter, softened
1 cup (220g) caster sugar
3 eggs, separated
2 cups (300g) self-raising flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
1 cup (280g) yoghurt

1. Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced. Grease two 19cm square cake tins and line base with baking paper. I normally just grease and flour the cake tins.

2. Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolks. Stir in half of sifted flour and soda and then half of the yoghurt; repeat with the flour and ending with the yoghurt.

3. Beat egg whites in a small bowl with electric mixer until soft peaks form. Fold in the egg whites into the yoghurt mixture in two batches. Divide mixture as evenly as you can into the two cake tins.

4. Bake cake about 35 minutes. Let it cool for 5 mins first in the cake tin and then turn the cake, top-side up onto a wire rack to cool.

Topping
300g thickened cream
1 tbsp icing sugar

Beat the thickened cream with electric mixer for approx. 2mins and then add in the icing sugar. Continue to beat the cream until stiff peaks start forming.

Note: You may add more icing sugar if you feel that the cream isn’t sweet enough for your liking ;)