Strawberry yogurt cake with olive oil

Perfect for an afternoon tea or appropriate for Valentines, this cake is light, moist and full of strawberry flavour.

Notes

• Takes about 1 hour in total – about 10-15 minutes preparation and 40-45 minutes baking
• You can measure out the olive oil via a liquid scale (mls) or weigh it into a bowl (grams) – the result is the same

Equipment

• Two large bowls
• Springform cake tin, 20 – 23cm in diameter, greased and lined with parchment
• Scales, spatula, balloon whisk/mixer/electric hand whisk, measuring spoons and jugs

Ingredients

• Large eggs, separated – 4
• Caster sugar – 210g
• Olive oil (mild) – 210ml/g
• Tipo 00 flour or plain flour – 210g
• baking powder – 2 teaspoons
• Fine salt – a pinch
• vanilla extract – 1 teaspoon
• Ground almonds – 40g
• Strawberry yogurt (a thick kind such as Greek yogurt) – 80g
• Strawberries – 80g (about)

Method

1. Prepare your baking tin by greasing and lining with baking parchment
2. Set the oven to 180 ºC fan / 200 ºC conventional
3. Separate the eggs into yolks and whites, putting the whites in one (very clean) bowl and the yolks in another
4. Whisk up the egg whites until they are stiff peaks, whisk in one tablespoon of the caster sugar and the vanilla extract into the whites
5. Add the remaining caster sugar to the yolks and whisk until it turns pale and increases in volume
6. Add the flour, ground almonds, salt and baking powder to the sugar/yolk mixture and slowly whisk in until it is all combined
7. Chop up the strawberries and measure out the yogurt
8. Fold in the whites to this mixture, a third at a time until it is combined. Try to be gentle while mixing in – a figure of eight motion is useful or use a balloon whisk to ‘cut’ the whites in gently
9. Fold in the olive oil
10. Pour the mix gently into the prepared tin
11. Using a teaspoon, dot the yogurt all over the cake – try to keep the blobs of yogurt fairly small
12. Place the strawberries over the yogurt
13. Bake for 40 – 45 minutes until the sponge springs back when depressed lightly with your finger and/or a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the cake (though be careful to notice that you’ve not spiked the yogurt and think the cake is still underdone
14. Gorgeous on its own, or serve it as a very special dessert, say for a Valentine’s or birthday celebration, with a good quality vanilla ice cream. Alternatively, serve with crushed strawberries that have been mixed into a tub of crème frâiche (plus a dessertspoon of icing sugar)