Around three months ago Mum bought some plain Collective Dairy Co yoghurt. Two months ago it expired. As disturbing as it may sound, we are still eating this yoghurt. I thought it was a different container of yoghurt, not the same one that I had opened when I was last up on holiday. When I tasted it and smelt it, it was fine. It wasn't until I checked the label did I realise our poor ability to eat plain yoghurt. We have been putting blobs of it here and there on our dinners and things and none of us have died so far.
As I mentioned in my last post, I am on a baking ban. The Edmonds family household apparently does not need baked goods of any kind. Apparently it makes them fat. I think my parents current lack of gym memberships are what is causing that. My brother Jack and I sweat it out every morning without fail.
Yoghurt always goes nicely with lemon to make delicious, moist lemon yoghurt cakes drowned in a sweet sweet lemony syrup.
I found a recipe in my Cake Days book for a lemon poppy seed loaf. Only thing was that this loaf used ricotta instead of yoghurt. I substituted this for the yoghurt I needed to use up. Yoghurt helps to keep the cake nice and moist. It turned out wonderfully.
The thing that really makes this loaf delish is the syrup you pour over the top of it as soon as it comes out of the oven. I doubled the syrup quantity to ensure a yummy moist loaf. Mmmm so moist.
Have I made you feel uncomfortable with the word moist yet?
Right, anyway. This recipe is super simple. It follows a standard cake making method. Make sure the butter and sugar is creamed nice and well as when you add the egg in. The more volume you create here the lighter the sponge will be. Light sponge = good sponge = soft, delicate sponge.
I enjoy cake maths.
Sooo lets get on with the show eh?
Lemon, Poppy Seed and Yoghurt Syrup Loaf
Very adapted from the Hummingbird Bakery's Cake Days
For the loaf:
190g softened butter
190g castor sugar
190g plain flour
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 tablespoon poppy seeds
2 large lemons worth of zest
25ml milk
100g plain yoghurt
For the soaking syrup:
Juice of two large lemons
100g castor sugar
100ml water
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees, bake.
Cream together the butter and sugar until almost white in colour and fluffy in texture. Add the eggs, beating well after each addition. Keep beating until the volume increases substantially and the texture is even fluffier than before. Beat in the lemon zest.
In a separate bowl, sift together the baking powder and flour. Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter, sugar and egg mixture, beating after each addition.
Once all the flour has been added, add the milk and the yoghurt and poppy seeds. Beat until smooth.
Line the bottom side of a loaf tin with baking paper. Grease the sides with butter and dust with flour.
Pour the batter into the tin and spread with a spoon so that it evenly fills the tin.
Bake for 50-60 minutes (check after 50 minutes by inserting a clean skewer into the middle, if it comes out with batter still stuck to it, pop it back in the oven for another wee while but make sure you cook it for no longer than 65 minutes).
While the loaf is baking, make the syrup. Put the lemon juice, sugar and water in a sauce pan and bring to the boil. Making sure it doesn't spill over, reduce the syrup until it reaches around half its original volume or at least until it has a consistency slightly runnier than that of maple syrup.
As soon as the loaf comes out of the oven, pour over the syrup. Leave to cool before turning out onto a cake rack. Leave to cool fully before slicing (or else it crumbles!).
Slice into nice thick slices and enjoy this in the hot summer sun with a nice cool and refreshing lemony drink.
Enjoy!!