prune yoghurt cake

When I was younger, I did not like to eat yoghurt. In the old days, there was no such thing as flavoured yoghurt. There was only one type of yoghurt sold - plain yoghurt. At that time, I disliked the sour taste of the plain yoghurt.

Nowadays, I do buy plain yoghurt. However, old habits die hard and I still do not eat plain yoghurt on its own. Instead, I use it in my cooking (eg. curries) or baking (eg. bread, cake, etc). I find that bread made using yoghurt are soft and tend to last longer without refrigeration.

When you bake the prune yoghurt cake, you may find that the cake is dense. Not to worry - despite this, the cake is moist and you may find yourself having a second helping.

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cups plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup plain yoghurt
1 cup castor sugar
3 eggs
grated zest of 1 lemon
1/2 tsp orange essence
1/2 cup sunflower oil
freshly squeezed juice of 1/2 a lemon
1 1/2 cups pitted prunes (chopped)

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.

2. Grease and line the bottom of an 8" round cake pan. Grease and the flour the sides of the cake pan. Set aside.

3. Sift the plain flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Set aside.

4. Mi the plain yoghurt, castor sugar, eggs, lemon zest, orange essence, sunflower oil and orange juice in a bowl using a hand whisk.

5. Whisk the flour mixture into the wet ingredients.

6. Stir in the chopped pitted prunes and mix well.

7. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for 55 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.